Renewable Farming

Best place in America to live and work now: Your farm or ranch

Here’s an update of a commentary I published February 22, 2021 — citing a dozen reasons why farming is the healthiest place on the planet during the Covid-linked catastrophe. 

November 2, 2021 By Jerry Carlson  Seven months ago I said on this site: “Living and working on your farm or ranch is a haven from pandemic paranoia, cultural clashes and financial fears tormenting families in locked-down cities.

Here are 14 reasons why your countryside homestead is even more precious than seven months ago.

1. If you’re among the “control group” of Americans who’ve avoided the mRNA shots for Covid-19, you’ve gained time to evaluate the risk-reward balance for yourself and your family. So far, there’s no government or corporate mandate to take your shots or lose your job. Each month, solid new evidence leaks out — via independent analysts and journalists — sounding alarms, especially for the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA injections:

*  Today, a hearing led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) assembled a widely varied panel of people reporting direct experience with Covid inoculants. Many were appealing for help after debilitating reactions within their families. Others showed anguish at government/medical shot mandates, despite clear evidence of thousands of vaccine injuries including deaths. You can see the official video at this link (slide the starting point to 30 minutes into the recorded video).

* Today, independent internet news sources published a study of post-vaccine deaths reported to VAERS, the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System which showed that in the U.S., all deaths were linked to only 5% of the thousands of batches of “vaccines” delivered to inoculation points. Also, data showed that these extra-lethal batches were widely distributed across U.S. states, rather than being concentrated in one location. One analyst asks, “This raises many ethical and potentially criminal questions. Are we just dealing with quality control issues here, or something more evil by these pharmaceutical companies….?” The analyst, Brian Shilhavy, observes that big pharmaceutical corporations have “long rap sheets” of ethical and medical malfeasance.  For a detailed, rather brutal analysis, visit this link to the analyst who ferreted out the data.

* Update Nov. 3: A further study by the Exposé points to evidence that the batches responsible for all VAERS-reported deaths were distributed primarily to U.S. states which voted majority Republican in 2020. One conclusion of the linked report:

“The top 8 States with the highest vaccination death rate are all Republican controlled red States, and 19 of the top 24 states with the highest vaccination death rate are again Republican controlled red States. Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Montana, Alaska, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Tennessee all top the list, with Florida placing 20th in the list of 51 states.”

* Update Nov. 5: Britain’s UK Health Security Agency’s latest report of Covid-19 cases including weeks 40 through 43 of 2021 show that fully vaccinated people over 18 are contracting Covid at substantially higher rates than unvaccinated people. People age 50-59 were infected at a rate of 1,408 per 100,000, versus only 460 per 100,000 among the unvaccinated. Report is at this link.

* Update Nov. 5: Joel S. Hirschborn of the Exposé published a detailed analysis of total U.S. deaths attributable to the Covid pandemic: 150,000 deaths resulting directly from vaccine injuries. This is about 10 times the number documented by VAERS, a passive reporting system. 730,000 deaths attributed to Covid infection, which include many dying with extreme co-morbidities plus a positive Covid-19 test. 921,000 “collateral” deaths attributed to economic and social devastation from lockdowns, job losses, other economic distress and extreme fear, intensified by official mandates. I recommend that you study the entire analysis by Hirschborn, at this link. Note that vaccine and collateral deaths total 1,071,000… far more than losses from infection alone. This is a result of official forcing of a vaccine-dependent strategy, plus suppressing simpler and earlier remedies which America’s Frontline Doctors and other nations like India have shown highly effective.

* Today, the highly respected British Medical Journal published an article which carried observations from a very credible American whistleblower who exposed poor research practices to gain FDA approval for Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine. Brooks Jackson told The British Medical Journal that during the pivotal Phase III trial, Pfizer falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on reported adverse events. Jackson was fired the day she sent her complaints to the Food and Drug Administration.

*  Several doctors have discovered microscopic objects in the Pfizer “vaccine” which are not disclosed on the ingredient list. Examples: Organisms which look like parasites. Tiny metallic strips. Nano-sized structures of graphene oxide, an electrically conductive compound.

* A Canadian doctor who treated Covid patients found that about 60% of mRNA-injected patients developed blood corpuscles that were misshapen, rough and sticky, instead of round and smooth. This led to blood clots in small arteries and veins. Four German physicians saw much the same in blood samples from vaccinated patients, plus metallic objects which looked like microscopic corrugated metal strips. (See the photo at the close of this article.) The German video is at this link.

* Health care workers and first responders are among the most determined to avoid the shots; even if that means getting fired during an extreme shortage of nurses and physicians. They’ve seen vaccinated patients with severe reactions, as well as noting that in many hospitals, the majority of Covid patients are fully vaccinated.

* A new statistical analysis reported by the Exposé reveals that the most-vaccinated nations have the highest death rates from Covid-19. 

2. No state governor has ordered an independent farmer to stop producing. Farms haven’t suffered from the year-long forced closures which have driven almost half of America’s restaurants and other service-based retailers to close — permanently. Manufacturing workers, too, lost over 561,000 jobs in 2020. Covid lockdowns threw 20 million non-farm workers out of jobs. Only about half have rejoined the workforce. The networks don’t mention a reason why people are so hard to hire, but everyone knows they’ll be subject to a vaccine mandate if they join a firm with over 100 employees.

3. Nobody cares if you don’t mask up when alone in your tractor cab. (Multiple studies show masks are no significant help against Covid infection.) In the country, you’re surrounded by fresh air, not crowds of anxious people. Many are still masked even where there’s no masking requirement. 

4. Now the FDA and CDC have approved Covid shots for your children, ages 5 to 11, even though the dominant response of public comments to the FDA advisory board said, “NO.” I expect many public elementary schools will soon add vaccine mandates to mask and social distancing edicts. For a detailed analysis of Covid shots for kids, see the Children’s Health Defense website and specifically the report linked in this sentence.

Another analysis carried on Children’s Health Defense written by Toby Rogers, Ph.D. concludes: “I imagine that at most, half of American parents will be foolish enough to inject this toxic product into their kids. At a 50% uptake rate, the ACIP decision to approve the Pfizer shot will likely kill 2,624 children via adverse reactions in order to potentially save 12 from COVID-19-related illness.”

Since early 2020, many farm parents switched to home schooling, or private schools that don’t have mask and shot requirements. Farms offer abundant home-school experiences with Dad and Mom. Home-based classes also relieve country kids from hours of school bus commutes and forced masking. Rural parents are organizing neighborhood home-school teams to share teaching talents.  My wife Jill and I teach writing, science, and world history to our 13-year-old grandson. Today, he reported on the 100-year history of Florida citrus production — and how growers can restore groves devastated with diseases made more rampant with toxic pesticides.

5. Your land offers the foundation for family health, not just survival. You probably have plenty of good soil near your farm or ranch home for a health-giving garden. I say “health-giving” because much chain-store produce is tainted with chemical residues and lacks mineral nutrients. As you’d expect, our family sees WakeUP as an essential booster of the biological revolution in agriculture. WakeUP makes most biologicals more systemic and thus more effective.

We’ve also just learned that nanotech scientists are eager to “seed” our processed foods with graphene-based microsensors which monitor your location, temperature, and several vital signs so you’ll be locked into a national health “protection” network. That’s on top of the usual lacing of chemicals applied to commercial produce and grain.

Indiana farmer Hal Brown converts totes and shipping crates
into easy-picking garden boxes, for fresh veggies
and greens all summer.

6. The timing is good for increased self-reliance and resilient production. Prices of corn, soybeans, wheat and other ag products are fairly strong on vigorous global demand. During years in the outlook business, seasoned futures analysts often watched the price of oats as a bellwether commodity. Now, $7 oats! But our local Natural Grocers is totally out of oatmeal. Profit margins are real for growers who can manage resilient production. By resilient I mean:

  • Employing the new array of biological products to reduce the soaring costs of conventional fertilizer. 
  • Transitioning to non-GMO seed for lower costs and avoiding hassles of dicamba liability as well as glyphosate and glufosinate resistant weeds.
  • Phasing in more cover crops and rotations — even livestock — to accelerate gains in soil health.
  • Learning and using all the data technology you can absorb, from GPS mapping to on-farm field trials.

 7. Some studies of Covid-19 infection outcomes have noted that rural families don’t have equal access to hospitals and WHO/CDC approved treatment protocols for people diagnosed with Covid. From what I’ve observed around Iowa, staying home and early self-treating; hopefully with guidance from independent physicians like those among America’s Frontline Doctors, offers the best odds for quick recovery.

8. The new administration tried to show at the Glasgow, Scotland climate conference that our lawmakers are channeling massive tax funding toward “climate change” credits. Farm organizations are urging growers to cash in carbon indulgence payments. Personally I’ve long observed that “mitigating” climate change by attempting to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide is one of history’s most futile income-transfer scams. Global climates have always changed, driven by mega-forces beyond human meddling. Thus I’d have a twitch of guilt by cashing in on the carbon market on the pretext of saving the planet. However, what if you accept payment for what you’d do anyway: build your soil health and productivity? How would you justify cashing a check for $290,000 by selling carbon credits to a trading platform? Meanwhile, lawmakers are preserving ethanol mandates, which absorb about a third of U.S. corn production. USDA expects steady growth of ethanol use through 2030. USDA will soon be rolling out more carbon-selling protocols.

9. A “back to the countryside” demographic surge has ignited. Through 2020, almost half of America’s office, restaurant, teaching and service employees fortunate to keep their jobs switched to online work from home. About 5% of these virtual workers, unleashed from dreary commutes, physically relocated to the countryside and smaller cities. The net exodus from San Francisco in 2020 shot up almost 650% over the previous year. Maybe Bill Gates is looking for a sustainable-ag plan: He’s now America’s largest farm and ranch land owner, accumulating more than 240,000 acres.

I know what a relief it is to escape a metropolitan crush! Fifty years ago, I commuted on the Reading Railroad two hours a day into downtown Philadelphia as a Farm Journal editor. Taking a huge risk, our family of five moved to northeast Iowa, where I helped start Professional Farmers of America. Soon we built a home on 20 acres, raising our family. My Pro Farmer office was five minutes from home. Now, amid this pandemic, I’m seeing urban dwellers’ yearning for country living soar exponentially. Massive metro centers are fragile! 

Adventurer and geopolitical observer Jack Wheeler wrote about coming American economic chaos in his weekly To The Point editorial: 

“So what do you do?  First, adhere to the ancient adage: forewarned is forearmed.  Do not let the suddenness of what will befall America catch you.  Start now to get out of any big city if you live in one.  Sell your home while you can, move to a small town in Red State Normal America.  Make sure you have a stop order on any stock you may have or crypto because they are hyperinflated also.

“You’ve got to be far away from the coming chaos.  Form or participate in a local self-defense force if any chaos comes your way, befriending your NewNormal neighbors.  Then from such a safe distance, you can watch the NotNormals devour themselves.”

Nebraska, Iowa and Florida rated among the best states to retire in a recent BankRate study reported by the Wall Street Journal. The BankRate criteria selected states where traditional farming cultures still outweigh wokeness.

An article titled “The Housing Crunch Points to Massive Market Meltdown” by James Howard Kunstler in The American Spectator includes this observation:

“The most favorable places in America will soon be the ones that are the most disfavored today: the small towns and small cities, especially those close to productive agriculture and situated along North America’s inland waterway system — because the economy of this continent will be much more internally focused. The high-tech industrial orgy of the past two-hundred-plus years may come to be seen as a kind of great pulsation that swelled and then subsided, leaving us to find less complex modes of subsistence. After all, there have been many such pulsations in history.”

10. Farm families have traditionally experienced more self-reliance and neighborly support, compared with big-city dwellers. What if a major social upheaval occurs in America’s intensifying cultural conflicts? A rural region is more buffered from “peaceful protests” than urban centers like Portland, Seattle or Chicago. For the past year, governors of states less dominated by major metropolitan areas have generally exercised more common-sense Covid controls, compared with, say, California, Minnesota and Michigan.

11. America’s historic foundations relied heavily on independent farmers and landowners like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Such leaders had a firm personal financial base. Opposing politicians might threaten them — but not destroy them. Today’s political clashes emerge distinctly on a U.S. map showing 2020 presidential majority votes by county. Rural counties typically vote conservative (red), metro centers are majority liberal (blue). What the map doesn’t reveal: Major blue metro areas are the base for banks, billionaires, medical and pharmaceutical giants, dominant newspapers, network newscasters, and social-media’s gatekeepers. These financial and technological elites operate in near-total coordination with federal governance. 

Independent American farmers have traditionally provided a buffer against concentrated power among Washington political alliances. Today’s trends are a test of whether that can still occur.

12. Connection with future generations. Today’s urban professionals typically see their children graduate and disperse widely into the workforce. But a farmland base can offer at least one or two of your family an opportunity to build their future nearby. We’re blessed this way, with our son, daughter and grandsons close by and running their own farm-related firms. This would not have happened — if we’d stayed in Philadelphia. (Update: One of our friends who farms in Indiana read this article and e-mailed us saying, “Our farm has been in our family 156 years.”)

13. Your financially resilient farming business, based on most land owned (and some rented), is one of the safest economic sectors if today’s huge debt bombs implode in global defaults, or explode into dollar inflation. Never in American history, even in WWII, has U.S. dollar debt bloated to current and prospective heights. Economic prophets offer diametrically opposed outcomes. Whichever is right, inflationary boom or debt implosion, your business is based on land, not pieces of paper with dollar signs printed on them. Wall Street Journal markets editor Andy Kessler, warning of another stock market bust, says: “For those lulled by today’s bull market, remember that you own a piece of paper. Low-yielding U.S. Treasury bills and bonds are safe because they are backed by the U.S. government, by cash flow of tax dollars and by the country’s assets (think land, not Fort Knox).”

Cascading debt defaults and global depression? The 2008 housing bubble triggered a U.S. economic contraction, but farmers weathered it fairly well. I give serious deflation low odds.

More likely in the next few years: Inflation, unleashed. Governments which can borrow trillions of their own currency from a central “bank” don’t go broke. They just borrow more, to wield more power or stave off collapse. But eventually, the currency loses its buying power. See many precedents: Zimbabwe. Germany’s Weimar Republic. Venezuela. A retired Venezuela citizen’s government pension is 1.2 million bolivars per month, worth about U.S. $0.63. A kilogram of rice costs 1.9 million bolivars ($1.05).

See also the Continental Currency issued in the crisis of America’s 1775-83 Revolutionary War. These notes earned the scorn, “not worth a Continental” by 1783. Historians attribute a comment by Ben Franklin to the effect that Congress acted wisely by flooding America with $240 million in currency — which depreciated to virtual zero: “It was cheap to print, was thrown away after the war, and served as a tax on the people for which they didn’t have to vote.” If Franklin didn’t actually say it, he should have.

Fast-forward to the current unconstrained U.S. Congress. Democratic congresspeople conjured up a $1.9 Trillion “Covid Relief” stimulus, only 9% of which is directly related to Covid. To quote a House member: It’s an “example of what Congress can do” — an appetizer to exercise much more unconstrained debt expansion for progressive causes. The Fed will oblige, issuing whatever Treasury bonds Congress requests. Unlike Continental Currency, it’s all digital so there’s not even a printing bill.

What’s the eventual outcome? There’s an old economist’s adage: If a trend cannot go on forever, it will stop. 

Productive, debt-free farmland is the classic inflation hedge against either an inflation or deflation scenario. This is the premiere reason I see a resilient farm or ranch as both a family haven and a financial fortress now.

14. Many observers of the global pandemic argue that it’s just one part of the “global reset” or “new world order” — elites training a dumbed-down populace to become subservient. In effect, it thus becomes a spiritual war. An independent, faith-rooted farm family is best equipped to fight the battles needed to win against any evil adversary.

Microscopic view of blood from a patient injected with the Covid-19 mRNA shot.
Taken from a screen capture by German physicians. See Item 1 above.