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American farmers, ranchers find creative ways to adapt during COVID-19 pandemic

2020-08-16 | 🔗
Callison Ranch Beef's Nikki Callison, Recipe for Success Foundation CEO Gracie Cavnar and Johnson's Farm Produce manager Lyndsay Johnson discuss how they've adapted their businesses since COVID-19 hit
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Will, like many other industries, will like many other industries? American agricultural has been hit hard by the pandemic. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of farmers filing for bankruptcy is up eight percent from the previous year, but some farmers and ranchers are finding success with a little adaption its. What Americans do. They innovate in the face of struggle joining me, Nickie, Callas, fourth generation rancher and owner of callason and third generation owner of Johnson Farm Produce in Indiana, Nickie ill start off with you. I just read off the stats: eight percent bankruptcies on farms, ranchers up as well with the closure of meat processing plants. What are you doing in Oklahoma to overcome that struggle? Well, im part of a task well, im part of a task force headed up by our Oklahoma Secretary of Guttural Blaine
Archer, and were working to alleviate this bottleneck. So we dont have a problem with processing here in Oklahoma. We identified that as an issue here, and farmers and ranchers through Covid have continued working hard working diligently to serve the american people, and so we are working to do that and alleviate the bottleneck. But also here on our ranch, we have started selling beef direct to families and shipping it to forty. Eight states will thats awesome direct to consumer and Jennifer. I believe thats what you are working on as well what you are working on as well. Consumers, customers can come consumers. Customers can come as I understand it straight to Johnsons Farm and pick their own produce. Is that right, thats? Correct, yes will, and so this is one of the ways you guys have dealt with some of the problems through the coronavirus and by the way this was just the cherry on the top right. Farms were having trouble before the coronavirus pandemic. Thats correct, yes will! So what all are you doing at Johnsons farms to help overcome these struggles?
So we decided to do whatever it takes, not file bankruptcy this year delivering to people curbside outdoor activities. Spacing people out in the you. I can rows other rows, sanitizing the tractors every single time, whatever it takes to get people to come out so that we can make a living cause. Our crop was already in the field and there will. I imagine grocery stores restaurants stopped buying a difficult time for everybody in the business Nickie. How does a consumer buy? Direct beef go direct to consumer beef. How do I do that? Do I get to pick any cow? Do I goat pick my cut? How does that work that I can buy straight from the rancher? Actually, our beef is federally USDA certified through our processor and we have started shipping beef direct to families all over the? U dot S about eighteen months before the pandemic hit. You never know, whats coming your way in averaging and farming it could be weather,
it could be a pandemic and we adapted and shipped you can go to our website callasonranchbeef dot com. You can also search for other farms and ranches that you can get your beef direct, but were here to serve the american people, and we really love doing it. Will all right, Nickie and Jennifer, not just multiple generation, ranchers and farmers, not just innovators in the face of struggle but proud women run businesses as well. Thank you so much for being with us here this morning. Thank you. Thank you. Will will lawmakers could end their recess early to face concerns with the postal service were live on the debate on the hill next welcome. Todays discussion will be around sliced meat. Moms want healthy and affordable land, o frost premium, no added hormones either its the only protein ive, really melted, with
land o frost premium, fresh, look same great taste, Jedediah welcome everyone Jedediah welcome everyone. We are in our final hour of Fox AMP friends and no music better to intro that than the queen thats right, Jennifer Lopez. Jenny from the block will will not be surprised to guess thats one of my favorites and also will. I have a surprise for you because earlier in the show PETE talked about beat and he gave you a beautiful gift, and I was thinking to myself. I dont have any beer
Muggs at home. What will will drink out of when he comes to my house? So I brought two things to show you one. This is a ski mug. It is not a beer mug, it will not keep the beer cold, but its fashionable and looks like a cowboy boot nonetheless, and the second which you will probably not approve of and PETE will roll his eyes. Is this pyrex container which ive used this morning by the way to hold my celery juice and its a fantastic container for green juice? It wont disappoint and I have filtered ice in the freezer, and I know you decided you didnt like ice, but I got several social media messages from viewers that said ice in beer is not so bad will. I have two responses to that: Jed im, not too fancy for the can ill be happy to drink it straight from the can and number two when it comes to Jennifer Lopez and Britney spears, to be honest, im having trouble distinguishesing between you and PETE Pete, thatS, fair, thats, fair. I will say that Jed and I share that musical taste. Its true. The best holder for your beer is your hand, and will you can note
we have these in 800 hour. I put them in the fridge to keep them cold. For you and brought them back out will they will be open very soon, PETE Jed good attempt? I will believe it when you put beer in your pyrex glass and drink it from a straw but Jedediah I dont, like beer will before we start opening beers lets get to news PETE. I guess. Will President Trump defending the postmaster general after protesters march outside his d, dot c home calling for his resignation, air horn sounding will mark Meredith is live in Washington as Nancy Pelosi reportedly considers bringing the house back from recess over postal service concerns. Mark will good morning to you. Democrats are accusing the Trump adminitration of trying to basically make changes at the Post office to influence the election, but President Trump is hitting back hes defending the newly installed Post master
general and he says hes only trying to make the post office great again. President Trump, I can only tell you hes, a very smart man, Hell be a great postmaster general and he needs obviously, if youre going to do these millions of dollars out of nowhere hes going to obviously need funding, but the Democrats arent willing to provide other things and therefore theyre not going to get the funding for that. But outrage is growing over changes that postmaster General recently made, including cutting overtime on Saturday. As you mentioned, demonstrators gathered outside of his home here in Washington and Democrats, insist theyre going to keep the pressure up ahead of the election house. Speaker, Nancy Pelosi is accusing President Trump of trying to sabotage the post office. She put out a statement Saturday that says all Patriot, Democrats, independents or Republicans should reject the presidents assault on the postal system. In this election season, the Post office has warned a number of states that its possible some of the delays, could happen when it comes to receiving those mail in ballots theres a lot of question there.
We also just got word that Senate Minority leader, Chuck Schumer, is holding a news conference later today on this very issue, and members of Congress are hinting that the house could come back fairly soon to address this controversy will PETE and Jed back to you guys PETE Mark. Thank you very much. It sure feels like the Democrats are seizing on what they think is an advantageous talking point here: its voter suppression and sabotage of the post office guys. I worked a lot on reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs, a massive bureaucracy in Washington D, DOT c. When you satisfy you want to overhaul it, your critics accuse you of wanting to destroy it. When you criticize it, they say. Oh you hate vets. No, you can recognize. There are thousands of people that work at the post office that do great work in their communities. Thats, not what were talking about were talking about an attempt to demagogue, President Trump by saying he wants to sabotage a postal service that, for decades, has been run like a bureaucracy. Well, the Wall Street Journal made this case better than I can, and here is the headline of what they laid out.
The post offices problem, isnt Trump Democrats cry sabotage, but mail volume is way down and the postal service is losing billions of dollars. Here is a portion of what they said. Congress is only itself to blame for this mess Congress. That red ink is no fluke of circumstance. The post office is meant to be self sufficient, but it hasnt broken even for years total losses since two thousand and seven run to seventy eight dollars billion according to a may report by the GAO, which said that the U Dot S postal services, current business model, is not financially sustainable, its a blockbuster service in a Netflix world, and will I mentioned it earlier in twenty thirteen, the postal service tried to save two dollars billion a year by stopping Saturday delivery. There are massive and powerful unions there. Yet with an election looming in Covid 19 and an attempt to push ballots out, the left is trying to seize on that and say its trump shutting down the election. Will its going to be a massive story, PETE and Jed, not just during the election, but
obviously after the election? I do want to say this. This story stinks to high Heaven from every angle. In my estimation, the postal service is full of hard workers, but also an in efficient service that runs in the red, and many people have complaints about its right for streamlining and efficiency. Its also true that mail in voting is going to be potentially right for fraud, its true that governors across the state will have a ton of power over who and how they vote, and if you dont think politics will be involved in that youre not paying attention, but its also true PETE that President Trump choosing to streamline the post office at this time is going to raise eyebrows its going to raise suspicion and, for example, Jed talked to Representative Debbie Dingle a Democrat from Michigan a little bit earlier on what she thought comes next from the post office. The house will be back within the next week to ten days to do something. A bill is being put together for right now that during Covid 19 we dont take out
machines. We move mailboxes, tell postal workers, they cant work overtime. We need to deal with that. Ive been saying that for some time to have this very visible orders for no overtime, only the moving of the machines and thats now so we should put a stop to it. Thats. What were going to try to do in the House hope the Senate will come back and do it. We are going to do something about that. People are upset. Jedediah yeah people are upset because its been going on for a really long time, its just always fascinating when people choose to get outraged at convenient times for people now is a convenient time fort left to be outraged about the financial struggles that have been ongoing in the post office for decades now, because Trump has made some comments- and I will admit about the post office and about mail in balloting, but the bottom line is the policy needed to change for a long time long before President Trump took office. So if Congress wants to act, they should do something about it and stop finger, pointing they are elected to do a job PETE. Do you know what im outraged about, and the president is outraged about? Is that I want my vote to count.
I want your vote to count. I want and the minute youve got fraud or youve got people you know at any address who lived there before? Are they dead or alive? Are their kids at college? All those ballots get pushed out through the postal service. How can we validate in every circumstance that it is that person as opposed to absentee ballots? The president made the case for where you have a chain of custody, and you know whose requesting it you dont have to be present id love to see a voting weekend, make election day a national holiday and then give everybody Saturday Sunday Monday to vote and get rid of all of the Monday sense beforehand, which is only going to make the outcome of this muddy will just make everyones vote count. Jed, Jedediah thats exactly right and not a bad idea PETE. Actually, you should float that around its a pretty solid one. I havent heard that before, but the Democrats have you did it to a lot of people who watch this show. The Democrats have bigger problems than complaining about the post office, simply President Trump, because the Dnc kicks off tomorrow and of course, Joe Biden is nowhere to be found
still in his basement somewhere and whats. Worse, is that not everyone in the Democratic Party is on board. With the Partys platform, you have squad member Talib coming out voting no on their platform saying it. Doesnt include a plan for single payer health care, and this is a tweet. It says today I cast my Dnc ballot and voted.
Transcript generated on 2020-08-16.