Important Takeaways:
- No Farmers No Food: Greek Tractor Protests Head to Parliament
- Scores of bright-colored tractors were parked outside Greece’s parliament Tuesday, horns blaring, as thousands of farmers angry at high production costs shifted their protests to Athens.
- “Without us, you don’t eat,” one banner said. Some farmers carried mock coffins and funeral garlands as symbols of their plight.
- The farmers – whose demands are similar to those at farmer protests elsewhere in Europe – have spent weeks staging sporadic blockades along highways and in rural towns. Farmers in central Greece are also still reeling from major floods last year.
- Protesters say that’s not enough. They want tax-free fuel, debt forgiveness, measures against foreign competition and speedier compensation for damage from natural disasters. Farmers also criticize the substantial markup in shelf prices compared to what wholesalers pay them for their produce.
- Manolis Liakis, a farmer from the southern island of Crete, singled out fuel costs. He said farmers pay more than three times as much for petrol as shipping companies due to tax disparities.
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Important Takeaways:
- Simultaneous Tractor Protests Grip Europe From East to West
- Snow-dusted tractors lined up outside the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and nighttime protests in Romania marked by vivid national flags have become markers of a farmer protest movement across Europe.
- The biggest demonstrations have been seen in France, where farmers blocked highways around Paris with their tractors
- Farmers blocked more traffic arteries across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday, as they sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines. Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors advanced toward European Union headquarters, bent on getting their complaints about excessive costs, rules and bureaucracy heard by EU leaders at a summit Thursday in Brussels, Belgium.
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Important Takeaways:
- Thousands of demonstrators descended on the German capital Monday as a week-long protest over subsidy cuts in the agriculture sector reached a climax at the city’s famed Brandenburg Gate.
- Behind the crowd, tractors, which last week blocked highways across the country, lined the avenue cutting through Berlin’s Tiergarten park.
- “Without stability in the countryside, without agriculture our country has no future,” German Farmers’ Association President Joachim Rukwied said from the stage. “That’s why we are prepared to take to the streets.”
- Monday’s demonstration was also an outlet for general dissatisfaction with the government, adding to the mounting pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz after scrambling to fix a billion-euro budget blunder, which led to the subsidy cuts.
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Important Takeaways:
- Last week the giant American chicken processor, Tyson Foods, announced it was closing four processing plants located in North Little Rock, Arkansas, Corydon, Indiana, Dexter, Missouri and Noel, Missouri.
- It had already closed two other plants in Arkansas and Virginia earlier this year, cutting 1,700 workers. The latest four plants will affect approximately an additional 2,000 workers as well as the businesses in the small towns they are located in and which have relied on Tyson as their major source of jobs for residents as well as work for local companies.
- The chicken farmers say this announcement caught them completely by surprise.
- A business loans officer with a bank providing financial backing for many of these farmers said his phone has been ringing off the hook as soon as Tyson made the announcement. He also commented that this will affect the borrowing capability of farmers who haven’t lost their contracts. Tyson could easily cut them anytime it wanted as well.
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Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
Important Takeaways:
- Massive Swarm of Grasshoppers Wreaks Havoc in Utah – Adding to the Dilemma of Local Farmers Already Suffering from Drought
- A massive swarm of grasshoppers has invaded Tooele, Utah, causing significant damage to crops. The plague-like surge was captured by weather radar systems of the National Weather Service on the evening of June 21 as it headed northeast toward the Great Salt Lake.
- Alex DeSmet, a meteorologist, told the Salt Lake Tribune that the unusual radar detection of the grasshoppers was associated with their distinctive non-uniform movement. Unlike weather events such as rain or snow, grasshopper swarms exhibit irregular patterns.
- “This is not a common thing,” said Kris Watson, the state entomologist managing Utah’s insect and pest program at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF). “Grasshoppers themselves are common, but for them to show up on a radar detection — to my understanding, it’s not very common.”
- This infestation coincided with a widespread drought that has affected several states in the region
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Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
Important Takeaways:
- Farmers across our region are grappling with massive crop losses due to this week’s flooding. That includes dozens of farm operations at Burlington’s Intervale, who are picking up the pieces as they face a difficult road ahead.
- “For us. it is kind of over until we can replant,” said Hillary Martin with Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm. She says the flooding was a total crop loss for everyone at the Intervale and that her farm has already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. “We have just totaled what we lost that was in the field — about $250,000 in produce. That does not include what we cannot plant for the next month.”
- Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts says many farmers are in the same situation statewide. “It will run millions of dollars. It will be extraordinary because of just the crop losses,” he said.
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Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
Important Takeaways:
- Water Worries: CA Groundwater Mismanagement Puts Farmers and Food Supplies at Risk
- After a historic wet winter, California’s reservoirs and surface water are overflowing. However, state officials are in a race to prevent farmlands from becoming barren deserts as the state’s groundwater is being pumped out at an alarming rate.
- The state went from one of the worst droughts in more than 1,000 years to a record-breaking rain and snowpack. The entire state is virtually drought-free, for now. Water experts call this oscillating weather pattern the ‘California Whiplash.’
- “(Weather patterns) are swinging back-and-forth at a greater frequency and magnitude, largely due to an increase in temperature,” said Paul Gosselin, deputy director for California’s Department of Water Resources.
- The Gold Coast is America’s largest agricultural producer, generating a third of the nation’s vegetables and three-quarters of the fruits and nuts. The current water influx offers much-needed nurturing for local farms.
- As for Fresno’s Irrigation District, Claes expects about 4.5-million-acre feet of water to run off nearby Kings River, thanks to the extraordinary winter rain and snowfall. Still, only about half of that can be collected in underground basins and aquifers due to aging infrastructure and the unprecedented amount of water.
- Groundwater levels have been plummeting in some regions for over a century. Dry years force farms and cities to rely so much on groundwater – in some cases, wells run dry, and the ground physically sinks. Projections estimate vast amounts of farmland could become worthless in the next 20 years.
- “If land becomes fallowed in California, that means there’s less food being grown, and we are the breadbasket of the world,” explained Claes.
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Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the extortion[a] of the poor, or the perversion[b] of justice and fairness in the government, [c] do not be astonished by the matter. For the high official is watched by a higher official, [d] and there are higher ones over them! [e]
Important Takeaways:
- Great Reset: Dutch Govt Launches Farmer Buyout Scheme as Thousands Face Shut Down
- Following years of political wrangling, the government of The Netherlands has launched its program for buying out farms that do not comply with the EU’s Natura 2000 scheme supposedly meant to protect environmentally sensitive areas. The buyout program will initially impact approximately 3,000 privately-owned farms which are deemed to emit too much nitrogen.
- Starting next month, farmers will be able to apply for a buyout, which will be set at 120 per cent of the farm’s value. In addition to the top nitrogen emitters, the government will also offer buyouts for dairy, pig and poultry farmers to shut down in exchange for a payout of 100 per cent of their farm’s value. It is expected that some 8,000 farmers will be eligible for the second scheme, Dutch public broadcaster NOS reports.
- In total, the government has allocated 1.4 billion euros to cover the two programs. The buyout scheme, which will last until next April, will remain voluntary for now, however, the Dutch government has previously suggested that if uptake is not high enough it may be forced to impose mandatory buyouts.
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Luke 21:25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves
Important Takeaways:
- Argentina’s ‘unprecedented’ drought pummels farmers and economy
- A historic drought ravaging Argentina’s crops is deepening the grain exporting giant’s economic crisis, crushing farmers across the Pampas, heightening default fears and putting at risk targets agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- The South American nation, the world’s top exporter of processed soy and No. 3 for corn, is in the grip of it worst drought in over 60 years, which has led to repeated sharp cuts to soybean and corn harvest forecasts.
- Those were cut again on Thursday by the Buenos Aires grains exchange after the Rosario exchange slashed its soy production outlook to 27 million tonnes, the lowest since the turn of the century, when far less of the crop was planted.
- …farmers were facing losses of $14 billion and 50 million tonnes less of grain output across soy, corn and wheat.
- “It’s unprecedented that the three crops fail. We are all waiting for it to rain,” he added.
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Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’
Important Takeaways:
- Heads up, farmers: Biden is coming for your water
- If you live in rural America, odds are that hearing the phrase “waters of the United States” – more commonly known as WOTUS – gives you some unease.
- In 2015, the Obama-Biden administration enacted a WOTUS rule that essentially gave the federal government jurisdiction over every body of water in the country, including streams and ditches.
- The Biden administration is back with a new WOTUS rule that will create more uncertainty and condemn communities across the country to regulatory limbo.
- The message is clear: the Biden Administration’s rule will not result in cleaner water, but it will threaten our nation’s food supply chain.
- Instead of assisting farmers’ and ranchers’ efforts to protect clean water, the EPA’s proposed WOTUS rule is a boon to activists who will use it to stall, delay or halt rural development, eliminate incentives for locally led conservation, and further erode the confidence of America’s farmers and ranchers in the federal government.
- As farmers, we understand that those of us closest to the land, whose livelihoods depend on clean water, clean air and healthy ecosystems, are the best stewards of our resources – not the federal government. We should not need teams of attorneys to determine whether we can plow a field or make improvements to our land. Unfortunately, that will be the reality with a return to burdensome and confusing water rules.
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