Free Republic

In early March, Tucker Carlson invited Iowa Corn and soybean farmer Ben Riensche on his top-rated program to discuss the massive inflation we are about to see in food prices here at home. According to Rienshe, grocery prices may increase up to $1,000 per month due to Russia’s sanctions on fertilizer. ... “It’s embarrassing how little most people know about fertilizer, what it means, tell us the implications of this sanction?” Carlson asked. .... Soaring fertilizer prices are likely to spike food prices,” Riensche said. “If you’re upset that gas is up a dollar or two a gallon, wait until...

So far no arrests have been made and authorities are keeping mum about a raid on a property in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country around Lancaster, but the local paper has some intriguing suggestions about what’s going on, and it sure looks like the BATFE is getting ready to accuse an Amish farmer of being an unlicensed gun retailer.The raid on the property known as the Cattail Foundry took place two weeks ago, with agents carting off an untold number of guns. This week, LancasterOnline.com spoke with Rueben King, who says the guns were all his private property, though...

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) on Friday vetoed a bill that would have allowed farmers in the state to unionize, the Portland Press Herald reported. The proposal called for agriculture workers to be able to organize and bargain for wages, hours and working conditions.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota; : A third-generation farmer filed a lawsuit today against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is unlawfully preventing him from farming one of his fields. In 2011, a division of the Department of Agriculture ruled that a small seasonal mud puddle on Arlen Foster’s farm is protected by federal law as a wetland. Even though the federal government has no authority to regulate such puddles, the department is forcing Foster to choose between productively using his field or participating in federal programs for farmers, like crop insurance. “The government lacks the authority to insist that he...

A farmer in northern B.C. who caught a lynx in his chicken coop on Sunday didn't react the way one might expect. He didn't grab a gun or yell at the wild animal. Instead, Chris Paulson grabbed the lynx by the scruff of its neck, lifted it off the ground and scooped it from the coop. Then he gave it a gentle scolding. "He just looked ... a bit like [a kid] with its hand in the chocolate chip bag," Paulson told CBC News from his home near Decker Lake, west of Prince George.

The movie "Thirteen Days" is the latest dramatization of President Kennedy's showdown with the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Retired Air Force Maj. Gottlieb "John" Wilmsmeyer, 71, hasn't seen the film. But the Missouri farmer figures he can match that Cold War tale with a nail-biter of his own. It occurred about the same time. It might even have influenced the missile crisis. But for nearly 40 years, Wilmsmeyer had to keep quiet about "Operation Speedlight Delta." He was crew commander on a KC-135 tanker at Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kan., in the summer of...

An empty grocery shelf focuses the mind like nothing else. With COVID-19 disrupting supply chains and triggering higher-than-usual consumer demand, many of us have been shocked to find food staples in short supply. Although these shortages will resolve as supply chains re-boot, the main reason they will self-correct is thanks to the unsung heroes on the frontlines of the nation’s food supply: America’s farmers. While the American economy has ground to a near-halt, farmers are still on the job, producing the vegetables, dairy, grains, meat, sugar beets and cane that bring us not just farm-fresh ingredients, but the many non-perishables...

Two decades after President Robert Mugabe wrecked Zimbabwe’s economy by urging black subsistence farmers to violently force white commercial farmers and their workers off their land, his successor has thrown in the towel.

A 19-year-old caught trying to steal a farmer’s goats on Valentine’s Day slurred his words and gave fake names when deputies from the local sheriff’s office in Virginia arrived, law enforcement officials said. Deputies arrested Cole Schrock, of Clear Brook, on larceny and identity theft charges after he said he was pretending to be drunk during the unsuccessful heist, the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Wednesday. “The farmer recounted that his wife had gone outside to check on their goats and discovered that they had been let out of their pen,” the release states. “She also...

WESTBY, Wisconsin -- Spend any time with people who supported presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and you quickly find out that the reasons they voted for Trump had very little to do with him. It is likely one of the most misunderstood threads among this new conservative populist coalition. To get the real reasons for their support for Trump, you have to be where they are, have no preconceived ideas about who they are and have no prejudice for what you think their motivations are. Tom Schaub, Ralph Petersheim, Donna Leum, Kris Amundson and Ben Klinkner are all sitting...

Wisconsin lost 818 dairies in 2019 as farmers across the country suffer from Donald Trump's trade war with China. The state of Wisconsin, famous for its cheese, lost 10% of its dairy farms in 2019, Dairy Herd Management reported on Thursday. The loss of 818 dairies was the largest decline in Wisconsin history. Trouble for dairy farmers started in 2018, when Donald Trump engaged in a protracted trade war with China. In retaliation for increased tariffs from the United States, China placed tariffs on a number of U.S. agricultural exports. As a result, exports of U.S. dairy to China dropped...

New details and photographs have emerged of conservative commentator Candace Owens' wedding to British Oxford graduate George Farmer, revealing the bride wore three gowns and their guests donned red 'Make Weddings Great Again' hats at the reception. The 30-year-old political activist, a well-known supporter of President Trump who was once praised for her views by Kanye West, met Farmer, 28, the son of a baron and conservative peer, in December 2018.

United States President Donald J. Trump alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on Sunday the framework for a massive trade deal between the two countries. While nothing has been signed yet, the potential agreement could bolster both economies by billions."We’ve been working on a deal with Japan for a long time. And we’ve agreed in principle," President Trump told the press at the G7 Summit."We successfully reached consensus with regard to the core elements related to agricultural and industrial trade," Abe told the media via a translator. "We still have some remaining work that has to be done at...

A South African farmer activist who spoke out against attacks on white farmers has been found dead. Annette Kennealy, 51, was beaten to death in Limpopo province. She was found in a pool of blood by a family member. Kennealy was attacked on her own farm in the town of Louis Trichardt where she was staying with an employee.

... Atchison County, my small farming community in northwest Missouri, is home to about 5,000 people. One hundred thousand acres of soybeans are planted here each year. The drop in soybean prices has meant a loss of around $100 in potential income on each of those acres. Atchison County farmers will be looking at a decline of $10 million in gross income this year, or about $2,000 per capita. We won’t be buying many Whirlpool washers. Supporters of the tariffs begin each conversation with a litany of Chinese wrongs. They say China ignores the rules governing international trade and is...

It all started when California farmer John Duarte plowed a wheat field in Tehama County, about two hours north of Sacramento, and wound up paying a $1.1 million fine to the federal government for his efforts. On Tuesday, Duarte, who was embraced by conservatives nationwide as a victim of government over-reach, got vindication of sorts. In a victory for farmers and land developers throughout the West, the Trump administration announced a broad rollback of rules designed to protect wetlands and other small bodies of water. The decision means regulations put in place in 2015 by the Obama administration will fall...

Democrats in farm states are busily warning their rural neighbors that President Trump betrayed them with his tariff pressures, which may especially impact U.S. farm exports to China. China has imposed a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans, wheat, beef, pork and some other food products. Will this ruin American farm prices? Be of good cheer. The world prices for soybeans and beef are set by global supply and demand. Soybeans and beef are essentially commodities, not unlike oil. It doesn’t really matter whether China buys American soybeans or Brazilian beans because both those countries are willing sellers. If...

he City of East Lansing has been named a defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging the city crafted a new policy to bar a local orchard owner from operating as a vendor at the city’s farmer’s market. The lawsuit claims the city created said policy “solely because the City dislikes the farmer’s profession of his religious beliefs about marriage on Facebook.” Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian non-profit organization with the goal of advocating for religious freedom, filed the 40-page lawsuit on behalf of Stephen Tennes, owner of The Country Mill. Tennes posted to Facebook multiple times that the orchard would...

Roy Eykamp is 99 years old.  He made his first gun when he was seven years old. It was a crude pistol made from a barrel he salvaged from the trash, fired with a hand held hammer, and later, strong rubber bands cut from inner-tubes and a breechblock. He used it to start his lifelong talent for making money. He shot gophers with it, using .22 shorts.The government paid a 5 cent bounty for each gopher. He made enough money shooting gophers, that when his mother confiscated his homemade gun, he was able to buy a factory one with...

On this day in 1902, pioneering cookbook author Fannie Farmer, who changed the way Americans prepare food by advocating the use of standardized measurements in recipes, opens Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery in Boston. In addition to teaching women about cooking, Farmer later educated medical professionals about the importance of proper nutrition for the sick.