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USDA Farm Security Plan Targets China’s Bioterrorism, Land Grabs

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture formally announced its National Farm Security Action Plan on Tuesday, rallying top Trump administration officials, Republican governors, and lawmakers around a resolute effort to protect American farmland, food supply chains, and agricultural research from foreign threats, especially Communist China.

“American agriculture, in American hands, is a positive good,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. “Every family, every home, every community, depends upon what our farmers do, and they support and sustain us, not merely by keeping us materially fed, but by keeping us spiritually strong. That’s exactly why it is under threat—from criminals, political adversaries, and hostile regimes.”

In addition to unveiling the USDA National Farm Security Action Plan, Rollins revealed she is now officially a member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has pushed for her inclusion, described CFIUS as “a group of high-ranking Cabinet members in the White House that determine who buys what” and insisted the agriculture secretary needs to be at the table “to protect our farmland.” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) echoed that support.

Counselor to the President Peter Navarro warned that the Chinese Communist Party has used American supply chains and food systems as weapons against the United States. “We’re the United States, but they treat us like a colony,” Navarro asserted, pointing to the Chinese acquisition of Smithfield Foods and Syngenta. “Seeds really can be the revolution that keeps the world fed—and China now owns a key part of it.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi shared that two Chinese nationals were recently charged in Michigan for attempting to smuggle potential agroterrorism weapons into the country. Soon after, a Chinese citizen was arrested for sending packages of concealed biological materials into the United States. “We will prosecute you. We will hold you accountable,” Bondi vowed, adding that the FBI has opened over 100 biosmuggling investigations in recent years. (Read more from “‘We’re the United States, but They Treat Us Like a Colony’: USDA Farm Security Plan Targets China’s Bioterrorism, Land Grabs” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

USDA Responds to Report That Official Was Escorted From Office After Trump Firing

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The former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was reportedly escorted out of her office Monday after she “refused to comply” with her termination – though the USDA denies that she was forcibly removed.

Phyllis Fong, who has worked for the USDA for 22 years, was fired on Friday, but she reportedly told her colleagues that she planned to continue working. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Fong was removed by security officials and “refused to comply” with her termination.

Before her firing, the government employee said she believed that the newly inaugurated Trump administration was acting improperly by terminating officials so suddenly.

In an email obtained by Reuters, Fong said the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) had “taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.”

The USDA, however, denied that security officials were involved in the incident in an email to Fox News Digital on Wednesday night. (Read more from “USDA Responds to Report That Official Was Escorted From Office After Trump Firing” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Rep. Bridenstine: Why Does USDA Need Submachine Guns?

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Photo Credit: USDAgovFollowing the Department of Agriculture’s May 7 solicitation for submachine guns with 30-round magazine clips, Rep. Jim Bridenstine is demanding an explanation.

“The fear of my constituents is that the USDA is expanding outside of its intended mission,” the Oklahoma Republican wrote the agency on Wednesday.

According to AmmoLand Shooting Sports News, the timing of the USDA request for the weaponry is suspect, coming “just one month after the [Cliven] Bundy embarrassment.”

“It seems that the USDA, which oversees America’s vast tracks of forested land, may be preparing itself in the event some cowboys want their heads of cattle to munch government-owned grass,” the website stated.

Bundy gained national attention in April during an armed standoff in Nevada over cattle grazing rights.

Read more from this story HERE.

USDA/Mexico Spanish-Language Flyer: Get Kids on Food Stamps Without Showing Documents

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller By Caroline May. The Department of Agriculture, via the Mexican government, assures potentially ineligible immigrants that they can still apply for food stamps on behalf of their eligible children without giving information about their immigration status, according to documents released Thursday by Judicial Watch.

A USDA Spanish language flyer provided to the Mexican Embassy, according to Judicial Watch, reads that if potentially ineligible immigrants want to obtain benefits for their children they “need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.”

The Daily Caller has reported extensively about the USDA/Mexico partnership that seeks to promote taxpayer-funded nutrition assistance among eligible Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.

“USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance,” the USDA explains in a brief paragraph on its “Reaching Low-Income Hispanics With Nutrition Assistance” web page. “Mexico will help disseminate this information through its embassy and network of approximately 50 consular offices.”

The documents Judicial Watch released Thursday shed additional light on the partnership, initiated in 2004 under the Bush administration, which Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions called a “very disturbing policy” last summer. Session has attempted to end the program. Read more from this story HERE.

USDA to Mexico: Illegal immigrants can have food stamps

By Joel Gehrke. With food stamp spending in the United States skyrocketing since the beginning of the recession, the Department of Agriculture is paying to promote food stamp usage to illegal immigrants for the sake of their American children, according to documents obtained by a government watchdog.

“The promotion of the food stamp program, now known as “SNAP” (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), includes a Spanish-language flyer provided to the Mexican Embassy by the USDA with a statement advising Mexicans in the U.S. that they do not need to declare their immigration status in order to receive financial assistance,” Judicial Watch announced today. “Emphasized in bold and underlined, the statement reads, ‘You need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.’”

The USDA said the program is designed to help American children. “[The USDA Food and Nutrition Service] understands that mixed status households may be particularly vulnerable,” FNS’ Yibo Wood wrote to Mexican embassy officials in a January 2012 email. “Many of these households contain a non-citizen parent and a citizen child.” Read more from this story HERE.

Sequester Meat Shortages Months Away, Says USDA Secretary

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Photo Credit: AP

The sequester likely won’t cause meat and poultry shortages for a while—thanks, in part, to union negotiations and USDA inspectors’ lack of email access.

Furloughs to Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors at the U.S. Department of Agriculture could force meat and poultry plants to stop production–with no inspectors to approve products, they can’t be sold—but today Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee that those furloughs probably won’t happen until later this year.

“We are looking at a several-month period, if you will, before a furlough will be imposed,” Vilsack said, depending on negotiations with the inspectors’ union. A drawn-out notification process will prevent the furloughs from happening right away, Vilsack said.

“This week we will send out notices to the union reps that a furlough is possible, and one of the challenges is that not every one of our workers in this particular area has email, so we actually have to hand-deliver a letter or written notification to those employees. That has to be followed up … with oral conferences to take place with any employee who requests an oral confirmation–that will happen at the local level,” Vilsack said. After all employees are notified, Vilsack said, USDA will negotiate with union representatives over how the furloughs will be implemented.

But if furloughs do happen, Vilsack warned their impact could be particularly severe.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: USDA Whistleblower Speaks Out About Controversial ‘Culteral Sensitivity Training’ Seminar

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Photo Credit: TheBlazeTVA whistleblower from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) joined Glenn Beck on TheBlaze TV Tuesday to discuss a disturbing “Cultural Sensitivity Training” program that encouraged federal workers in attendance to chant racially-charged and controversial phrases. The training was reportedly part of “a broader effort towards cultural transformation at USDA.”

As TheBlaze previously reported, video of the sensitivity training session, conducted by the USDA, was published last week by Judicial Watch after the group was tipped by a whistleblower. Critics have accused the USDA of allowing their workers to be indoctrinated.

Beck began Tuesday’s show by recapping some of the most outrageous statements made by the seminar’s diversity awareness trainer Dr. Samuel Betances. Here’s your refresher course:

“I want you to say, America was founded by outsiders. Say that. Who are today’s insiders, who get very nervous about today’s outsiders. I want you to say, the pilgrims were illegal aliens. Say the pilgrims never gave their passports to the Indians.”

Many of the federal employees at the “diversity” sessions chanted back at him. Watch the shocking footage below:

Read more from this story HERE.

USDA/Mexican Consulates To Immigrants: Don’t Worry, Food Stamps Won’t Affect Citizenship Chances

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller The United States Department of Agriculture has been working to dispel immigrants’ concerns that getting on Food Stamps will harm their chances of becoming U.S. citizens.

The USDA addresses those fears in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp, brochures it distributes to Mexican consulates as part of its “partnership” with the Mexican government “to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance.”

In one portion of the brochure, USDA’s text asks, “If I get on SNAP benefits, will I be a “public charge?’” The brochure then answers: “No. You and your family can apply for and receive SNAP benefits without hurting your chance of becoming U.S. citizens.”

The brochure further advises immigrants that members of their family could qualify for food stamps, even if they don’t.

Read more from this story HERE.

Diversity Training Obama-Style: USDA Sessions Included Participants Chanting ‘Our Forefathers Were Illegal Immigrants’

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A U.S. Department of Agriculture official has confirmed some of the government’s “diversity training” – including participants banging on tables and chanting, “Our forefathers were illegal immigrants!” – was “not in line” with USDA guidelines.

Breitbart reported last year the USDA paid a Chicago-based diversity training and consulting firm $200,000 to hold a series of “Diversity Training Workshops” around the country.

According to a press statement issued by the Department of Agriculture, the workshops were designed to “foster overall diversity awareness.”

Documents obtained by the watchdog groupJudicial Watch, however, revealed the seminars required participants to chant, “Our forefathers were illegal immigrants!” and encouraged the attendees to bang on the tables while chanting the phrase.

Souder, Betances and Associates was given the USDA contract to conduct the training seminars.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Department of Agriculture Funding Broadband to St. Paul Island via Native Corporation

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending more than half-a-million taxpayer dollars to bring broadband Internet service to the 481 mostly indigenous people of St. Paul, Alaska – a community located 300 miles off the mainland.

“Without broadband, rural communities and business owners face a substantial challenge,” said Dallas Tonsager, Agricultural Undersecretary for Rural Development, in announcing the $554,140 grant. “In Alaska, this grant will bring the benefits of broadband, including new educational, business and public health and safety opportunities to rural residents living in a remote area.”

The taxpayer funds will go directly to Tanadgusix Corporation, the company that will build the broadband network.

The grant is administered through the “Community Connect” program, which is run by USDA’s Rural Development agency.

Community Connect provides grants to poor, rural communities with populations under 20,000 “where broadband service is least likely to be available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for citizens,” according to the program’s description.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama USDA offering Women, Hispanic Farmers over $1.3 billion in Reparations (+video)

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By Caroline May. As part of “a new era of civil rights” at the Department of Agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced Monday that Hispanic and women farmers and ranchers who believe USDA discriminated against them can file claims to get a piece of at least $1.33 billion in cash awards and tax relief payments and up to $160 million in farm debt relief, beginning this week.

Women and Hispanic ranchers and farmers who feel the agency denied their loan or loan servicing applications because of their race or gender at various periods from 1981 to 2000 can file claims alleging discrimination from Sept. 24, 2012, to March 25, 2013, for a slice of the payout.

“Hispanic and women farmers who believe they have faced discriminatory practices from the USDA must file a claim by March 25, 2013 in order to have a chance to receive a cash payment or loan forgiveness,” Vilsack explained in a statement Monday. “The opening of this claims process is part of USDA’s ongoing efforts to correct the wrongs of the past and ensure fair treatment to all current and future customers.”

In February 2011, Vilsack announced the historic “path to justice for Hispanic and women farmers” to offer them an outlet to receive compensation for past wrongs without having to go to federal court.

This is the third settlement to interest groups the USDA is believed to have discriminated against during the Obama administration. Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s a video from an earlier version of this program where “500%” of black farmers received hundreds of millions in reparations.