Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 613 | Baby Formula Shortage, Food Plant Fires & the Great Reset

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

Starting point is 00:00:19 We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey, y'all, welcome to relatable. Happy Monday. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to good ranchers.com slash alley. That's good ranchers.com slash alley. You know, speaking of Good Ranchers, I received a funny tweet this morning from some blue checkmark. I don't know who this person is. Her name is, Ginny Hogan. She bills herself as a comedian. And she responded to a tweet that I did yesterday about toxic mommy culture. If you guys listen to this podcast or all at all, or if you read my book, you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this trend, this culture of moms jokingly,

Starting point is 00:01:28 quote unquote, complaining about how terrible their kids are and how their kids are brats and burdens and how I just think it's so toxic and that it contributes. to low birth rates, to abortion rates, and poor mental health and kids. There's just no doubt in my mind that there is a causal relationship there. And so I said, you know, positive mommy culture is something different. It can be both real, vulnerable, transparent, sharing in the struggles and sacrifices of motherhood, but also joyful and grateful. And this person, Jenny Hogan, felt the need to take time out of her morning to reply

Starting point is 00:02:00 to my tweet saying this, Allie, every ad on your podcast is for meat. How pro-life are you? L-O-L. L-O-L. Jiny Hogan. Maybe this is supposed to be a joke because she bills herself as a comedian. Now I looked at one of her bits, and it's the most unoriginal bit that you can possibly possibly think of. Surprise, surprise.

Starting point is 00:02:24 She's a female comedian joking about how she slept around when she was drunk. Wow. No female comedian has ever made that joke before. That is just some grade A original content. So I don't think that she's actually trying to joke here. I think that she is probably serious. Every ad on your podcast is for meat. How pro-life are you?

Starting point is 00:02:46 Because apparently being actually pro-life is being for the killing of human babies, but against the killing of cows for hamburgers. I don't know. Maybe there is some kind of differentiation between a human being and an animal. Now, I do think that she brings up an important point about how kind of secular thinking can lead to the equating of worth between animals and human beings. And that, again, is why the biblical worldview is so important. The differentiating factor there is that human beings are made in the image of God. And therefore, we do have more value than any other organism on earth.

Starting point is 00:03:27 More power to you. If you want to be a vegan, I have nothing against that. But you do not have the moral authority. to tell other people what it really means to be pro-life because you think that we shouldn't be killing chickens, but you do think that we should be killing pre-born children. I'm sorry, you just don't get to be the one to talk about what it actually means to be pro-life. And if you just want to call me anti-abortion, to be more specific, that's perfectly fine. That's a very accurate label when it comes to my views. So I just wanted to, I just wanted to point that out. That's actually not what we're talking about today. We have been talking about abortion a lot for the past several days, obviously, because of the leaked draft of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision or decision on Dobbs v. Jackson. And if they decide that that law is upheld in Mississippi that would effectively overturn Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which would then bring the decision of abortion.

Starting point is 00:04:30 to the states. And so that is why we've been talking about it so much. But we actually are going to take a break from talking about that today. I might talk about some things at the end about these clinics that are being attacked. If we have time, if not, we'll talk about that tomorrow. You guys have continued to, you know, ask me some questions about the arguments and the headlines that you're hearing in regards to abortion legislation that's coming out of these red states. Like, what is actually being banned can ectopic pregnancies be treated miscarriages and what about IVF and all this stuff a lot of what you're seeing in hearing is just propaganda so we'll bust a lot of those myths tomorrow and throughout the week but i just kind of wanted to focus on some other things that are that are going on because

Starting point is 00:05:16 that is not the only thing that is happening in the world in the news there are other things that are really important and really affect people and the most vulnerable people and it actually has to do with babies. So there is a formula shortage. There is a baby formula shortage that's happening right now in the United States. You guys have probably heard about it. So we're going to talk about why that is, and we're going to kind of use that as a jumping off point to talk about some of the things that are happening in the labor market and in the economy right now and even regarding food shortages and these crazy fires that unfortunately we are seeing and have seen consistently over the past six months that have burned down or destroyed in a lot of cases food processing plants. So what is going on there are all of these things connected?

Starting point is 00:06:12 And so we're going to analyze that as we kind of take a break from Roe v. Wade and abortion news today. So let's start out with this formula shortage. You guys have probably seen maybe even just. in your local news, you have probably seen stories of mothers saying, I can't find the formula that I need. A lot of moms need particular formula for their baby because their baby has some kind of sensitivity or their baby only takes a certain kind of formula because they have allergies or whatever it is. And they cannot find a particular kind of formula that they need for their child. And look, before we get into the numbers and why this is happening, this is a nightmare scenario. This is a nightmare scenario for families. And I tweeted yesterday that

Starting point is 00:07:03 I think that women fearing the inability to get baby formula is actually going to affect the midterms and people's vote far more than women's fear of being unable to get an abortion. Because this is something, this is not a potential. This is not a hypothetical scenario. There are a lot of hypothetical hoops that a woman has to jump through in order to really think that the decision on Roe v. Wade is going to directly affect her or someone that she knows. There are a lot of things that would have to happen in order for that to be something that she faces directly in her own life. But this is something, this formula shortage is something that is happening right now. Like we are looking at women and families and babies that are unable to get the food supply that they need, the nutrition

Starting point is 00:07:59 that they need for their child. So this is a lot more tangible. This is a lot more real. This is really impacting people right this second. And so I think that it's going to actually have a much bigger effect on the midterms and this kind of thing. People just feeling very uneasy about the economy and food supply in general than this abortion decision. will. I think that economic issues and shortage issues are actually going to be more mobilizing as far as midterm voting goes far more than the abortion issue. And when I said that, I did get some kind of just what I thought were very unfeeling responses, presumably from people on the right. Now, most people, I think, who retweeted or liked my tweet or responded to my tweet, agreed with me.

Starting point is 00:08:54 But there were some people that said, well, you know, why are women, that's so crazy that people are even saying this. But why are women using formula anyway? Can they not just breastfeed? These women need to be breastfeeding. Why are women using formula? Look, I am as pro breastfeeding as they come. I highly encourage moms to breastfeed. I have breastfed both of my children for long periods of time.

Starting point is 00:09:22 I am very pro breastfeeding. However, there are a thousand different reasons why a mom might be giving formula to their child. You have no idea. You have no idea the different scenarios. And I can get into all of the different physical or medical reasons that a woman that a mom might be using formula or maybe this child is adopted. You really just don't know. So maybe, you know what they say about when you assume? So let's just abide by that rule when it comes to this and recognize that the women that the mothers who are using formula for their kids, they are just trying to give their kids proper nutrients.

Starting point is 00:10:03 Okay. So let's not be presumptuous and judgmental when it comes to moms trying to care for their kids. The fact of the matter is, is that there are moms that are trying to give formula to their kids that they need and they can't find it at their local stores. They can't find it at Target. they can't find it at Costco, they can't find it at Walmart. So what is happening and why is this happening and is it going to change? That's what we're about to get into. Hey, this is Steve Day.

Starting point is 00:10:25 If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions.

Starting point is 00:10:46 follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. All right. So what is happening?

Starting point is 00:11:08 In six states, in six U.S. states, according to CBS, more than 50 percent of formula was out of stock as of late April. parents in Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota are grappling with severe shortages of 50% to 51% according to data assembly. Out of stock levels are even higher in Missouri, 52%, Texas, 53% and Tennessee, 54%. At the same time, between 40% and 50% of baby formula products, were out of stock in 26 states. I mean, that is insane. Think about the impact that that is having on families, especially vulnerable families, because there are very expensive brands of formula that you can get.

Starting point is 00:11:47 You can get them shipped from overseas. And I'm sure people who have the means can find a way to stock up on, you know, maybe hundreds of dollars worth of formula when they find it. And, you know, I don't blame them for doing that. But that is probably exacerbating the problem, especially for people who cannot afford to do that. I mean, the impact of this just cannot be overstated. This is according to independent. And this was the end of last month.

Starting point is 00:12:13 month. They say this, quote, large retailers across the U.S. had begun rationing baby formula after a recall and supply chain issues caused shortages. In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, issued a warning to consumers after baby formula manufacturer Abbott Nutrition recalled powdered formula following reports that multiple babies had gotten sick with bacterial infections after consuming formula produced in its facility in Michigan. The formula was later linked to the deaths of two infants. You guys probably remember when this happened. With the FDA reporting in its findings in March that the formula maker failed to maintain

Starting point is 00:12:51 sanitary conditions and procedures at its manufacturing plant. That's awful. It's awful. That is not a thing that you can be lazy about. It's not a thing that you can lower the standards. So because someone was lazy, because someone didn't follow the rules, because either an employee or someone higher up decided that they were just going to let something fall through the cracks and they weren't going to uphold their standards, two babies died and multiple babies got

Starting point is 00:13:17 sick because of these unsanitary conditions. So sad. In addition to failing to maintain clean surfaces, FDA inspectors also reported finding a history of contamination with the bacteria chronobacter. And I also just wonder, okay, was the FDA not inspecting these facilities regularly? Like, was there a ball dropped by the FDA here and why? The rationing comes as an analysis by data assembly, which analyzed 11,000 sellers of baby formula in the country found that baby formula brands hit out of stock percentages of 31% in April 2022. The latest shortage finance market increase from 11% nationwide in November. So according to the CEO of that assembly, Ben Reich, inflation, supply chain, shortages, and product recalls have brought an unprecedented amount of volatility for baby

Starting point is 00:14:07 formula. We expect to continue to see the baby formula category being dramatically affected by these conditions. Baby formula stock has been one of the more affected categories so far in 2022 and one that will continue to demonstrate higher than average out of stock levels. A spokesperson for Walgreens said that increased demand in various supplier challenges have resulted in constraints for formulas across the country. There are other retailers who are reporting the same thing. They have had to start rationing how much formula they put out, how much formula people can buy. And so that families, all families are the families that are able to show up to the store in time can at least have some formula. According to the Washington Post, the same limit is currently being placed by CVS,

Starting point is 00:14:55 which is rationing purchases online and in stores, two, three units. So this is absolutely devastating. Now, what we keep hearing is that it's not just a recall, but that it is supply chain challenges. That's what we're hearing about the shortages of a lot of things. Supply chain challenges. So what exactly does that mean? What are the different factors that are playing in to supply chain shortages? What exactly does this mean?

Starting point is 00:15:26 Well, we have done a previous podcast on this with Ross Kennedy. We've done two podcasts episodes on this with Ross Kennedy. Both of them have been very popular. So we will link those episodes in the description of this episode. episode. But I will just kind of give an overview on what is happening there. And this will kind of lead us into talking about this crazy phenomenon of food processing plants that are being burned because I do kind of think this is all connected. So a few things are causing supply chain issues. And I'm not talking exclusively about baby formula. But as I said, I do think that one thing is kind of leading to another.

Starting point is 00:16:10 Yes, the Ukraine-Russia conflict is causing problems in the supply chain. Now, you will hear the Biden administration blame all of our supply issues and our shortages on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. You will hear him say that that's the reason for high gas prices. That's the reason for inflation. But of course, that's not true. If you look at any chart of gas prices or the prices of any good in service or of the shortages that we have experienced, you will see that all of those things were happening in 2021, long before

Starting point is 00:16:45 Russia invaded Ukraine. So this is just kind of a political tactic for the Biden administration to try to shift blame because this does have to do not entirely, but it does have to do at least partly on Democrats and Biden's economic policies, which we'll get into just a little bit. But the Ukraine-Russia conflict does play a part in this. Ukraine has often been known as the bread basket of Europe, a lot of food, a lot of natural resources that Europe particularly relies on comes out of Ukraine. Obviously, that's a problem right now. They're not able to get the food and the supplies and the natural resources out of Ukraine that they typically do. Another factor at play here is China. As we talked about a couple weeks ago, Shanghai has been on lockdown

Starting point is 00:17:33 down because of a very low rate of COVID positive cases. They have completely shut the city of tens of millions of people down. And there are multiple cities in China that are still dealing with these very unscientific draconian measures in the name of trying to control the spread of COVID. But of course, we know, as communist dictators do, they are using COVID simply as a pretense as a justification to control the populace, period. And a lot of our stuff, a lot of the things that we need, a lot of the ingredients that we need for a whole variety of things come out of China.

Starting point is 00:18:14 I'm surprised that we haven't seen more issues with people needing to get the life-saving medicine that they get for all kinds of different medical problems, that that's not being even more affected than we are seeing right now. And then we are also seeing this issue, which I think absolutely plays into the shortages that we are seeing right now in just kind of the general feeling that I know that you all have that you can't get exactly what you want. And in some cases, like when it comes to baby formula or medicine, the things that you actually need and the general feeling that things just aren't how they used to be. You can't get the same service that you used to be able to. You go to a restaurant

Starting point is 00:18:55 and you kind of expect that things just aren't going to be as hospitable or as efficient as they once we're, you don't know if your plane is going to land on time or if you're going to have a flight at all. Now, some of these things have definitely improved, but a lot of things have just stayed stagnant. It seems like the restaurant, the hospitality industry, have really taken a hit and that we have just been forced to kind of lower our expectations when it comes to the kinds of services and the efficiency that we are going to experience in these realms. And a reason for that is low labor participation rate. Now, the participation rate in the labor market has been falling for years. So this is not something that we can only lay at Joe

Starting point is 00:19:48 Biden's or the Democrats' feet. A greater number of people have been getting older. They have been been retiring. But this has been exacerbated. This low labor participation rate has precipitated because of COVID and really because of COVID lockdowns. A bunch of baby boomers went to a retirement early in 2020 and 2021. And also a lot of mothers stopped working during COVID. And so this has added to the falling labor participation rate, which means that place are having a hard time hiring people, which means they're just not going to be able to provide the same services in the same amount of time as they were before. And we're going to get more into what the numbers actually are in just a second. So as I said, a bunch of baby boomers

Starting point is 00:20:46 going into early retirement. They were probably planning to retire within the next 10 years anyway, but they said, hey, you know what, why don't I just go ahead and quit my job or go ahead and retire now seems like a good time to do that? So that affected the labor market. And then a lot of moms were like, what the heck am I supposed to do for child care? Or, hey, I don't want my kid just virtually learning sitting in front of a screen. So I'm going to start homeschooling my kid. That took them out of the job market. So this is according to the U.S. census. Around 10 million U.S. mothers living with, with their own school-age children were not actively working in January of 2021. 1.4 million more than during the same month last year, 2020, according to new U.S. Census Bureau

Starting point is 00:21:34 data. Millions of baby boomers retire each year from the U.S. labor force, but in the past year, the census says, oh, no, this is according to Pew Research, sorry. But in the past year, the number of retired boomers increased more than in prior years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of monthly labor force data. In the third quarter of 2020, about 28.6 million baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, reported that they were out of the labor force due to retirement. This is 3.2 million more boomers than the 25.4 million who were retired in the same quarter

Starting point is 00:22:09 of 2019. So this is all affecting everything that we're talking about because companies have, a lot of jobs that are unfilled. And yet they can't necessarily find the people or they don't have the same pool of people to choose from because older Americans and because women are just not participating in the labor market the way that they used to. Now, this does not account for everything, though, because a lot of these companies that are looking for workers aren't necessarily attracting baby boomers. They're actually probably looking for much younger candidates. And even those kinds of companies, restaurants, hotels, businesses are not able to find employees.

Starting point is 00:23:00 So why is that? Business Insider talks about this a little bit. They say as employees leave their jobs, businesses are saying they have few or no qualified candidates. While companies are competing to find talent. Some businesses are having trouble getting applicants to even show up for interviews. One common explanation is that workers aren't looking for the types of jobs employers have on offer and potential employees lack the skills for the positions that are open. And so that is definitely a theory. Businesses have boosted wages to attract and keep workers during the tight labor market. Now, some people who are seeking jobs, this is according to Slate, a very left-wing outlet. They say that, you know, some people seeking jobs are saying, no, the money's just not

Starting point is 00:23:48 right. Or, you know, I don't want to work that kind of job. I've eight to 10 years experience. And I'm not going to take that kind of low level job, which I understand. But if you are looking for a job and there is a job offer, then I'm not so sure that you are necessarily in a position to reject it. Although I do understand that concern and that frustration absolutely, but it's a scenario where if you are actually in need of the money, you will take the opportunity that is presented in front of you. The fact is that some people are simply disincentivized from getting a job. The U.S. Chamber of Congress, or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says this, quote, right now the labor force participation is 62.4 percent, down from 63.3

Starting point is 00:24:37 percent in January 2020. It's clear that able workers are being overlooked or sitting in on the sidelines, but there's not just one reason that workers are sitting out, but several factors have come together to cause the ongoing shortage. The U.S. Chamber surveyed unemployed workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic on what is keeping them from returning to work. Nearly one in three women indicated that the need to be home and care for children or other family members has made the return to work difficult or impossible, so we already noted that. More than a quarter of men indicated that their industry was still suffering and not good enough jobs were available to return to work. So obviously, if someone is saying, I'm not going to

Starting point is 00:25:18 return to work because the jobs that are available aren't jobs that I want, then someone, like someone is giving them the money to stay home, right? So U.S. Chamber of Commerce says this, enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and not being able to go out and spend money during the lockdown, all contributed to Americans collectively adding $4 trillion to their savings accounts since early 2020. The extra few hundred dollars a week from enhanced unemployment benefits, which ended in September 2021, specifically led to 68% of claimants earning more on unemployment than they did while working. So even though the COVID-specific unemployment benefits expired in September 2021, there is still an incentive, particularly depending on what state you live in,

Starting point is 00:26:12 there is an incentive to not work. If, including transit and all of the expenses that come with actually going to a job, if you are making more money staying at home because of your unemployment benefits, then you are actually going to work. And so that is absolutely a factor here. For the Daily Signal, John Stossel wrote in May of 2021 that America has a record 8.1 million job openings. I think that's more now. I think it's like 10 million. The media call it a labor shortage, but he argues it's not a labor shortage. It is an incentive shortage.

Starting point is 00:26:50 No one wants to work, says a sign on a restaurant drive-through speaker in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Please be patient with the staff that did show up. And I just have to say, like, whenever I go to a coffee shop or whenever I go to some kind of fast food restaurant, I am actually impressed and thankful for the people who are there because I know there are so many people who are simply opting out of work because they don't want to work and they don't want to work in what they see as menial jobs. And I am especially impressed when I see people in those jobs working really hard and being as joyful as they can in those jobs because so many people who are there, they are there begrudgingly and they have bad attitudes. They're not working hard. So I do think

Starting point is 00:27:31 in light of all that we're talking about that we should have a whole lot of grace and a whole lot of gratitude for all the people who are showing up to work right now, even if they have an incentive to stay home, even if they would be making more money from the government, they are choosing the dignity that is inherent with work, and that is something to be applauded. He goes on to say, John Stossel for the Daily Signal, well, he talks about that he didn't want to work either. He worked because he had to work. And he says the American Rescue Plan passed in of 2021 increased unemployment payments by hundreds of dollars and extended them for up to 73 weeks. Given the cost of commuting, etc., many people find they are better off financially not working.

Starting point is 00:28:12 Denmark once offered workers five years of unemployment. Then Denmark noticed that workers found work after exactly five years. So Denmark cut the benefit to four years. Then most workers found jobs after four years. Now Denmark wisely has cut benefits in half. Therefore, incentives matter. America's unemployment handouts began during the Great Depression. He explains when desperate people really needed help, still, you could only collect for 16 weeks. And so now we have a very,

Starting point is 00:28:43 we have perverse incentives in the United States where it is actually worse in a lot of cases to make more money or get a job. You're worse off financially than you would be if you just didn't work at all. We disincentivize marriage. We disincentivize responsibility when it comes to work. We disincentivize people working harder so they can get a promotion. I personally know a family. Now, they have a lot of integrity and they're very hardworking people. But her husband had a job and they were on Medicaid and her husband got presented with a promotion opportunity. Well, if he took this promotion that made them a little bit more money, they would lose all of their health care benefits. And so they made a really hard decision to actually take the promotion and

Starting point is 00:29:27 basically tough it out until they could get health insurance until he was, you know, making more money and a little bit more secure. But look, most people aren't going to make that decision. Most people, a lot of people can't make that decision. A lot of people aren't thinking five to 10 years, okay, it's going to be better long term. If I take this particular promotion, they're only thinking, how am I going to care for my family right now? And I don't blame them for that. but we have a very perverse incentive structure when it comes to welfare. And I guarantee you that is playing a part in all of this. That is playing a part in people not going back to their jobs in addition to the other

Starting point is 00:30:09 factors that we're talking about. So that is playing a part in the corporations, the companies, the businesses in this country, not being able to supply the things they need to supply. This is in addition to all of the global supply chain. issues that we are seeing. And I guarantee you that has something to do with the manufacturers of baby formula being unable to put the formula on the shelves that they need to put on the shelves. There are so many moving pieces when it comes to any given product getting into our hands and labor shortages and supply shortages and supply chain disruptions all have to play into that.

Starting point is 00:30:51 And so, gosh, once again, guys, why do politics matter because policy matters? Why does policy matter? Because people matter. Like, you realize that all of these things, even though they're not exclusively political, and they don't only have to do with the people who are in charge right now, still, the political realm matters. I mean, economics matter and politics certainly play a role in all of this. And we'll talk a little bit about how progressives are kind of seeing this supply chain issue that we are dealing with as an opportunity for something that we've talked about many times that if you haven't listened to these episodes may sound conspiratorial and unfortunately

Starting point is 00:31:31 is not for these kinds of great reset economic overhaul policies that the World Economic Forum and some of the world leaders have been plotting and planning for a very long time. And I think they see this crisis as an opportunity for, you know, green energy for their so-called stakeholder capitalism model for less private ownership, less self-reliance, all the things we've talked about in the past that I will link the past episode on that. It is all connected. I don't think that this is all necessarily purposeful. I've seen some people say, I think that they are purposely withholding baby formula to basically torture families. I don't think that that is happening. I do think it's a crisis that will be used in a way that is perverse. And I do think that it's all kind of

Starting point is 00:32:19 of connected, I don't see evidence of some kind of conspiracy theory for purposely withholding baby formula for people. But a lot of the policies that we have talked about in the past are affecting the things that we just described, which then does lead to the baby formula shortage. So there is some kind of connection there, even if it is not direct and completely deliberate. And part of this, I guess speaking of conspiracies or speaking of theories or questions that people have, questions that people have that also have to do with the shortages that we're seeing is the fires the fires that we have seen at food processing plants across the country for the past six months what the heck is going on there why is this happening and why does it seem like so few outlets

Starting point is 00:33:07 are reporting on it so we'll mention that we'll explain that in just one second all right so let's talk just briefly about these food processing plants that have burned down so there was this viral tweet by someone by the name of Dr. Benjamin Braddock. He originally tweeted an article to, or he tweeted, um, a link to a Newsweek article titled seven injured an explosion as fire engulfs food plants smoke visible for miles. And his first tweet says several very large food processing plants in the U.S. have blown up slash burned down in the past few days. And then he has compiled this long thread that was updated just a few days ago of all of these food processing plants that have mysteriously burned or burned down

Starting point is 00:34:00 just in the past few months. So I have a list of some of those in front of me, Azur standard in Dufor, is that what it is? Dufor, Oregon. That one burned, Taylor. Farms Processing Plant in Salinas, California, East Conway, Beef and Pork, Butcher Shop and Slaughterhouse in Conway, New Hampshire, Pinnocott, McCrum, potato processing plant, in Belfast, Nestle, Nestle, Nestle, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Shears Foods, Potato

Starting point is 00:34:34 Chip plant in Oregon, Bonanza Meat Co., Wisconsin River Meat, Cargill Nutrina plant, poultry processing plant, food processing, plant in San Antonio, Texas, made right state company, JVS USA beef processing plant, Patac meat products in Cobb County, Georgia, Tyson's River Valley Ingredients Rendering Plant, and Alabama Kellogg Plant, and Memphis, Smithfield Foods Pork Plants, Deli Star Meat Processing Plant. Those are just a few, and a lot of them are under investigation. Now, some of them, they're saying that it was just an accident. they think they know how these how these fires were started.

Starting point is 00:35:17 And I think it's totally legitimate for people to ask a very saying question, is this orchestrated? Is this deliberate? Now, there are a lot of theories out there. I don't know. I mean, I do think that we should talk about the possibility of eco-terrorism. That is something that exists and that has been responsible, unfortunately, for disasters that have happened in the United States over the year.

Starting point is 00:35:42 or something that I think was really underreported was the guy who lit himself on fire a couple weeks ago in front of the Supreme Court, on the steps of the Supreme Court protesting for climate change. He ended up dying because he lit himself on fire. I mean, these are very extreme radical people. And so I don't know that is a complete theory, a complete guess. And unfortunately, we have to theorize and guess because we don't have an honest media. The media who is on the left simply doesn't report things that are inconvenient to its narrative, typically. And we've got a bunch of climate change activists in the media that would never say that these are, you know, radical eco activists who are trying to intentionally, you know, ruin these plants that they think are bad for the environmental. lot of those people are also vegan going back to the beginning of this episode who probably

Starting point is 00:36:43 just don't like these meat processing plants. Now, again, that is a total theory. It's really hard to believe that this is just coincidental, that this is something that is just happening back to back. If that's the case, if that's the case, if this is not contrived at all, if this is not orchestrated or organized, if this is not a deliberate act of terrorism, which I hope to God it's not, then why are the safety standards dropping? Like what's happening here? Are these places, again, as we were talking about with Abbott Labs, like are they not being inspected properly? Is it because of these other issues that we've talked about that there are just too few people that are working there? They can't have the same number of employees. So they're trying to turn out the same. number of products as before and that is causing, that is causing some sloppiness or some laziness or just the inability to keep up with the process because there are too few people to do it. Like is, is that part of it? And so I think that there are a lot of possibilities beyond terrorism, beyond the theory that this is, that these are deliberate people or these are people

Starting point is 00:38:00 who are deliberately setting these plants on fire. Obviously, that's a possibility. If we had an honest press, they would be seriously exploring that. But I also think that it is a possibility that this is happening and simply because of the other issues that we were talking about because every single industry is being crushed kind of under the weight of these shortages and of low labor participation. And so all of this goes hand in hand.

Starting point is 00:38:30 with not just the inconveniences that America is experiencing, but the inability to get the things that you desperately need to live. And then on top of all of this, on top of all of this, we have a fertilization shortage, which, again, plays into everything that we were talking about. It plays into the food shortages. It plays into people being unable to get the things that they need, and it plays into farmers, being unable to provide for their families,

Starting point is 00:38:58 and then just quitting their jobs all to. because they are unable to do the job that they are being compensated for. The USAID's Samantha Power said in a May 1 ABC interview, she admitted that fertilizer shortages are real now. And if you just imagine all of the implications and the consequences of that of a fertilizer shortage, think about all of the things that could potentially affect. I mean, that is going to be absolutely, is going to continue to be absolutely. disastrous. Now, one conspiracy that I had heard in the past and was going around on TikTok

Starting point is 00:39:37 is that farmers were being paid to ruin their crops, that the USDA was sending letters to farmers and that they were saying, hey, if you ruin your crops, we will compensate you, or if you'll like burn your harvest, we will make sure that you get paid X amount or you won't receive your subsidies if you don't ruin your crops. And so I, looked into this and while Snopes is not always reliable because it does lean to the left, I did think that their fact-checking on this was trustworthy and good. And I want to just fact-check this quickly according to Snopes because I've seen a lot of people talk about it on Instagram. So Snope says in the summer of 2021, rumors started to circulate on social media that the U.S.

Starting point is 00:40:20 government was forcing farmers to destroy their crops. This rumor was largely spread in TikTok videos by people claiming that they had received letters from the USDA, instructing farmers to destroy their crops. And so this person, knee fly and farmer, I guess that's how you pronounce their handle, said that they, you know, they posted a ladder from the USDA, saying,

Starting point is 00:40:42 hey, you better destroy your crops. But USDA said this is not true. And then the guy who originally posted it was like, oh yeah, it was a joke. And then someone else on Twitter, Ryan Peter,

Starting point is 00:40:57 posted a video saying, oh, they're just pouring oil into the grounds because the U.S. government told them to dump oil into the ground. And then he posted, oh, that was just a joke. That was just a parody. It wasn't real. That's not something that is happening. So the government is not paying farmers, as far as we know, to destroy their crops. The New York Times reported in April 2020. In Wisconsin, Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of fresh milk into the loons of manure pits. An Idaho farmer has dug huge ditches to bury one million pounds of onions. And in South Florida, a region that supplies much of the eastern half of the United States with produce,

Starting point is 00:41:36 tractors are crisscrossing bean and cabbage fields, plowing perfectly ripe vegetables back into the soil. After weeks of concerns about shortages and grocery stores and mad scrambles to find the last box of pasta or toilet paper roll, many of the nation's largest farms are struggling with another ghastly effect of the pandemic. They are being forced to destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food they can no longer sell. because of the closing of restaurants, hotels, and schools that has left some farmers with no buyers for more than half their crops. So here is where the truth comes in. And here is again that this is all, this is a matter of policy because it wasn't because of COVID that these farmers were in 2020 actually being forced, not by the government directly, but being forced to destroy their crops because they didn't have any buyers because of the lockdowns. I mean, awful, awful, awful.

Starting point is 00:42:23 So we are actually seeing a disaster when it comes to farming, not just because of lack of fertilization, because of all the issues that we talked about, even in Ukraine and China and all of that. And, you know, lack of employees and things like that. But also farmers are struggling and the food supply is struggling because of this, because they had to destroy their crops, which means that they weren't able to get the money that they needed because of Democrat policies that shut down most of the economy based on absolutely no science whatsoever. And so it is true that the government in an indirect way and Democratic-run governments specifically did cause farmers to destroy their crops, but not in the form of actually receiving a letter and saying, hey, destroy the crop. So I do think it's important to mention that. And I do think it's important to mention the fertilizer shortage.

Starting point is 00:43:16 And I also think it's important to bring up the fact that, as Samantha Power said in this interview Democrats, progressives in the government are going to use this as an opportunity. They're going to use this as an opportunity to try to transition the economy, to try to push green energy. And I won't even get in. I have a whole other section of notes that I just think is a little bit too much because we've already kind of run out of time about what this means for the transition to green energy and how the World Economic Forum is seeing all of this as an opportunity for the things that we mentioned earlier. So there's a lot going on here.

Starting point is 00:43:58 A 2020 white paper from WEF and the consulting firm McKinsey and company warns of greenhouse gas emissions and potential runoff from fertilizers advocating for an end to fertilizer. This is according to the Epic Times for an into fertilizer subsidies in developing countries and praising China for its efforts to reduce fertilizer use. in a 2018 WEF, white paper, co-authored with a consulting firm Accenture, claims that a 21st century

Starting point is 00:44:26 approach to organic farming should strive to close the gap in yields between organic and conventional farming. WeEF's vision of 21st century agriculture comes into greater focus in another 2018 report titled Bio-innovation in the food system and advocate for the bioengineering of new microbes

Starting point is 00:44:44 to fix nitrogen more efficiently in plants. This offers, the prospect of lowering and more optimally applying nitrogen fertilizer. They have also pushed the use of biosolids. In other words, sewage, sludge like urine and feces, I suppose, as fertilizer. So the question is, again, as we have brought up several times as we have sprinkled in throughout this episode, like what is intentional and what is just being used by the people and power. What crises are kind of, I don't know if any of this is completely organic, but what crises are just consequences of the policies over time and which ones are intentional, which

Starting point is 00:45:28 ones are not, and are just kind of being used as an opportunity by these people to kind of push their agenda? Or how much of this is actually deliberately and directly contrived so that we, so that the people in charge can kind of move us even further off of the reliance of our own resources and onto the global market. And wow, I could just keep talking about all of that. And we could really get into how this plays into what the world economic forum wants. But we don't have time. Needless to say, needless to say, this is all interconnected in ways that is very complex and hard to fully explore. but keep that in mind whenever you hear that there is a shortage or there is a chain or we can't figure out why a problem is happening. At the very least, it is a crisis that is going to be

Starting point is 00:46:25 exploited by the people in power to get them more power. Okay, I just wanted to end with a little bit of encouragement for you guys and just to tell you what I was thinking about as I was driving in this morning because I know that it can be very overwhelming talking about the things that we are talking about. How are we supposed to fix all of these things that are so far beyond our control? And just as a practical measure, I do think reliance on our families, reliance on our church and our neighborhoods and communities, making our world smaller and depending on our friends and on the fellowship of fellow believers to supply the things that our family needs, I think that that is a solution to all of this. Of course, you know,

Starting point is 00:47:11 gardening yourself and making your own food and all of that is great. I understand that that's not necessarily feasible for everyone, depending on your life stage and your resources and where you live. But I do think self-reliance and localization is helpful here and being generous and sharing everything that we have and really reflected as Christians, the local church. And I was listening to a podcast by Elizabeth Elliott this morning. And you guys know probably that I love Elizabeth Elliott.

Starting point is 00:47:40 there is a podcast. I think it's called the Elizabeth Elliott podcast. And it has a lot of, or excerpts at least like 20 minutes of her talks that she gave some of them in the 70s, 80s, most of them are from the early 90s I've found. But one thing that she talked about this morning in her latest episode was the gift of relinquishment, relinquishing the need to control outcomes, relinquishing the need to control other people, relinquishing the drive to control things that we cannot control to try to be everything that we need for ourselves and for everyone else. And there is a lot of joy and peace that passes all understanding that comes with surrender. And so as we're thinking about all of these overwhelming things that we discuss today and the anxiety, gosh, that comes with something like not being able to get the baby formula that you need, I think that we. we should remember Philippians 419, which is a verse that she was talking about as I was listening this morning. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Starting point is 00:48:52 My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. So we serve a God that will supply every need. And also reminds me of, I believe, I'm just looking this up. as I am speaking. Matthew 10, 29 through 32, we talk about this passage a lot, are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven.

Starting point is 00:49:38 Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven. And really, the more important thing there were the first two verses that I read, that you are of much more value than two sparrows and not one of them falls from the sky apart from your father's will. And so you have nothing to be concerned about. God will supply every need of yours in Christ Jesus. and we as the church is the hands of feet of Christ, we should be showing up for people and making sure that they are provided for. This, I'm talking to myself. I'm actually convicted right now.

Starting point is 00:50:13 I should be asking people in my church, is anyone out, is anyone out of baby formula? I should be asking my local pregnancy center. Do you guys need baby formula? Like should I be going to the store right now, getting baby formula and making sure that I donate it to the people who need it? I'm thinking about what can I do today to help contribute to the problems that we're talking about. We can't all do everything. We can't all worry about everything, but we can all do one thing. So if it seems like it's far beyond our control, maybe the next thing we can do is just acting in faith and in love according to God's will. Maybe we are a part of the solution simply by reflecting the love of Christ Christ towards other people. And so I'm thankful that we serve a God who is sovereign that is going

Starting point is 00:50:56 to meet all of our needs according to Christ Jesus and that we have a God who numbers the hairs on our head and that not one hair can fall without his knowledge and will. And so there is every reason to find comfort, even in the craziness of everything that we talked about today. All right, we've got a lot to cover this week that I'm excited about. And we will be back here tomorrow to do just that. See you guys then. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality.

Starting point is 00:51:41 We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 613 | Baby Formula Shortage, Food Plant Fires & the Great Reset

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.