Stop the Idiocracy: Agriculture

Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2026

The two-dollar beef mirage

A richly rendered pin-up-style illustration depicts a glamorous blonde farm woman standing amid grazing cattle beneath turbulent storm clouds and golden evening light. Wearing a knotted red-and-white gingham blouse, abbreviated denim shorts, sheer stockings and brown cowboy boots, she gestures towards an old-fashioned balance scale upon a rough wooden counter. One pan bears a paper-wrapped parcel beside exposed ground beef, while the other overflows with coins and jewellery, symbolising its formidable cost. A weathered red barn and silo dominate the pastoral background, reinforcing the ironic contrast between agricultural abundance and expensive beef.

image generated via Gemini

GOP congressman, either grievously misinformed or gaslighting the public, asserts that ground beef is less than $2.00 a pound. {Huffington Post 16 September}

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/ar-AA2cnrRE

Actually closer to $7.00, and it hath been well-nigh a quarter of a century since the national average hovered anywhere near $2.00; yet never suffer mere facts to intrude upon a pleasing narrative.

FTA: Rep. Tom Emmer needs to tell the rest of us where he gets his groceries.

The Minnesota Republican appeared Wednesday morning on Fox Business and declared that beef prices had dropped to a level that may have shocked some viewers.

“We still have work to do, there’s no question,” Emmer said, downplaying the recent spike in inflation. “But eggs are at pre-pandemic prices. Beef is at less than $2 a pound for ground beef.”

In reality, the price of ground beef has shot up to nearly $7 a pound and shows no signs of retreating. Prices have risen steadily since the pandemic, with recent increases driven in large part by a historically small domestic cattle herd.

Despite Emmer’s rosy take on the situation, it’s been roughly 23 years since ground beef cost less than $2 per pound on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

HuffPost reached out to Emmer’s office to see if he misspoke, and if not, whether he would share the name of his ground beef supplier. A spokesperson did not immediately respond Wednesday.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, September 7, 2026

A harvest of distrust

A darkly whimsical Gothic illustration depicts a cavernous, deteriorating supermarket overwhelmed by disorder. Shelves and refrigerated cases remain crowded with groceries, yet packages, vegetables and containers spill across the tiled floor and tumble inexplicably from above through a sagging net. Numerous scantily clad women wander the aisles in visible distress, inspecting food, crouching beside overturned baskets or clutching groceries uncertainly. At centre, an enormous chaotic mound of discarded provisions rises beneath ominous red lights. Frayed wiring, broken fixtures, scattered receipts and neglected produce transform an ordinary grocery shop into a nightmarish emblem of a food system in collapse, where abundance coexists with contamination, waste and insecurity.

image generated via Seedream

Food safety unravels apace as recalls and inflation mount in tandem, leaving Americans burdened with pricier, toxic provender. {Axios 7 September}

https://www.axios.com/2026/09/07/food-safety-concerns-grocery-inflation

From leader of the world unto shame of all the earth. Fewer inspections, laxer regulations, watchdogs muzzled or turned away entirely, and the ravishing effects of climate change have wrought sufficient ruin that it is, in essence, no longer safe to eat within these former United States. We may debate until our faces wax blue the relative safety and nutritional value of American victuals prior to the nihilistic, nation-slaying Trump 2.0 regime — set against those of other Western nations — yet hither have we come, and here now do we stand.

What y’all voted for, #Murica —

FTA: Plenty of Americans feel like they're forking over a fortune for groceries—only to get hit with a recall notice that forces them to throw that expensive food out.

Why it matters: While grocery prices are driven by complex trade and energy costs, the safety net meant to keep them safe to eat is fraying, creating a dual crisis of affordability and safety.

The average American household pays more than $10,000 on groceries every year, and two-thirds of Americans think they're spending too much.

Prices have increased by more than 18% since 2022, although some foods have seen sharper or smaller increases.

What they're saying: "It can be really, really scary out there," Lauren Borsheim, a food policy analyst at Food & Water Watch, tells Axios.

"The Trump administration since 2025 has really just dismantled many of the fundamental protections we need to keep our food supply safe."

"We have people that are really afraid that the U.S. is not doing a good job regulating our food supply. It's definitely a concern out there that as people are spending more money on their food, they are also fearful that that same food is going to cause them to get sick," Borsheim says.

By the numbers: Recalls are relatively on par with normal levels this fiscal year, according to FDA data.

So far, 5,504 products have been recalled in 2026. That's up slightly from the 5,461 products recalled last year, but down from the 6,524 products recalled in 2024.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, September 4, 2026

The wilderness we betray

A dramatic allegorical illustration depicts a nude, red-haired woman standing barefoot upon rocks in an expansive ranch landscape, protectively embracing a wounded grey wolf against her body. Blood marks the animal’s flank, while the woman stares directly towards the viewer with a grave, defiant expression. Behind them, fenced pastureland, grazing cattle and a distant barn extend beneath turbulent storm clouds. A rifle and coiled rope hang conspicuously from a fence post, evoking the lethal authority of the rancher, while ravens circle overhead. Most ominously, the enormous shadow of a howling wolf rises across the clouds, transforming the injured creature into a spectral emblem of threatened wilderness, persecution and impending loss.

image generated via Seedream

Trump signs order ‘encouraging’ states to let ranchers kill gray wolves, gleefully proclaiming ‘you can shoot them as of today’. {Mediaite 4 September}

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-gives-reluctant-ranchers-the-go-ahead-to-take-care-of-endangered-species-you-can-shoot-them-as-of-today/

Understanding full well that there may be justifiable circumstances in which — and only after every other reasonable recourse hath been exhausted — a rancher must protect himself, his family, or his livestock from a dangerous wild animal, I do not believe this to be the primary motivation for Trump taking this action. Greasing the palms of the agriculture industry is a reason, certainly, yet the cruelty itself seemeth, more often than not, to be precisely the point of his public conduct. And I do not think the majority of American ranchers relish the prospect of shooting endangered species, as the president himself doth appear to — but it is grievous news for wildlife, and for every soul who harbours genuine concern for creatures other than ourselves.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Mystery meat, imported on faith

A richly symbolic fantasy illustration personifies the United States as a blonde Lady Liberty presiding over an extravagant banquet of steaks, burgers and sausages. Wearing her familiar spiked crown and a flowing sea-green gown, she raises a flaming platter above the feast. Beneath the table, scales weigh raw beef against a hamburger, whilst crates of meat and an hourglass suggest scarcity and rising prices. Beyond, parched ranchland and dwindling cattle herds contrast with an industrial coastline, as glowing trade routes encircle the globe. The lavish foreground is deliberately ironic, representing America’s enormous appetite for beef confronting cattle shortages, constrained domestic production and increasing dependence upon foreign supplies.

image generated via Grok

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins refuses to say where proposed beef imports would be originating; ranchers are furious. {The Independent 25 August}

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-beef-imports-brooke-rollins-b3039094.html

As if much of the food we consume in this country were not toxic enough… Every American ought to feel a profound sense of revulsion, and be even more disgusted still by this regime’s steadfast refusal to disclose the provenance of this miraculous ground beef. In all seriousness, there are occasions of late upon which I find myself thinking I should never wish to eat again. Transparency ought to constitute the bare minimum where the nation's food supply is concerned, but who and what can be trusted these days? —

FTA: Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has refused to say which countries the Trump administration is relying on for its plan to temporarily surge beef imports into the U.S. to ease consumer prices.

“I am not privy to talk about that,” Rollins told reporters on Tuesday. “I think the conversations are still going on,” she added, saying that President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were involved.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, President Trump claimed he had reached a deal to allow up to 300,000 metric tons of meat destined to become ground beef into the U.S. to be sold at reduced prices for the next 90 days without tariffs or quotas. The plan, Trump said, would “substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families.”

A White House official told The Independent last week that Trump would “formally sign an executive order” to execute the agreement “within the next two weeks.”

Since Trump returned to office last year, the price of ground beef has risen from $5.45 per pound to $6.85 per pound, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On Monday, an Arizona border crossing reopened to Mexican cattle, as fears have eased over the spread of the New World screwworm through Mexican cattle imports. The U.S. plans to open more border crossings as part of the beef plan.

The Trump administration’s beef deal has met with stiff resistance from ranchers and Republicans, who argue that allowing more imports will do little to change the underlying conditions that have sent beef prices spiking, such as low herd sizes because of drought.

"Despite high beef prices in grocery stores, prices paid to farmers and ranchers for their cattle have fallen sharply over the past two months, and beef packing plants are shutting down across the U.S.,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement after the plan was announced.

"Further undercutting a fragile recovery by swamping markets with foreign products and attempting to manipulate prices threatens to wipe out any progress that has been made,” he added.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, August 21, 2026

The price of an empty pasture

A darkly whimsical illustration depicts the collapse of an American meatpacking industry beneath punishing heat and economic strain. A barefoot, red-haired woman in a tattered burgundy slip stands before a vast, rusting meatpacking plant whose machinery, pipes and towers twist into mournful human faces. She holds a nearly empty plate bearing only a tiny sprig of food. Beyond the shuttered factory stretches a parched, cracked landscape scattered with cattle, abandoned feeding troughs and fencing. At right, a skeletal cattle figure presides beside an ornate sign declaring beef an increasingly unaffordable luxury, while an almost grotesquely cheerful sun burns overhead. Cobwebbed controls, empty meat hooks, a discarded steak and an abandoned shopping trolley reinforce themes of plant closures, scarcity, rising beef prices and industrial decline.

image generated via ChatGPT

Will Tyson Foods’ shuttering of two US plants mean even greater pain at the grocery store in Trumpistan? {The Guardian 21 August}

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/21/tyson-foods-close-facilities-beef-prices-cattle-shortage

Pray the experts have got this one right. Nobody hold their breath, though —

FTA: Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in the US, announced last week that it is closing two of its facilities in Iowa and Utah and selling a beef facility in Washington state, and will lay off hundreds of workers as the supply of cattle hits a 75-year low.

The historic cattle shortage has been driven by a multi-year drought, rising costs and severe economic pressures, including consolidation among cattle ranchers. Beef prices have soared over the last year due to the shortage, though economists said the Tyson plant closures likely won’t hit consumer prices so hard.

Earlier this month, Tyson reported in its third-quarter earnings that beef volume is down 15.9% and beef operating loss is at $138m.

Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University, said the US has had excess capacity for processing and packaging beef for several years now, and beef that would have been processed in Tyson’s Iowa and Utah plants will just be rerouted.

“For the majority of the last 40 years, nationally, the US has had more capacity to harvest cattle than we’ve had cattle,” he said. “Anytime you have too much capacity, or ‘too much’ supply relative to what is needed in the market, that puts downward pressure on the margins in that sector. That’s not new.”

With not enough cattle to harvest, meatpacking plants have been taking measures to slow down operations, including reducing shifts or cutting Saturday workdays. If operations don’t pick up, plants eventually close.

But these closures won’t change the amount of beef that is packed and processed, since the country has enough infrastructure to take on the current supply, experts said. While it may slightly increase transportation costs for the cattle producers who are located close to the shuttered Tyson plants, it is not likely to affect the price of beef overall.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, August 14, 2026

The cost of complacency

A richly detailed allegorical illustration depicts the vast international system behind American food safety. A blonde female inspector stands at a crossroads amid sprawling farms, greenhouses, livestock facilities and distant factories, carrying a metal case and clipboard as other inspectors disperse across the landscape. In the foreground, luggage, laboratory supplies, a biohazard-marked case, cargo ship, aircraft and globe evoke the immense scale of foreign imports and inspection duties. At right, another woman scrutinises packaged produce beside a magnified display of microorganisms, linking agricultural commerce with the persistent danger of food-borne contamination.

image generated via ChatGPT

The FDA, failing the nation, conducted fewer than one-twentieth of the foreign inspections required by law over the past decade. {CBS News 12 August}

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-farms-mexico-fda-inspection-cyclosporiasis-outbreak/

Predictably, the farm in Mexico linked to the ongoing cyclospora outbreak had not been inspected since 2019. Do not expect any improvement any time soon — only further deterioration.

FTA: The Food and Drug Administration conducted just under 1,000 foreign food safety inspections in 2025, and the farm in Mexico believed to be at the center of the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak in the U.S. was not one of them.

A federal law enacted to prevent diseased and dirty food from reaching Americans' plates requires the FDA to carry out nearly 20 times that many foreign inspections each year. But the FDA hasn't come close to meeting the congressional mandate — or even 10% of it — in the 10 years it has been in place, spanning administrations led by both political parties.

FDA officials have described the requirement as unrealistic, but have never asked Congress to revise it. A lower foreign inspection target the agency deemed necessary to safeguard foreign imports is still nearly five times higher than the number of inspections conducted last year.

Congress, meanwhile, has not increased the agency's food safety budget to outpace or keep up with inflation, and widespread layoffs during the first year of President Trump's second term squeezed resources further.

The rate of inspections has gotten markedly worse amid those reductions, with foreign food safety inspections falling by 29% from 2024. Outside of the COVID-19 pandemic, last year's inspection count was the lowest since 2011. Early numbers for 2026 show that the agency is on track to inspect a similar number this year.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

The silence after the siren: food and agriculture in retreat

A richly detailed editorial illustration depicts female workers leaving a vast American meat-processing complex at sunset. In the foreground, a blonde woman in a white work coat and boots carries gloves and a metal case, glancing back with a troubled expression. Around her, other women embrace, carry personal belongings or sit dejectedly after apparently losing their jobs. An open processing plant, forklifts and hanging carcasses appear behind them, while several enormous industrial facilities recede across a dry, sparsely vegetated landscape. The melancholy golden light reinforces themes of closure, economic hardship and uncertainty within American food production.

image generated via ChatGPT

Tyson Foods is to close or divest three facilities, as a historic cattle shortage lays waste to the US meatpacking industry. {Reuters 13 August}

https://www.agriculture.com/partners-tyson-foods-says-it-will-close-sell-three-sites-amid-u-s-cattle-shortage-12059640

This, alongside the Taylor Farms lettuce debacle and other food-safety concerns that have been in the news of late — compounded by natural disasters and a cattle shortage of the utmost severity — constitutes merely the visible tip of the iceberg (no pun intended) as to what is about to befall American agriculture and food production; all made worse under a regime hell-bent upon dismantling regulatory safeguards at any cost. Tyranny assumes many guises, among them increasingly unsafe food, water, and medicine.

I hate to keep saying it (but not really): what y’all voted for, #Murica.

FTA: Tyson on Aug. 3 warned that losses in its beef business would widen as tight cattle supplies keep livestock costs elevated. It forecast an adjusted operating loss of $500 million to $650 million in fiscal 2026 for its beef business, compared with a previous forecast for a $350 million to $500 million loss.

Cattle supplies shrank to a 75-year low after a prolonged drought burned up grazing lands in the western U.S. and Washington suspended imports from Mexico in an attempt to keep out the flesh-eating livestock pest New World screwworm.

However, screwworms were detected in June on Texas farms and in New Mexico after moving north through Central America.

Facing pressure to lower consumer costs, the Trump administration said it plans to start lifting the import ban this month. The average retail price of one pound of lean and extra lean ground beef hit a record $8.65 in June, according to federal data.

“We have paid the economic price of a closed border, disrupted a cattle supply chain built over generations and screwworm still made it into the United States,” said Texas’s Miller.

It may take up to a year for Tyson to benefit from removing the ban because imported feeder cattle must spend time grazing on grass or being fattened in feedlots to get ready for slaughter, Tyson Chief Operating Officer Wes Morris said on a conference call last week.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Sunday, July 26, 2026

The hidden cost of fresh produce

A warmly lit, mid-century-inspired illustration depicts a red-haired woman standing barefoot in the doorway of a modest vintage kitchen. She wears an off-the-shoulder cream floral dress with pink roses, lifting one side of the skirt slightly as she faces the viewer with a composed but questioning expression. One hand rests beside a wooden bowl containing lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries on the worktop, subtly drawing attention to the fresh produce. Sunlight streams through the open doorway and gingham-curtained window, illuminating a cream enamel refrigerator, an old-fashioned stove with a red cooking pot, and well-worn cupboards that evoke an ordinary domestic setting. The nostalgic décor and gentle golden light contrast with the sparse bowl of salad ingredients, suggesting concern over the safety or availability of fresh food while preserving an atmosphere of quiet domestic resilience.

image generated via ChatGPT

Poll suggests large numbers of Americans are changing their eating habits due to cyclospora outbreak. {CBS News 26 July}

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyclospora-outbreak-fda-opinion-poll/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=986445447

Tellingly, Republican voters tend to approve of the job the Trumpist-occupied FDA is doing, whilst other Americans do not. At almost any point in the past, it would be Democratic voters expressing more faith in a given government agency in an emergency. But this is Trumpistan now, and the GOP is not the same party it once was in normal times. All told, who can be trusted anymore? Neither government nor private industry nor individuals. And the older I get, the more I consider eating to be a chore and a necessary evil.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, July 25, 2026

Empty cupboards, heavy hearts

A warmly lit mid-century-style illustration shows a tall dark-haired woman comforting a much smaller blonde woman in a modest vintage kitchen. The taller woman, dressed in a cream cable-knit jumper and short beige skirt, wraps both arms protectively around the younger woman, gently cradling the back of her head as she stares ahead with quiet concern. The petite blonde, wearing a pink gingham summer dress and white sandals, buries her tear-streaked face against the taller woman's chest, clutching her tightly in visible distress. Around them, an old-fashioned refrigerator stands open with only a few basic items inside, while ration coupons and loose notes are scattered across the chrome-edged kitchen table beside a mixing bowl, suggesting growing financial hardship. Floral curtains, enamel cookware, worn cupboards, and soft afternoon sunlight reinforce the nostalgic domestic atmosphere, contrasting with the emotional weight of the embrace.

image generated via ChatGPT

#Murica: consumers adapt to the largest hike in grocery prices in fifty years by cutting back, sometimes drastically. {AP 25 July}

https://apnews.com/article/grocery-shopping-prices-food-affordability-8468c1d6532ca762bbcfa17e3c7707d1

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Monday, July 20, 2026

“Lettuce celebrate... mmm, maybe not just yet”

A vibrant, highly detailed illustration inspired by traditional Mexican art depicts a joyful woman kneeling amid a vast field of fresh green cabbages beneath a brilliant blue sky. She has long flowing black hair, a radiant smile and wears a flowing white dress that billows around her as cabbage leaves cling playfully to her clothing and hair. Behind her, rolling farmland stretches towards a majestic volcanic mountain framed by towering clouds adorned with colourful folk-art motifs. Rich saturated colours, bold decorative patterns and expressive painterly textures celebrate rural Mexico’s natural beauty, agricultural abundance and exuberant spirit, creating a scene filled with warmth, movement and infectious happiness.

generated via ChatGPT

“Fruit and vegetable producer Taylor Fresh Foods says it is voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market amid an ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak across the country that has sickened more than 1,600 people.” {ABC News 19 July}

https://abcnews.com/GMA/News/taylor-farms-amid-cyclosporiasis-outbreak/story?id=134846473&cid=social_twitter_abcn

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, July 18, 2026

Humiliation in aisle seven

A highly detailed illustration depicting a distraught blonde-haired woman standing alone in the centre of a brightly lit supermarket aisle after an embarrassing loss of bladder control. She wears a simple white slip dress that is visibly soaked across the front and lower skirt, with a small puddle spreading across the polished tiled floor around her shoes. Tears stream down her flushed face as she wipes one eye while instinctively clutching the front of her dress. Shoppers on either side of the aisle pause with expressions ranging from surprise and concern to sympathetic discomfort, some holding shopping baskets. Neatly stocked shelves and bright fluorescent lighting heighten the stark contrast between the ordinary setting and her deeply vulnerable moment.

generated via ChatGPT

US grocery unit sales fall as inflation and benefit cuts squeeze budgets, forcing shoppers to buy less. {Get Ready 16 July}

https://getready.team/news/economic/2026/07/16/the-us-grocery-slowdown-is-real

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, July 17, 2026

No comfort in marble

A highly detailed glamour-style illustration of a distressed blonde woman seated upon a white toilet in an opulent marble bathroom with polished brass fittings. She wears a white satin nightdress beneath a loosely draped silk robe, one hand pressed against her lower abdomen while the other supports her tear-streaked face. Her flushed cheeks, reddened eyes, and pained expression convey exhaustion and severe gastrointestinal illness. Luxurious details, including crystal perfume bottles, folded towels, and gleaming marble surfaces, contrast sharply with her evident discomfort. Warm golden lighting accentuates the satin fabrics and refined décor, creating a poignant juxtaposition between elegance, vulnerability, and physical suffering.

generated via ChatGPT

Figures: #Murican fast food icon Taco Bell and supplier Taylor Farms tied to cyclospora outbreak in five states. {AP 17 July}

https://apnews.com/article/cyclospora-lettuce-taco-bell-cdc-fda-13d9e9ebdc46a4d05a58da2ae8e8d0de

Not the first time either of these parties have been negligent. Food safety standards are not what they should be in what we — as Americans — are commanded to believe is the freest, richest, most advanced nation on earth. Alas, I do not suspect most Taco Bell consumers care all that much about food safety, but I digress.

FTA: The FDA’s traceback investigation identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico used by the Taco Bell locations where people who got sick ate, federal officials said. The Mexican food chain is among the restaurants linked to foodborne illness outbreaks in the past. Taylor Farms also was tied to a 2013 cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to salad mix and a 2024 E. coli outbreak tied to onions served at McDonald’s.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Friday, July 10, 2026

The plunder of Eden

$A dramatic allegorical illustration depicts a distressed Lady Liberty standing upon a fractured stone pedestal. Her pale hair streams in the wind, her torch raised as numerous hands reach from all sides, clutching her robes and pulling at her body while she struggles to remain upright. Her torn garments and anguished expression suggest vulnerability, conflict, and the erosion of cherished ideals. Behind her, Saturn looms immense in a dark cosmic sky. Below, the Earth appears scarred by environmental devastation, with vast open-pit mines, drilling rigs, polluted waterways, dying wildlife, barren forests, and cracked landscapes. The composition symbolically links threats to liberty, exploitation, and ecological destruction.$

generated via ChatGPT

A crime against nature: the Trump regime moves to undo regulations that have protected endangered species for fifty years. {NYT 10 July}

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/climate/endangered-species-act-harm.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wlA.sROY.QiZOjeuzP9GG&smid=url-share

Some of the regulations currently in place may indeed be overly burdensome, and there was a time when I would have argued that certain revisions to the Endangered Species Act were warranted. Now, however, I am older and under no such illusions. The veil hath been lifted: human beings — particularly those motivated by profit — simply cannot be trusted. Private industry, despite its frequent proclamations to the contrary, cannot be relied upon to serve as a good steward of either the environment or the natural world.

Donald Trump and the individuals who comprise his dictatorial government cannot be trusted to protect nature. Indeed, many of them have repeatedly demonstrated all the qualities of cartoon villains and would probably relish the destruction of habitats and the extinction of entire species. Therefore, even if some regulations are overly burdensome, I am afraid they remain necessary for so long as human beings are fallen and sinful creatures.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, June 20, 2026

A crown of tears: more Americans going hungry as SNAP assistance is slashed

A detailed fantasy illustration of a woman kneeling amid a dreamlike landscape, weeping as she clutcheth a small teddy bear. She weareth a sheer black dress with a white collar and an ornate black headpiece crowned by a delicate golden halo-lattice. Tears stream down her face as she gazeth upward in anguish. The surreal environment blendeth fairy-tale whimsy with social and economic symbolism: torn bank cards whirl in a vortex above; empty supermarket shelves recede leftward; a winding waterway with lighthouses cutteth through the centre; an extravagant fantasy palace of clocks and towers riseth to the right. Shells, flowers, toys, lobsters, and ornaments crowd the foreground. Economic insecurity, loss, childhood comfort, and emotional vulnerability—melancholy, theatrical, and richly imaginative.

generated via ChatGPT

The quiet unraveling of America’s food safety net. {Politico 20 June}

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/06/20/maine-snap-food-stamps-obbba-00966762

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Fever dream? Four nurses for the wounded daughter of Columbia

An ornate Renaissance-style allegorical painting of a humanised Statue of Liberty as a wounded woman with a spiked crown, lying injured on an antique medical gurney—her leg in a brace, her chest bandaged. Four nurses in vintage uniforms tend to her: one checketh her face, another taketh notes, a third adjusteth her leg. Stone archways frame a parched cracked landscape on one side and a coastal scene with ships on the other. Above, a surreal sky holdeth Saturn, swirling clouds, and a cascade of falling produce—cabbages, tomatoes, bread, coffee beans. Candles, lanterns, and antique mechanical equipment surround the bed.

generated via ChatGPT

Everyday items grow costlier in the former United States, largely due to its nation-destroying president's policies and actions. {WP 10 June; image generated via ChatGPT}

https://wapo.st/4oh9zdz

Mother Nature hath done some damage – notably, of late, in the form of drought – and I believe America is simply cursed and is going to remain so long after the orange usurper hath either been deposed, by whatever means, or simply dies. As decrepit as the motherf**ker is, he is not going anywhere for a long time to come. Mark my words. He is a curse, we are cursed; we shall never know life as it once was again.

Far more suffering and misery is yet to come. A drought here, a failed harvest there, rivers either overflowing or running lower than expected, reservoirs shrinking beneath an unforgiving sun. Perchance, another global health crisis. To say nothing of the ongoing political and social crack-up, all exposing the fragility lurking beneath the modern world's no longer so confident façade. One can never rule out the possibility of some madman – Putin, Kim Jong Un, the Iranians, Trump – playing with nuclear weapons. Fun times, yeah?

The former United States – and I do not use that moniker to be cute, this is not the country I grew up in – is in the midst of a long historical season from which there is no easy escape. One that began with a literal bang on 11 September 2001, and America and her people have done almost nothing but make nearly every bad decision possible since then: the resentment, the distrust, the hunger for strongmen, the endless appetite for spectacle over substance. We are a nation in the midst of a gradual systemic breakdown.

By and large, the peasantry have themselves to blame for the hard times we are only beginning to endure in earnest, and I would be here for days enumerating the hows and whys. Fifty years from now, after we are long dead and buried and assuming the earth is still standing, the mass of humanity shall revert to living in caves because of the catastrophically awful, short-sighted, and malevolent direction the former United States of America hath taken over the decades, particularly in the past quarter-century. The America of my childhood and young adulthood, before 9/11, may have been a bit of a fraud in retrospect, and any nation will always have its warts even in the best of times; overall, though, it was undeniably a more decent and liveable place than this one. As one who hath lived through this transition from the world's strongest nation by a gazillion miles into one that is now bordering on third world status and is the black sheep of the global community, I am horrified thinking of all the ways we threw our collective prosperity, security, and dignity away. We will never know again what we once knew, and the younger generations coming up now and the generations yet to be born – again, if the earth is still standing – will simply never know, period.

Karma is a bitch, #Murica.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Tuesday, June 9, 2026

A symphony for the open range

A detailed fantasy illustration of resilience, innovation, and agricultural stewardship in the modern American West. Foreground standeth a confident ranch-inspired woman with flowing dark hair, a cream cowboy hat, and a sleeveless denim outfit with an ornate Western belt. One hand extendeth toward the horizon; the other cradlet a cluster of glowing golden lights—knowledge, technology, hope. Behind stretcheth a Texas cattle landscape of herds, ranch roads, windmills, and mesas. Luminous pathways connect ranchers, livestock, vehicles, and field stations. Above, floating cities, celestial whirlpools, and a colossal ringed planet create a progressive-rock dreamscape. Warm gold, cream, and sapphire tones blend Western iconography with cosmic fantasy—determination, cooperation, and the safeguarding of rural livelihoods amid extraordinary trials.

generated via ChatGPT

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins claims US food supply not at risk after second case of screwworm infection confirmed in Texas. {CNBC 8 June}

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/08/texas-screwworm-cases-food-supply-brooke-rollins.html

In other words, be concerned. Very concerned. Blind faith in institutions ends rather badly when those institutions cease deserving it. Absolutely nothing emerging from this regime should be accepted uncritically. Nothing. Every announcement, every assurance, every triumphant declaration: all are lies.

As for agriculture, I suspect we have scarcely glimpsed the beginning of the story. Our way of life is utterly dependent upon a stable and productive food supply.

Civilisations rarely collapse because people suddenly forget how to govern. More often, they discover that governing becomes considerably more difficult once harvests fail, supply chains fracture, costs spiral, and confidence evaporates. Food is not merely another commodity. It is the foundation upon which every other political, economic, and social arrangement ultimately rests. The health of a nation's fields frequently tells one more about its future than the speeches delivered in its capitals.

I am not a religious zealot, yet I confess to observing events unfolding across the world and finding myself wondering whether humanity hath become rather too pleased with itself. We are in an age of astonishing technological achievement, yet one of extraordinary arrogance. We often – too many of us, at least – behave as though every natural law has been conquered, every consequence postponed, every warning rendered obsolete. A society that ignores every warning because it finds those warnings inconvenient eventually discovers that reality is under no obligation to respect political narratives, ideological preferences, or comforting illusions.

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Saturday, June 6, 2026

Daisy and the last brisket in Texas

A detailed surrealist illustration blending mid-century pin-up with 1970s progressive-rock art. Foreground, a tearful blonde cowgirl beneath a cream hat, her curled hair lit by amber light. She weareth a fitted ivory corset top and frayed denim shorts—exhaustion, frustration, resilience. Behind stretcheth a Texas barbecue landscape of smokers, grills, cattle pens, and smoke. The sky erupteth into nebulae, Saturn, floating mesas, and impossible rock formations. Enormous cuts of smoked brisket and oversized grilling utensils drift through the heavens. Warm oranges, golds, violets, and smoky blues dominate. Distant cattle, smoke plumes, and glowing horizons speak of scarcity, labour, and cultural tradition under strain. Richly layered, theatrical, and emotionally charged.

generated via ChatGPT

Are we 'great' again yet? Texas BBQ joints close as beef prices soar amid 75-year low cattle supply and Iran war costs. {ABC News 5 June}

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/food/story/texas-pitmasters-express-concern-amid-beef-shortages-rising-133612016

linktr.ee/arthurnewhook

🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈

Thursday, October 23, 2025

The USDA has announced that SNAP benefits will not be issued in November—and yet there appears to be scarcely a murmur of public outrage

A young woman stands alone in a desolate supermarket aisle, her expression one of quiet resignation. Clad in a faded floral dress that evokes both modesty and bygone innocence, she grips the handle of an empty shopping trolley containing only a single tin can—an emblem of deprivation rendered almost sacramental by its isolation. The shelves around her are stripped bare, their voids echoing the collapse of civic plenty. Behind her, through the dim glass, silhouettes of the desperate press against the light, their raised hands spectral in the gloom. Overhead, a lurid electronic sign blares: “NO SNAP BENEFITS THIS MONTH — BLAME THE DEMOCRATS.” Its accusatory glow casts a sinister warmth upon the scene, a false illumination masking cruelty as policy. The image captures a society cannibalising its poor while peddling blame as bread—an elegy for dignity amid the theatre of economic despair.

image generated via ChatGPT

{WABI 21 October} ‘USDA announces SNAP benefits will not be issued in November’

One might have thought that the spectacle of a corrupt regime weaponising a government shutdown to advance its nation-killing, people-crushing agenda would rouse some degree of indignation. But no; the real outrage is reserved for matters such as who is performing at the bloody Super Bowl halftime show in #Murica. The cessation of SNAP benefits—however temporary, and let us not assume it will be—unfolds while the shelves of food banks stand perpetually bare, resonating only with the hollow silence of despair. This happens whilst an unrelenting war upon empathy itself is waged by that ever-so-valorous and manly anti-woke brigade.

And do not imagine that those Americans still able to feed themselves will rise in significant number to fill the breach. Quite the contrary: charitable giving is increasingly derided as a form of enabling—compassion itself now suspect—in this benighted dystopia that has supplanted the former United States. The nation’s ruling party—more accurately, a personality cult now—seems positively intent on waging economic warfare against its own citizens, including the very sheep that are their voter base who shall continue to worship the demagogic charlatan up to the moment of slaughter.

Perhaps I sound like a broken record, but I remain utterly flabbergasted by the speed and depth of the descent—how swiftly this nation, and indeed the wider world, are sinking into the infernal abyss. —Arthur Newhook, 23 October 2025.

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Trump’s immigration crackdown implodes: his own Labor Department concedes the crackdown drives food costs up, ruins farms

An illustration rendered in the tender, painterly idiom of mid-century Americana, suffused with melancholy and quiet dignity. A blonde young woman kneels in a sun-drenched pasture, her gloved hand pressed to trembling lips as she reads a foreclosure notice. A single tear traces her cheek, glinting against skin of porcelain pallor. Her cornflower-blue dress, dotted with white, and red neckerchief evoke a bygone innocence, yet the paper in her hand signals ruin. Behind her stands a weathered barn emblazoned DAIRY, its faded red timbers recalling years of honest labour, and a lone cow watches from the paddock as though bearing witness to the family’s downfall. The golden haze of evening softens the devastation, imbuing the scene with tragic pastoral beauty—a portrait of American despair caught between the romantic ideal of the heartland and the cruel arithmetic of economic failure.

image generated via ChatGPT

{WP 11 October} ‘Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices’

More of the poison you chose, then—the grand harvest of ignorance. The #MAGA faithful are now choking on their own nationalism, yet still too proud to admit the crop was sown by their own hand. Welcome to the Third World republic you built, bloody white trash:

The Trump administration said that its immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and risking higher food prices for Americans by cutting off agriculture’s labor supply.
The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that “the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens” is threatening “the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.”
“Unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow,” with increased funding for immigration enforcement from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Labor Department said in the Federal Register, which is the place where all proposed rules are recorded for the public to view and comment.
Also, contradicting comments made by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that the U.S. farm workforce will become “100 percent American” as a result of mass deportations, the Labor Department noted that Americans are not willing to step into farm work and lack the skills to fill agricultural jobs that undocumented immigrants are abandoning.

The article observes—quite rightly—that Trump’s only course of damage control is to pay off American farmers for the ruin his own policies have wrought. It is a trick he has played before, circa 2018, when his petty tariff war with China gutted the very markets he claimed to defend. Only now the stage is darker, the stakes higher, and the madman unrestrained from within. Tariffs and immigration chaos have fused into a perfect storm, and the harvest will be famine.

I keep saying it, though it falls on ears deafened by flags and slogans: ‘y’all’ made a catastrophic, history-sized blunder, and the bill is about to arrive. —Arthur Newhook, 11 October 2025.

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Global supplies of rice at a twenty-year low

Getty Images

The severe effects of climate change in Asia, the war on Ukraine, and export restrictions enacted by the Indian government lead to higher prices for one of the world’s most consumed staples. {CNBC 4/19}