Guest Post by Leo Hohmann
The Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week it is building a government framework that will use technological “tools” including NASA satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to monitor the nation’s farms.
This announcement comes just a few months after another big story in the agriculture world, which I reported on back in April, that the AI data-analysis firm Palantir Technologies has been granted a $300 million contract with the USDA to collect data on American farmers.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA’s data modernization plan is designed to provide farmers with better and more useful information.
Secretary Rollins unveiled the plan Tuesday, Sept. 1, at the Farm Progress Show. She said it will enhance acreage and yield estimation, stating:
She says the agency will update its tech infrastructure to reduce duplication.
If I’ve learned anything over my 40-year career in public affairs journalism, it’s that whenever the government talks about using “tools”, it never turns out good for freedom-loving Americans.
According to USDA, the newly released data modernization plan builds on technological advancements already underway across USDA, including satellite-based crop monitoring, geospatial analysis, cloud-based platforms, improved online reporting tools, and more coordinated use of existing administrative data.
Christian Westbrook, an independent agriculture reporter who runs the Unshadowed Substack account, writes in an August 3 post:
For starters, Palantir, a company that makes its billions using AI to “speed up the kill chain” in wars against Gaza and in Ukraine, should never be allowed anywhere near America’s food chain. This is a company whose CEO Alex Karp openly brags about being in the business of killing people.
BOTTOM LINE: This is the same administration that is promoting water-hogging, energy-burning toxic data centers in place of productive farmland and is OK with the Chinese becoming the second-largest owner of American farmland. It’s also the same administration that didn’t pay attention in January and February when it was warned that if it attacked Iran, the Iranians would shut down the Strait of Hormuz and cause a global recession/depression. This same administration has now also imported 300 metric tons of low-quality Argentinian beef, undercutting American ranchers, many of whom are already struggling to stay in business.
But now we’re supposed to believe they care about farmers and are just trying to provide them with better information. I call BS.
This latest move has nothing to do with providing farmers with information and convenience. This is about government control and getting control of the land, the animals and the crops.
A government that controls the food controls the people. And the government knows that the American people are going to start getting restless when diesel runs out and food shipments to grocery stores start getting curtailed. Drastic weather events are also likely to mean lower crop yields this fall. Shipments of grain from Ukraine have all but stopped as the Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its final phase of total war, a war that has been fueled by U.S. funding and weapons supplies. Even after that war is over, Ukraine, once home to the most fertile farmland in the world, will be left with contaminated soil that is unfarmable for decades. Remember, this was the war Trump promised to end within 24 hours of taking office.
And thanks to Trump’s war on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, meaning crucial fertilizers aren’t coming out of the region.
All this adds up to food shortages and global famine in 2027. The USDA is moving now to get control of the nation’s food supply, likely in preparation for some sort of rationing regime.
Now is the time to prepare. Stock up on canned goods and non-perishables. Buy seeds now for next spring’s planting season. It also would not be a bad idea to fill up several 5-gallon containers with gasoline and keep them on hand just in case you have an emergency and your local gas stations are closed or have long lines.
If we are headed for an energy lockdown, think of all the things that went up drastically in price or were not available at all during the Covid lockdown. Act accordingly. Now is the time to get out ahead of the next manufactured crisis.
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[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
Announcement comes on heels of USDA deal with AI firm Palantir. ‘Satellite imaging fed into a battlefield intelligence system built by a defense vendor, sold as farmer convenience and food security.’
The Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week it is building a government framework that will use technological “tools” including NASA satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to monitor the nation’s farms.
This announcement comes just a few months after another big story in the agriculture world, which I reported on back in April, that the AI data-analysis firm Palantir Technologies has been granted a $300 million contract with the USDA to collect data on American farmers.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA’s data modernization plan is designed to provide farmers with better and more useful information.
Secretary Rollins unveiled the plan Tuesday, Sept. 1, at the Farm Progress Show. She said it will enhance acreage and yield estimation, stating:
She says the agency will update its tech infrastructure to reduce duplication.
If I’ve learned anything over my 40-year career in public affairs journalism, it’s that whenever the government talks about using “tools”, it never turns out good for freedom-loving Americans.
According to USDA, the newly released data modernization plan builds on technological advancements already underway across USDA, including satellite-based crop monitoring, geospatial analysis, cloud-based platforms, improved online reporting tools, and more coordinated use of existing administrative data.
Christian Westbrook, an independent agriculture reporter who runs the Unshadowed Substack account, writes in an August 3 post:
For starters, Palantir, a company that makes its billions using AI to “speed up the kill chain” in wars against Gaza and in Ukraine, should never be allowed anywhere near America’s food chain. This is a company whose CEO Alex Karp openly brags about being in the business of killing people.
BOTTOM LINE: This is the same administration that is promoting water-hogging, energy-burning toxic data centers in place of productive farmland and is OK with the Chinese becoming the second-largest owner of American farmland. It’s also the same administration that didn’t pay attention in January and February when it was warned that if it attacked Iran, the Iranians would shut down the Strait of Hormuz and cause a global recession/depression. This same administration has now also imported 300 metric tons of low-quality Argentinian beef, undercutting American ranchers, many of whom are already struggling to stay in business.
But now we’re supposed to believe they care about farmers and are just trying to provide them with better information. I call BS.
This latest move has nothing to do with providing farmers with information and convenience. This is about government control and getting control of the land, the animals and the crops.
A government that controls the food controls the people. And the government knows that the American people are going to start getting restless when diesel runs out and food shipments to grocery stores start getting curtailed. Drastic weather events are also likely to mean lower crop yields this fall. Shipments of grain from Ukraine have all but stopped as the Russia-Ukraine conflict enters its final phase of total war, a war that has been fueled by U.S. funding and weapons supplies. Even after that war is over, Ukraine, once home to the most fertile farmland in the world, will be left with contaminated soil that is unfarmable for decades. Remember, this was the war Trump promised to end within 24 hours of taking office.
And thanks to Trump’s war on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, meaning crucial fertilizers aren’t coming out of the region.
All this adds up to food shortages and global famine in 2027. The USDA is moving now to get control of the nation’s food supply, likely in preparation for some sort of rationing regime.
Now is the time to prepare. Stock up on canned goods and non-perishables. Buy seeds now for next spring’s planting season. It also would not be a bad idea to fill up several 5-gallon containers with gasoline and keep them on hand just in case you have an emergency and your local gas stations are closed or have long lines.
If we are headed for an energy lockdown, think of all the things that went up drastically in price or were not available at all during the Covid lockdown. Act accordingly. Now is the time to get out ahead of the next manufactured crisis.
Tweet
Continue reading...
[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
