IN-DEPTH: TRANSCRIPTION - UnderTheLens - 09-25-24 - OCTOBER – A Destabilizing Food Shock
SLIDE DECK
TRANSCRIPTION
SLIDE 2
Thank you for joining me. I'm Gord Long.
A REMINDER BEFORE WE BEGIN: DO NO NOT TRADE FROM ANY OF THESE SLIDES - they are COMMENTARY for educational and discussions purposes ONLY.
Always consult a professional financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
SLIDE 3 – COVER
In our recent LONGWave video entitled: “The BRICS & Their Commodity Producers” I talked about Commodities as a sector in Geo-Political and Political Economic terms. In this UnderTheLens session I want to focus on key developments in the Food sector that need to be considered as part of any Commodity investment strategy. The subject is actually so large that it merits the attention on its own as an annual Thesis study.
Last year’s Thesis paper was on the emerging “Regulatory State” and this year’s looks to be headed towards being on the Macro-Prudential policy emergence of “Regulatory Repression”.
As you will see Food will play an increasingly important role in this rapidly expanding area of what can best be described as “Control” – Socially, Economically & Politically.
SLIDE 4
We are going to discuss how increasing centralized Government Regulatory Control involves; your health, finances, personal choices and freedoms. Hopefully, you will quickly see I am not exaggerating the extent to which that is emerging in a silent and insidious fashion.
As such I would like to cover the areas outlined here.
SLIDE 5
The best way to begin distilling the developments is to talk about Robert Kennedy Jr’s startling rejection of the Democrat party on the basis (of his strongly held view) of its failure and unwillingness to address the serious Heath Crisis facing America.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent decades as an environmental lawyer fighting polluters and supported 'green' organizations for environmental justice. He is now setting his crosshairs on the pharmaceutical and Ag industries to clean up the nation's food supply chain of ultra-processed foods and seed oils that poison consumers.
He has determined that suspending his presidential campaign to team up with former President Trump will be necessary for the strongest success rate in making Americans healthier again, not through big pharma's Ozempic shots but instead revitalizing small farms and shaking up corrupted federal government agencies.
A lifelong liberal like RFK Jr., with millions of supporters nationwide, appears to have made a deal with Trump to join the campaign with the specific goal of:
- Waging war against corrupt federal health and food agencies,
- Resetting the nation's poisonous food supply chain, and
- Launching a crusade against Big Pharma if the Trump team wins in November.
SLIDE 6
RFK Jr. informed journalists at his special announcement press conference that America's health crisis stems from ultra-processed foods pushed by giant food/pharma companies that have corrupted various federal agencies.
I personally found it both enlightening and shocking and highly recommend you listen to his arguments in their entirety in the video shown here of his presentation.
As a result of Covid I have also personally gained a highly suspicious view of the whole area of epidemics, pandemics and Big Pharma.
SLIDE 7
Let me highlight just some of the key research points RFK Jr. made as a 70 year old father of six children:
- AUTISM: Autism rates were about one in 10,000 in his generation - in his kids Generation 1 in 34. In California it is 1 and 22.
He asks
- Why are we letting this happen?
- Why are we allowing this to happen to our children?
- How can we let this happen to them since these are the most precious assets that we have in or country
- LIVER DISEASE: About 18% of American teens now have fatty liver disease, that's like one out of every five - that disease when he was a kid only affected late stage alcoholics who were elderly.
- CANCER:
- Cancer rates are skyrocketing in the Young and the old young.
- Adult cancers are up 70 to 79%.
- One in four American women is on anti-depressant medication.
- About 40% of teens have a mental health diagnosis and
- 15% of high schoolers are on Aderall, and half a million children on SSRIs.
SLIDE 8
So what's causing this suffering? He distills down to Two culprits.
First and the worst is ultra-processed food.
About 70% of American children's diet is ultra-processed that means industrial manufacturing. These Foods consist primarily of processed sugar, ultra-processed grains, and seed oils.
Scientists who, for many of them, formerly worked for the cigarette industry, which purchased all the big food companies in the 1970s and 80s, deployed thousands of scientists to figure out new chemicals to make the food more addictive.
- These ingredients didn't exist 100 years ago.
- Humans aren't biologically adapted to eat them.
- Hundreds of these chemicals are now banned in Europe but ubiquitous in American processed foods.
SLIDE 9
The second culprit is toxic chemicals in our food, medicine and environment.
Pesticides food additives pharmaceutical drugs and toxic waste permeate every cell of our bodies.
The Assault on our children's cells and hormones is unrelenting
To name just one problem RFK Jr cites is that many of these chemicals increase estrogen - because young children are ingesting so many of these hormone disruptors, America's puberty rate is now occurring at age 10 to 13, which is six years earlier than girls were reaching puberty in 1900 our country has the earliest puberty rates of any continent on the Earth and no this isn't because of better nutrition - this is not normal - breast cancer is also estrogen-driven and it now strikes one in eight women. We are mass poisoning all of our children.
SLIDE 10
Let’s talk Big Ag:
- The processed food industry lobbyists according to RFK Jr. have corrupted Washington, resulting in a food supply chain filled with poison that is killing Americans.
- Several federal agencies that are supposed to protect consumers have also been corrupted.
- The processed food industry has been (and I quote him) "destroying small farms and they're destroying our soils."
SLIDE 11
RFK Jr. is entirely correct about the war on small farms. More than ever, the corrupt government and the processed food industry have contributed to the more recent small farm collapse.
In the 1800s, about 90% of the US population lived on farms. It was unheard of to see morbidly obese folks back then. Small farm owners began to decline as folks moved to towns and cities. Small farms have now collapsed to less than one percent of the US population. And the billionaire class like Bill Gates, who wants to ban cow farts, has been buying up small farms nationwide in a massive consolidation move.
In the US, small farms accounted for less than 25% of food production in 2020, down from nearly half in the 1990s.
The change of guard in farming across America and who controls the food supply chain has morphed from the people to the processed food industry. As mega-factory farms rise in power, inversely, small farms have been burdened by high operation costs and climate regulation - a stealthily way of bankrupting small competition.
Unlike factory farms, small farms are deeply rooted in communities. They are more likely to feed their neighbors and provide real, nutritious food rather than have their produce end up in a Wal-Mart store halfway across the country. The latest data from the USDA shows the massive farm collapse across America over the last century.
Mega corporations, some of which are part of the 'green' cult, want greater and greater control over the nation's food supply chain. Some are even pushing insect-based diets.
The big takeaway from RFK Jr.'s support of Trump is that he believes the correct path to restoring America's health is not Ozempic shots but revitalizing the nation's local food supply chains by making small farms great again. He wants to reset the food supply chain system and purge it of ultra-processed foods and seed oils that are killing consumers. He also proposed shaking up federal agencies in health and food that have close ties with ultra-processed food companies.
SLIDE 12
So, are we to believe RFK Jr or is he just talking like some conspiracy nut-job?
Tracy Thurman, an advocate for regenerative farming, food sovereignty, decentralized food systems, and medical freedom (who works with a Law Firm's public interest division to safeguard the right to purchase food directly from farmers without government interference) suggests that we look at the Pennsylvania Omnish as a Control Group for verification.
The Amish and other Plain Sect churches. by opting out of a host of our modern social ills, have avoided many of the negative outcomes impacting the rest of America, particularly our children. She has found that much also applies to Old Order Mennonites and other plain sect communities as well.
SLIDE 13
Because the Amish have rejected modern life, they have unwittingly become a control group for many of the social ills that began to plague the rest of us over the past few decades – particularly the trends associated with Big Tech, Big Education, dissolution of the family, Big Food, Big Pharma, and corporatized medicine.
- The Amish, use of prescription drugs is the exception rather than the rule, and few children take one at all.
- Most Amish are suspicious of modern medicine. Because they reject the idea of insurance and pay cash for all services, they are not bound into a system where care is limited to modalities an insurance carrier approves.
- Herbal remedies, midwives, chiropractors, and functional medicine practitioners come first, with hospitals reserved for emergency scenarios.
The Amish have avoided everyone of the statistics shown here.
SLIDE 14
We have witnessed a dramatic shift over the last 30 years with the emergence of Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Dominate Mainstream media empires and the list goes on. All of these have immense power over the public and as a consequence over politicians needing finance and support to maintain their tentative and elected positions.
It has been years since we had major monopoly break-ups in the 19080’s like Bell Telephone into regional publicly traded operating companies. These corporations have become both too large to be allowed to fail and too large to break-up.
As a consequence they are increasingly operating with immense power and control.
When you couple this with the increasing size and role of the central government you have a “Witch’s Brew” for policies that are not necessarily in-line with the US Constitution that places the electorate in charge as enshrined in “We the People”.
SLIDE 15
In July we outlined in an UnderTheLens video the growth in costs of government Regulations that not only are impacting productivity and profits, but additionally increasing control of our choices and personal freedoms.
SLIDE 16
The important driver of this is the fact US Debt & Credit is growing faster than economic growth as measured by GDP. In fact it must occur if the economy is not to implode.
SLIDE 17
The statistics bear this out as I have pointed out numerous times and is shown here.
This is forcing governments to take larger control in an attempt to keep the economic financial engine from stalling with monumental chaotic results.
SLIDE 18
It is also make politicians and the government more reliant on the power and influence of Big Corporations.
SLIDE 19
We are witnessing almost daily government policies, regulations and mandates that are having a profound long term impact on our agricultural process
You would think since we are not producing any more farmland government would be focused on making it more productive as the world’s population expands.
The opposite is actually occurring. Here are only a few examples that are occurring almost daily.
SLIDE 20
In the NETHERLANDS we see:
LIVESTOCK REDUCTIONS
- The government is requiring a 30% reduction in livestock
NITROGEN CUTS
- Government mandating cuts in nitrogen of up to 95% – nitrogen that is released from cow manure and, if used properly, is an earth-friendly fertilizer.
- Denmark, Belgium, and Germany are considering similar nitrogen reduction policies.
SEIZURE & CLOSURES OF FARMS
- The government also plans to seize and shut down up to 3,000 farms to meet climate objectives. Protests by Dutch farmers have been met with force, including the police firing live ammunition rounds at protesters.
- Both the UK and US have already put schemes into place to pay farmers not to farm.
- In huge areas of the Midwest, large corporations are seizing prime farmland by eminent domain to install solar farms – installations that could instead be built in sunny, arid deserts where they would not disrupt the food supply.
SLIDE 21
In CANADA we read about
- FERTILIZER
- The goal is fertilizer reduction of 30%,
- Reductions in manure use on organic farms – the only viable alternative to chemical fertilizer.
- Farmers are ringing the alarm bells that this policy will devastate the food supply.
- MILK
- Even though milk prices are hitting record levels, Canadian officials still force farmers to dump their milk if they produce more than an arbitrary quota.
- Dairy owners are banned from giving the milk away to neighbors or homeless shelters.
- In Ontario, farmers cannot sell their milk directly to consumers at all, but must sell it to a single government-approved body which then decides how it is distributed.
In IRELAND we read about
CARBON EMISSIONS
- The agricultural sector has been ordered to cut carbon emissions by 25% in the next seven years.
- This requirement will drive many farms into bankruptcy and will force the culling of hundreds of thousands of cows.
So why is this happening? Why is our food supply being disrupted, seemingly on purpose? And who is behind this global assault on our farmers?
SLIDE 22
I list here only a few corporations you need to pay particular attention to having major influence in the area of Big Ag. These are companies that Tracy Thurman, who I mentioned earlier, has researched closely with significant concerns regarding strategy, direction and motivation.
I don’t have time to expand here but it is always the same rule regarding effective research: “Follow the Money!”
SLIDE 23
What you will quickly see are classic examples of Hegelian Dialectic, the problem-reaction-solution strategy whereby a problem is created or used to stimulate public demand for a solution.
The solution always involves pre-planned actions or legislation that never would have passed public approval before the problem was created.
To quote Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff:
“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. By that I mean, it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
As Bertrand Russell predicted, diet, health and population growth will not be left to individuals, but will be such as the best biochemists recommend.
SLIDE 24
FOOD FREEDOM and MEDICAL FREEDOM
… must be viewed as two sides of the same coin.
If we don’t protect both, we will lose everything.
Diet, Injections, and Injunctions are an integrated plan.
SLIDE 25
The term “One Health” was coined after the first SARS outbreak in the early 2000s to reflect the danger of new diseases emerging from human-animal contact. It refers to the idea of public health being not just about your health but also about “planetary” and animal health.
It is framed in language designed to sound appealing and holistic.
- Embedded within it is the assumption that, because planetary health is at stake, there must be a global governing body with control over all plants, animals, and human beings to guard this “one health” and to “sustainably balance the health of people, animals, and ecosystems,” with equity between prioritizing animals, the environment, and your personal health.
The One Health concept has incredibly dangerous ramifications which should be apparent when you consider who is pushing it: the WHO, the World Bank, Bill Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation, the NIH, the CDC, USDA, FDA, and every other Covid vested spokesperson.
SLIDE 26
I remember only too clearly this quote from Henry Kissinger, the very powerful Secretary of State during the tumultuous Geo-Political years of the Nixon Administration:
"Who controls the food supply controls the people;
Who controls the energy can control whole continents;
Who controls money can control the world.“
Henry Kissinger, Former US Secretary of State
SLIDE 27
For the last three years we have been inundated regarding the ending of Fossil Fuel , Coal and Natural Gas usage in the name of fighting Climate Change. The result here is shortages. The inevitability will be energy shortages and rising prices. Solar and Wind are important new elements but the problem is so massive that it is likely to be forced into a major shift towards nuclear.
We have just discussed developments that can also only lead to same thing in Food but for different reasons.
Shortages mean Inflation.
Inflation is actually the name of game when government debt grows since Inflation is the only trick that allows the government to pay today’s new debt back in less valuable money in the future.
Only recently was the debt from WWI finally paid off. At the time it was considered so massive it might never be able to be paid back. When that final payment date came recently it was considered so small and insignificant as to only make the back pages of the newspaper and not even covered by mainstream media.
We hear talk increasingly about potential Price Controls and Tariffs – both only lead to Inflation
The sign posts are clear. History suggests that these sorts of problems can become acute so quickly that rationing can occur.
SLIDE 28
So what might all this mean as investors?
SLIDE 29
Energy, Food, Precious Metals, Minerals & materials should be seen as representing levers of Geo-Political & Political Economic control.
These levers are now being pulled by global forces.
SLIDE 30
Prices for all commodities and food in particular have frankly nowhere to go but up! That means a potential Inflation Elevator.
SLIDE 31
The economies of Developed Economies with Fiat Currencies are now trapped with few and fewer options available for them to keep the system afloat.
As I often remind you, never under estimate how the powers to be might react. It has been my experience that they always change the rules in an attempt to simply “Kick-the-Can-Down-The-Road”.
SLIDE 32
Your job as investors is to anticipate and prepare for their probable reaction!
We are on a road towards a new form of Financial Repression best called Regulatory Repression.
A blend of Guaranteed Basic Income, Modern Monetary Theory and more powerful participation by players like the WTO & WHO are all likely in our future.
SLIDE 33
Never before has the importance of Self Reliance ever been more important than it will be over the next decade.
SLIDE 34
Be prepared, get prepared and adapt to the emerging new reality.
SLIDE 35
As I always remind you in these videos, remember politicians and Central Banks will print the money to solve any and all problems, until such time as no one will take the money or it is of no value.
That day is still in the future so take advantage of the opportunities as they currently exist.
Investing is always easier when you know with relative certainty how the powers to be will react. Your chances of success go up dramatically.
The powers to be are now effectively trapped by policies of fiat currencies, unsound money, political polarization and global policy paralysis.
SLIDE 36
I would like take a moment as a reminder
DO NO NOT TRADE FROM ANY OF THESE SLIDES - they are for educational and discussions purposes ONLY.
As negative as these comments often are, there has seldom been a better time for investing. However, it requires careful analysis and not following what have traditionally been the true and tried approaches.
Do your reading and make sure you have a knowledgeable and well informed financial advisor.
So until we talk again, may 2024 turn out to be an outstanding investment year for you and your family?
I sincerely thank you for listening!
