Meeting the Only Candidate Who is Talking about Agriculture
By Jim Mundorf
I started following Vivek Ramaswamy back before he started running for President. He was one of the first who seemed to truly understand the ESG movement, and was willing to speak out about how destructive it is. He wrote a book about it, called Woke Inc. Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam. The book is what got me looking into how the ESG movement is impacting agriculture, a topic I have covered in my last three videos. Much of the information I talk about I learned from Vivek, including scope 3 and how it could be used to control all farms and ranches. Watch, Will Cattlemen Fight to Remain Independent?
The Vegetarian
Interestingly, this same book also briefly promotes another industry that I have covered quite a bit, fake meat. In it he writes, “I’m a vegetarian, for religious reasons and moral ones. I think it’s generally wrong to kill animals simply for culinary pleasure.” Vivek’s parents immigrated from India and he is Hindu. He goes on to describe meeting one of the founders of the cell cultured fake meat company that Bill Gates, Tyson Foods, and Cargill have all invested in, Upside Foods, (formerly Memphis Meats.) He sings the praises of both Upside Foods and the plant based fake meat company Beyond Meat, writing, “They’re inventing innovative, potentially world changing technologies to advance causes that their founders personally care about.” After listing all of Beyond Meat’s environmental and health claims, he does add a footnote writing, “Personally, I’m not sure Beyond Meat and other brands like Impossible Foods will meet all their lofty goals.*” The footnote reads, “* In fact, Beyond Meat and competitors have been criticized for making, “overly processed” products that are not as healthy as they claim to be.” While I disagree with all of his assertions about meat, that footnote does say something about both Vivek and the fake meat industry. He is obviously biased in his support for these companies, but he still seems to realize the claims they are making are more than likely pure BS, and he took the time inform his readers of it. (He was right, Beyond Meat is now involved in multiple lawsuits for making false claims. One of the suits is from their own investors.)
Since he started running for President, I have never heard him talk about his diet, or really said anything specific regarding ag policy. So I thought I would try to ask him. To be honest, I haven’t tried very hard. Being from Iowa I’ve had multiple chances to see him, since he seems to be holding an event within a few miles of my house every couple weeks. I’ve lived here most of my life and no candidate has ever come close to campaigning the way this guy has. He is now doing 6 events a day everyday all across the state. So three days after Christmas, on my way to the lumber yard, I stopped in at one of his events. He said pretty much the same stuff he always does, America first, use the military to close the border, defund the federal government, etc. The place was full, and I wasn’t in a good spot to ask the question, so as it ended I went up to one of his staffers, and asked them about it. His staffer was on the carnivore diet and very interested in the question. She immediately got him, and brought him over to me. I told him I had read the book and mentioned his friendship with the founder of Upside Foods, he immediately corrected me and said that he had met him once. He seemed a little annoyed at this point so I just got to it and asked, how can cattle producers support a vegetarian that promotes fake meat? He responded saying that he serves meat at all his events, and that he, “has no plans to legislate his culinary choices.” He explained how as a man of convictions he is not going to change or give up those convictions just to appease voters. He told me I wouldn’t respect someone who did that. I agreed. We shook hands and he was rushed out the door and on to the next stop.
It was a good answer, and as the one candidate who seems to be fighting the hardest against the ESG climate fanatics that actually are starting to, “legislate our culinary choices” I believe him.
Dismantling the USDA
The other thing I was hoping to ask, but didn’t get the chance, is for him to expand on his plan for the Department of Agriculture. Vivek has outlined a plan to gut the Federal Government and eliminate the FBI, ATF, and Department of Education. On his website he has this plan outlined for the future of the USDA:
https://www.vivek2024.com/shut-it-down/
Almost all of the problems in agriculture that I have written or talked about are either caused by, or could be fixed by the USDA. From the Beef Checkoff, to corporate concentration, enforcement of Packers and Stockyards act, and most recently the Climate-Smart hand outs, all could be fixed by a USDA that was not completely bloated and corrupt. Both Biden and Trump have maintained the failed status quo at the USDA, and had the swampiest of Secretaries in Perdue and Vilsack. So any plan to try to reform the failed department seems better than the platitudes spewed out by most campaigning politicians on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, all I have found about this plan is this diagram, and your guess is as good as mine as to how these changes would impact the farmers and ranchers that have to deal with the department and their policies. As it is he is really the only candidate that I have heard talking much about ag policy. One of his major talking points in Iowa has been stopping the use of eminent domain to force farmers into easements for the proposed carbon pipeline.
Whether you love Vivek and his ideas or hate them, he has made it clear that he doesn’t plan on going anywhere. He is now the only candidate that hasn’t directly attacked the leading Republican, so if he doesn’t pull off the upset that he is shooting for in the primaries, there is a chance that he may end up with a major role in the next administration. One thing is for sure nobody is going to out work him on the campaign trail. He has just visited all 99 counties in Iowa twice. He has visited farms and cattle feeders in my neighborhood and all across the state. He seems to be making real connections with the people here. I guess we’ll find out in a couple weeks if all the work was worth it. Considering the insanity that has taken place in the world of politics in the last few years, I wouldn’t rule anything out.
Update 1/4/24: For the second time in a week Vivek held an event within 20 minutes of my house. I went and asked him to expand on his plans for the USDA. He talked about food security, private property rights, reforming nutritional guidelines, and ending the corporate control, all the things that the department has refused to do during my lifetime. Watch here: https://x.com/LonesomeLands/status/1742883609973841941?s=20
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