Democrat War on Food

The emerging debacle

Democrat War on Food

Lost Customs and Culture

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            War drums are beating in the sagebrush flats of Nevada.

            In a state where nine out of ten acres are owned by some form of government, private enterprise remains robust only in the glow, or, more appropriately, the soft afterglow of neon lights. To be more specific, the economic health of Nevada aside from the infusion of federal dollars is best characterized by none other than Elko’s adopted native son from Canada, Ian Tyson. Ian, in either of his voices, sets forth the premise he is still in love with old corrals and sagebrush and ponderosa pines … pretty girls in pickup trucks and California wine.

            In this discussion, two of those definitely add to the gross annual product of the Silver State while three others are long suffering from overregulated diminishment.

You array the choices.

Cliven Bundy

Anybody with the name Cliven Bundy must be interesting.

Mr. Bundy is in the crosshairs of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as they get set to fuel helicopters, ATVs, blacked out Suburbans, diesel Powerwagons and Powerstrokes attached to gooseneck trailers, bobtails, 18 wheelers, and pilotless drones to gather his cattle. At issue are as many as nine hundred head of cattle that chain back through a herd that has run on Bundy homelands since the 1880s.

The dustup is the conflict that Bundy has with the agency. The press reports the Bundy family has not paid grazing fees since the ‘90s. There may be other issues, and they may be worthy of support or condemnation, but the appearance of the government lined up against an American land steward of long standing just isn’t becoming. In fact, it represents failure. If Bundy is the culprit they represent, the current and long line of former officials responsible for the ongoing problem should be stood up and hired back so they can be disciplined and fired. Anything that has gone on this long has too many black holes to lay all the blame in one direction.  In fact, if Bundy has existed this long under the withering and continuing harassment and subjugation of federal attack, maybe it is time to give him more than the benefit of the doubt. Maybe his fortitude and commitment to self preservation alone are worthy of review and … our respect.

Democrat War on Food

While the BLM is posturing to spend more than a million dollars (over four times the total uncollected Bundy grazing fees) to round up and make example of Bundy and his cattle, they are on track to spend over $60 million this year on their own noncompliance shortcomings in the feral horse business. Just across the Utah border in Iron County alone, they are overstocked, according to their own agreement, a similar number of horses equating to the Bundy herd yet they are defiant to do anything about it. Since there is no policing action of higher authority, range degradation will continue. The hypocrisy is stifling. The Clive Bundy’s of the world will face eventual ruin and certain death before any resolution of their case is concluded, but agency officials will retire and live in relative comfort.

Something else is dreadfully wrong, and this particular trail must be tracked back to 1999 when ranching allotments northeast of Las Vegas were targeted for closure because of a desert tortoise. Grazing and the fallout from the Endangered Species Act are not mutually exclusive, and, as Clive Bundy has long known, there is a back story in this whole nightmare that isn’t told.

It isn’t, though, just an assault on Clive Bundy’s sagebrush, old corrals, and ponderosa pines. The common thread is much more extensive.

With only name changes, the same story is being repeated with accelerating frequency across the West. The California water wars, the avalanche of wilderness and national monument designations, the expansion of endangered species listings, the designation of critical habitat, the war on coal, the road block on the Keystone XL pipeline, and the signal the feds are going to manage methane emissions in cattle are all acts within the same dreary stage production.

This might be a collection of causes that have niceties of correctness, but it has become the Democrat War on Food. The symptoms are spreading.

Those who watched the grain markets recently didn’t wait long to see the reaction to the intention of reducing planted corn acreage by 3.67 million acres from 2013. That, along with more robust ethanol production expectations, ran the corn futures up like a 1955 bottle rocket. Grain and soybean markets followed before a pause took place with sales from profit taking.

And, the assault goes on … diesel stocks in the Midwest were down for the third week in a row as corn planting accelerated, the prairie chicken was listed as endangered, and the outlook for the producers like Mr. Bundy only diminished.

What this is affecting is the price of food. The CRB spot foodstuff index is up 19.4% since December 1. That increase does not represent a futures market. It represents actual food prices. That is an astounding peace time rate of increase.

Going Green

Not too long ago ‘going green’ took the form of adopting socialism as the in crowd cause. Over the last several years that has taken a back seat as the stimuli of choice of the liberal intelligentsia has gravitated to flaming environmentalism. If those who oppose Mr. Bundy are the same folks who oppose the aforementioned Keystone Pipeline, they have now been identified and quantified. The two major groups opposed to construction of the pipeline are Democrats who make over $100,000 per year and Democrats with college and advanced graduate degrees. Of the latter, over 50% oppose the construction of the pipeline.

That result stands in juxtaposition to citizenry outside such ranks who support the construction on the basis of two to one.

Wealthy, college graduated liberals are driving the green wagon which is driving policy that is starting to dramatically impact the food chain. It shouldn’t surprise anybody that this will eventually impact the very citizenry that have so long been the nominal focus of the social causes … the poor.

Across the nation last weekend there was a Sunday insert blitz regarding retirement. How to figure out what you want to do the rest of your life read the headline. The stated goal was to come up with a mission statement for the rest of retirement life. There were seven components of the process leading up to retirement life’s mission restatement. That included leisure, volunteerism, travel, engaging new work, entrepreneurship, creativity, and learning.

The more I read the more incredulous, feigned, and elitist the pretext became. It was a menu to select a cause for advocacy. What is alarming was to see the actual statistics that are driving critical infrastructure decisions. The elephant that has finally breached the low cost food chain is a collection of folks who have enough time, discretionary income, and frivolous condescension to negatively impact the customs and culture of the fragile rural society of the West.

Their tryst is turning deadly.

Purveyors of tyranny

A mission without negative implications or consequences must be a nice place to park a cause, but even King George ultimately paid a price. His lifestyle didn’t suffer, but he lost the colonies.

Few will likely know or care what happens in the upcoming “big gather” in Nevada. If there is a comparison, however, it has to be the other “Big Gather” that took place in Texas following the Civil War. In that event, cowmen began the process of putting lives back together following the conflict. Already wild by their nature, the Texas cattle were gathered, claims were made, and the road to recovery began. The result was an industry of huge proportions, multitudes of producers, and an interconnecting network of support services and commerce.

That industry became a segment of a food production revolution that the world had never witnessed. Risk was spread by the multitude of producers each managing his production unit. That model is in decline. Each contraction of industry participation is characterized by fewer price negotiators and more expensive inputs. Barriers to entry are greater, and risk of systemic failure increases.

Those who think the elimination of Mr. Bundy or any of his colleagues is a worthy goal are grossly misinformed. The loss of individual producers only accelerates consolidation of the industry. Somebody is going to produce the product and that production will continue to be held in fewer and fewer hands.

That equates to higher prices and even the wealthy educated Democratic environmentalists might find that inconvenient.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Ranches like the Bundy’s that span back into the 19^th Century under the same ownership now represent one percent of all ranches. Section 102 of FLPMA says the public lands will be managed to, among other things, provide food and habitat for domestic animals and for human occupancy and use."