The Highwire with Del Bigtree - IS AMERICA FACING A FOOD CRISIS?

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

Third generation cattle rancher, Shad Sullivan, discusses the impending food crisis facing the U.S. due to drought and disruptions in the food supply chain.#ShadSullivan #FoodSupplyChainBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

A lot of this news, right? I mean, we look at the articles. We're talking to specialists all around, but sometimes, you know, you got to sort of take it to the ground. What's the level on the ground? How do we get to somebody that can tell us whether this is real or not? Does it matter that the fertilizer is having trouble in railroads and things like that? So in order to get some answers to that, well, we wanted to reach out to one of our friends that's been on this show before. a fifth generation cattle rancher Chad Sullivan, who is out there. He's got ranches in Texas and

Colorado, family business, as I said, for five generations. We reached out and said, is this real? What's going on? He decided he would come on to talk about it. So just to remind you who he is, he came on in the middle of the COVID pandemic, talking about the pressure that was coming down in the meat industry, especially because there were, you know, sort of conglomerate owners that were really making it difficult to sell their meats and then you know packaging plants shutting down this is just a sort of a reflection on chad solomon for those of you who have not met him before yesterday the first shipment of imported beef from the country of namibia hit the shores of the united states of america and yet this morning they are telling us to prepare to euthanize

Harvest ready cattle. Am I the only one that sees a problem in this? Our family has owned this ranch for 71 years. We ranch because we are tied to the land. And we're deeply rooted here. It is who we are, it's how we identify ourselves. And I am concerned. When the pandemic hit, we started seeing food shortages across the board.

The frenzy is real. there is a shortage triggering panic. Customers started fighting over toilet paper and water. Store shelves nationwide are dwindling or totally empty. Even though we were seeing empty shelves in the grocery stores, whether it be through agricultural products or other products, the reason behind that was because of a backlog in production. The consumer needs to know how volatile their food supply is.

For the last five years, our industry has been in turmoil. Why have we allowed JBS, a Brazilian-owned meat processing company, to become the largest beef processor not only in the world, but in the United States? Why are we allowing these foreign entities to control our whole food system when we have laws, antitrust, anti-monopolistic laws, to keep that from happening?

People are waking up because of COVID, because of those empty shells, because of the lack of processing, taking place in those facilities. People had to wake up because all of a sudden the things that met their needs weren't there. Our food system in the United States is vulnerable and it is worse now because of the pandemic. Well that was over a year ago

that Shad Sullivan warned us that our food system was vulnerable. It's my honor to be joined by him now to see if we're in better shape than we were a year ago the middle of COVID or are we tracking in the wrong direction. So Shad, I want to thank you for taking the time to join us today. Thank you, Dale. So, you know, there's a lot that we've reported on today. We've talked about, you know, this sort of mysterious burning of food packing plants,

just questions about fertilizer being delivered, all these things. I want to throw all that aside. I don't want to sort of put words in your mouth, you're a rancher. And so from your perspective, what is, you know, how is your industry? Are you in a good, place or are there really things that are constricting what may be the future of, you know, ranchers like yourself being able to do your job? Oh no, Dale, we're still in the fight of our lives here in rural America, you know, all of this, these things that's happened from since COVID, including COVID, has had an enormous effect on production inputs. They're higher than ever. As you well know, there's a war in Ukraine right now. Ukraine and Russia are

huge exporters of grain. There's a drought in part of the United States that is affecting wheat and grain production, cattle production. And so all of these inputs are exponentially increasing, for example, last fall when I planted my wheat actually in 2021, you know, I was paying up there around $350 a ton for fertilizer to plant wheat by the next fall. I was, it's up there around $800 to $1,000 and they say it's going further. Our transportation costs are enormous. And there's an aura of feeling like something. There's a, you know, a strategic storm coming here with our food supply.

There's so many things coming together at once, you know, and that includes the war in Ukraine, these inflationary costs, the droughts that are going on across the breadbasket, you know, the COVID payments have a lot to do with it. And then we're still fighting the centralization of our food supply. And we have enormous hurdles in front of us to try and be profitable in bringing food to the United States consumer. Let's because I think it's on everyone's mind right now, the war in Ukraine, specifically for those of us that, you know, obviously the inhumanity is difficult to watch. It's hard to watch war, people being displaced. But how does that affect the American food supply system? And more specifically, why is grain in Ukraine effect

ranching and farming here in America? What are the specific effects that are being pressed upon you from the war in Ukraine right now? Well, it's a supply and demand issue. So Russia and Ukraine export enormous amounts of grain to the United States and oil, a lot of input, especially a lot of fertilizer. We import a lot of fertilizer from those countries. So it becomes down to a supply and demand issue. And if we're not producing the normal amount of grain that we should be producing, you know, let's take this winter. For example, Texas and the Southern Plains have been in an incredibly tough drought a lot. And I mean a lot of wheat was disastered, has not been able to produce. And so we're going to see a significant supply and demand issue come along. It's not going to be right now, but it's coming down the road because of these products and lack thereof being imported and being grown here in the United States. So we normally supply a large part of our grain here, but for the cattle ranch,

That's been diminished. So then how is the war in Ukraine? They have to deliver grain. How is their grain supply? Are they in a drought or anything other than the war going on? Is that going to affect their supply coming here? I can't speak on weather conditions over there. But right now is their planting season, I believe.

And so if they're in the middle of a war and trying to get crops in as well. And I know those farmers are over there. You know, there's a lot of production over there. that is very fertile land and perhaps that's part of the reason that Russia is invaded. But all of that is implemented in trade within the United States back and forth. So if they can't get their crop in, then we are unable to use those grains and those imports for foodstuffs that we need. now we're hearing things about fertilizer be like that the train systems aren't going to be delivering as much fertilizer is that true is that something you're hearing about or is that just media high yeah no that's something

that i'm hearing about and i'm it's reflected through the price of fertilizer here now in the united states you know i'm hearing that you know fertilizer can get to $1,200 a ton that is unique and unprecedented in agriculture and it's going to wreak havoc on a lot of operations. We need that fertilizer to grow, you know, food crops and food stuff for animal resources. And so it is a huge concern. You know, I'm like you. I hear a lot of things going on as some of it's maybe hearsay, but I do know Russia provides us with a lot of fertilizer.

And, you know, here we go back to. theories, but I think there was a fertilizer plant in Pennsylvania that burned down this winter. And so all of these things are eye-opening and thought-provoking and seeing where exactly are going to go with these issues that seem to be coming full circle and are all interwoven into an end game of food supply and food production and consumption. And then you mentioned the fertilizer plant burning down. We talked about, you know, somewhere around 20, it's been reported that somewhere around 20 different food packaging and distribution plants have burned down since over the last two years at the same time as COVID. Are you, is that another reality?

Are you hearing about that? Is that something being discussed amongst ranchers and farmers? Well, like you, I keep hearing about this. And I do know from my experience on August 9th, 2019, when the first fire in a beef packing plant in southwest Kansas took place and wreaked havoc on our cattle marketing system overnight. In a matter of three days, we lost anywhere from 18 to 40 percent of our equity in our cattle herds. And that seemed to be the forerunner of what was going on. And now, of course, thanks to social media and news reports and gossip, there's a lot of processing, food processing facilities that have either been damaged or destroyed. You know, I saw yesterday, I counted like 26 in the last two years.

And that's really concerning to the American consumer because once we get down the road, and I'm calling this out September, October of two years. 2022. Okay. When the effects of these supply issues take place, not only is the wheat issue a problem, but drought into northern plains from Canada, clear down to central Texas, has taken a toll on beef production. And so we have an influx of cattle going to market for the past five to six months. Feed lots are full.

So when those feedlots, those cattle in the feedlots are harvested, then we're going to have a low supply of those cattle. It's going to happen. And so I'm anxious to see where that's really going to take us in terms of supply chains. We have to remember, we still have a centralization problem that we were experienced during COVID of power. You know, so once you centralize your food supply system, obviously we put it in danger. And if they're in control of 80 plus percent of the beef supply. Take me through that just a little bit, just for those of us that don't know what, you know, centralized, I think I think of centralized banking, but it's centralized, are you saying there's like a conglomerate

that's sort of controlling how the beef is being distributed? Well, we have to remember that four companies in the United States basically own the supply chain of beef to the American consumer, 85% of it, in fact. And so when you have that concentration of power, which, by the way, is illegal and it's been abled by the United States Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, to see acquisitions and mergers of those huge monopolized companies over the years, we get a real problem. And that's what we saw back during COVID when those processors and their employees experienced the COVID employees were unable to get to work and so the supply

chains the ability to process those cattle and in other industries was almost delineated and that's why we saw empty shells back during the height of COVID. How is this affecting production? Are producers that we do still have as many producers you know bringing the food forward? No I mean every day I watch social media closely. Every day I'm seeing complete herd dispersal sales across the central part of the United States. These are things that are very concerning to the, should be to the American consumer, but especially in rural America. Because once we hollow out rural America, we no longer have health care facilities, churches, schools. And that's something to be really, really concerned about

at this point. The lack of production is going to be an issue in supply chain to the consumer. You know, since 2015, we've lost 12,000 beef producers or farmers and ranchers across America. And it seems like the last two years, this thing is taking a second year and we're losing more and more. Now, there's definitely a, I would say, a growing movement to people that say, good. Ranching farm, you know, is bad for the environment. There's this huge Green New Deal, Klaus Schwab, great reset. I'm not sure how much of this stuff you follow, but talk about that everyone's going to stop eating meat. A recent article just said within the next, I think, 10 years,

we'll see a total end to cattle ranching protein will be made in laboratories. We can do designer meats there. We've got the impossible burger. you look at packaging plants burning down and distribution plants, when you see fertilizer being held from getting to use so that you can grow the crops you need. Is there some part of you that wonders, is there an agenda at play here? I mean, obviously you have weather issues, drought, you know, whether you can control that. But some of this seems like it could be controlled. It seems like our government could be helping you, but instead does it feel like there's a

force against you that is trying to see an end to beef production? There absolutely is, and it's a global elite force. And so in order, you know, the end game here, Dale, is production and consumption control, along with population control. I call it communism, right? And so in order for them to implement this control, not in America, but across the world, they want this American producers off the land. they had to create a crisis. And that crisis was climate change. First, it was global warming. Now that

crisis is climate change. In order to fix climate change, they had to create a solution. And that solution is what they call sustainability. Now, at the end of that, sustainability is total production and consumption control. So you have production control from the top down, instead of it being from the producer up. And that control is going to result in basically socialism or what I call communism. Socialism is just volunteer communism is all that is. And so that's what we're seeing. And we're seeing it through what we call private public partnerships or public private partnerships where non-governmental organizations and environmental non-governmental organizations

partner up with governmental organizations. So you may have the Nature Conservancy or the World Wildlife Fund partnering up with the United States Department of Agriculture to give incentives to ranchers to produce and off the land in the way that they see fit, not that the rancher sees fit. And what this turns into is a private property rights issue. And so that's all a part of this word we call sustainability in production control. and you see it everywhere. It's not just in the agricultural industry. That is just a buzzword to say, hey, we want to produce what you're controlling and how you want to control what you're producing and how you're producing it. And it's very, very, very scary. You know, the Biden administration

signed executive order 14-O-8, which is called the America the Beautiful Plan. And it is, the plan is to set aside 30% of America's land and waters into preservation by 2030. So that requires an enormous amount of land to be taken off and off of the tax rolls and out of production in America. But that is not the end of it. That is to be followed up by the United Nations 55 by 50 plan where they will conserve 50% of the world, global land and water. for preservation by 2050.

And then it will just keep going. Sustainability never has an ending to it. You're never good enough. So that's where we're at. Yes, the agenda is strong. I just got back from the 30 by 30 summit in Lincoln, Nebraska this week, brought to us by the American Stewards of Liberty out of Austin. They're a private property rights organization that are truly American heroes.

And they put together teams to help us. understand how this agenda is taking place. And so I think we're headed for disaster if the American producer and consumer doesn't really wake up. Some people call these conspiracy theories, but really they're putting them into action right now. And I see it even on my local, local county level. Yeah, I was going to just ask you that when you're at these events with large groups of ranchers, would you say the majority are having conversations in this arena of what would be described

as conspiracy theory, or most of them are just staying away from it? Like, what is the sense among those ranchers? Do they feel there's a real press onto their lifestyle? I mean, you know, the United States of America is built on the back of ram. Ranching is where we start. You think about the cowboy, and, you know, the cowboy is under siege here. You know, is that the conversation that's happening amongst, would you say the majority of ranchers or is it still a minority that are seeing this, this sort of global push? Well, it's a minority at this point, but the line of freedom is being drawn.

And one thing that comes into play in a huge way right now is the American rancher and food producers backs are against the wall. They're in financially terrible shape, so they're like, we need help, we need something. So when you have these public-private partnerships come in and say, hey, put a conservation easement on your ranch and we'll pay you this or you'll get a tax credit for that and it'll help you. It sounds really good. So these people are desperate to receive the help. The problem here is we have to decide if we're going to save our constitutional republic. The question is, are you going to stand on the line of freedom and may have to give something up or are you going to give your productive rights? your nail-able rights over to those who want to control the war.

And so it's kind of a, it's kind of aligned. The majority of them aren't really waking up to it yet, but it is climbing in a hurry. And once it starts affecting those in urban on the outskirts of these large cities, which it has through national heritage areas, I think we'll get a lot more people to wake up. So we have to choose it now, liberty or control, and we're on the line. And so when you see all of this coming together, you said September, October, is that where you sort of see all of these different issues, supply chain issues, fertilizer, you know, Ukraine, war?

Yes. Where does it, where does it hit the consumer? Where do you think we're going to see it in our grocery store and say, my God, what just happened? I think if we don't switch something around right now, I think starting in, late September going through the next year, we're going to see major supply chain issues. Just because of not of the control issue at this point, but maybe because of the war, number one, number two, these droughts in the central bread basket of the United States, you know,

when you dump as many cattle as we've dumped into the supply chain that are there now, we're going to have a shortage later on. And that shortage doesn't come until I would say starting September through next year. and it could be disastrous. I'm anxious to see, you know, what is going to happen. I don't really depend on the centralized food chain myself and our family. We grow a lot of our food, but we do purchase a lot as well. So it's something that I think if you're not into the farm to table movement,

I think you need to be watching that really close. And being at least prepared, we're not doomsday. We're not going to, you know, bury a building in the ground and have a bunker, but we are prepared on their shelves in our pantry. We have plans to, you know, if our grid would happen to go down, we're able to get water. And, you know, ranchers and rural America is probably more prepared for something catastrophic than urban America. But I do see it growing in urban America a little bit. And so that's good. I think the more attentive to are what could come down the pike and the problems that all of this, these issues have come together, I think is better.

You know, the American citizen is waking up a little bit. So nobody's more awake than the person that's got the ear on the ground. So as a rancher that finds yourself in the middle of this, are there things you're doing differently to prepare going into this ball in this winter than perhaps you've done other years? Well, maybe not anything different, but maybe more, right? So we've always canned a lot of food. We've always held, you know, just because we were so far from town. And I'm the, I'm the grandchild and child of people that came through the depression. So we know how to do all those things and live off the land.

So I wouldn't say we're doing it more in a panic mode, but maybe more on a quantitative level than we normally have. Yes, and you know, we do have plans. My wife and I have made plans just in case something would happen. My mother, who is a widow and lives on a ranch 35 miles from the closest town, she's always been prepared. And she's like, bring it on. We'll be fine through it. So is that what you recommend? Should people start really considering sort of food stores inside their own homes?

Is that one of the things you would recommend? You know, one of the things I'm doing, I'm working with an organic farmer. or I'm going to, for the first time in my life, actually, I'm buying a cow to have it sort of all put in a freezer. I'll probably share it with my neighbor. But those are the types of things that I'm doing. Do you think people should be thinking about that sort of long term more than they ever have before? I think so.

I think, you know, if you go into the store now, the dry goods are really scarce on the shelf. Things like pasta and spaghetti and stuff like that, a few canned goods. But I think the more prepared, the consumer, can be the better it is. I'm not saying go and panic by. I'm not saying that at all, but I am saying every time you go to the store, maybe grab a little more to put on the shelf. The farm to table movement is huge. I am selling beef like you can't believe. We raise and grow our own beef and we process it through a U.S. inspected facility. And I've had people come to me since March of 2020. and say, hey, can I buy 10 pounds? Can I buy $150 worth? And so that is becoming a lot more of the

urban type people wanting a little bit of meat to have on hand. Number one, because they know where it comes from. And number two, because I can make it affordable through my program. So I think that those deep in the urban areas, in the cities, I think it's smart. You need to have a little bit of, you know, six weeks of backup supplies. I think that. That's just good business as of right now. Because whether you like it or not, we look around the world and we're in turmoil. And we're just one catastrophic event away from something that could send the supply chains reeling again and actually just shut them down completely, not for a week or a month, but maybe multiple months.

And that's pretty scary. All right, Chad. Thank you very much. I think those are great thoughts. I appreciate it. And I know, you know, you've stayed in contact with us. I want you to continue to do so if there is anything on the horizon. If you see an upset coming that maybe perhaps because we're not watching it,

you know, right there on the front lines, I hope you'll just keep us informed of what's taking places as we move forward in these very troubling and unsettling times. Yeah. Well, Dale, it's always good to talk to you guys, and I sure appreciate the time and we'll be in touch. All right, we'll keep you in our prayers. Take care.

Thank you, sir.