Robert Hirschfeld

Trump to Unveil Farmer Aid as China Shuns U.S. Crops

This farmer bailout is great news for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who owns thousands of acres of soybean farmland in North Dakota and has been leading negotiations with China. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/u...

Me, an ag retailer and/or bank:

“Yeah, just uh, just sign that check over to me please and thank you.”

Watching democrats say we just have to remove the tariffs so our poor, beleaguered commodity crop growers can get back to overproducing corn and soybeans and selling them to China at the cost of our own land and water will make me pull out the little hair I have remaining.

Our farmers produce a generic commodity for a competitive global market and other countries are happy to compete in a race to the ecological bottom.

This reckoning for commodity crops was coming. Trump is speedrunning it with tariffs.

Might be a good time for farmers to think about feeding the US.

This “soybean farmer” is Caleb Ragland, President of the American Soybean Association.

He is a proud three-time Trump voter.

He’s received over half a million in subsidies over the last ten years on one of his operations alone.

He will now get more bailout money.

Can't say I like the sound of this

Arthur, Illinois

A new study finds over 70% of Illinois wetlands lost protection after the Supreme Court’s rollback of the Clean Water Act.

Floodplain forests—vital for flood control, water quality, and climate resilience—are most at risk.

Illinois needs to pass a state law protecting wetlands.

How Illinois' privacy law is costing Chicago billions in data-center deals Chicago risks thousands of jobs and billions in investment as Amazon, Microsoft and others skip Illinois for data centers, citing liability under an obscure privacy law.

Big Tech to Illinois: If we can't sell everyone's private biometric data without consent, we'll just build in Indiana. www.chicagobusiness.com/technology/i...

China isn't buying our soybeans because of the trade war.

China is buying Argentina's soybeans.

The US is considering a bailout of Argentina because this administration can't let Javier Milei fail in his libertarian fantasy project.

Truly, Trump has ushered in an Agricultural Golden Showers Age!

Me, at Farm Aid 40th Anniversary, screaming:

WE FEED THE WORLD. THE WORLD NEEDS OUR BEANS.

The world: meh

"Why can't we build massive data centers, cross-country transmission lines, vast arrays of solar and wind, and million of miles of high speed rail?"

Uh, we can't even remove the lead pipes that are killing our brains.

Millions in loans to replace lead pipes pumping water into Chicago homes remain unspent City officials on Monday said they plan to accelerate spending to replace lead service lines in 2026. The city also remains far behind telling Chicagoans of the health risks.

"Chicago doesn’t anticipate replacing all its [lead] pipes until 2076, some 30 years after a federal deadline"

One place I'll agree with the Abundance crowd—there are systemic problems in big cities with doing basic infrastructure.

@keertigopal.bsky.social & @juanpab.bsky.social

I can tell you’re a 21st century naturalist!

Habitat

This is why I only drink vintage.

This is the Illinois state flag we deserve, @govpritzker.illinois.gov!

Share if you agree!

For some reason, I imagined a more adult-looking naked woman drawn by Trump for Epstein.

In retrospect that was a foolish assumption. Hand up, that's on me.

"relentless unregulated agricultural pollution still being allowed to contaminate Ohio’s streams"

Who is most at risk?

The American taxpayers who will be footing the bill of the bailout.

HEYOOO!

Watch out boy

Illinois puts ~400 million pounds of nitrate pollution into our water each year—much of it from fertilizer runoff.

We use way too much fertilizer to grow corn we burn in gas tanks. It pollutes our rivers and wells, and feeds the Gulf dead zone.

We need a “new wave of progress” on this problem.

Does Syngenta use paraquat on its own grounds?

No because it’s banned in Switzerland, Britain, and China, the countries that Syngenta operates out of.

Most of the paraquat used in the United States is manufactured in Britain and China — where it cannot legally be used.

But they’re happy to sell it to the US.

Opinion | The Clue to Unlocking Parkinson’s May Be All Around Us

Because absolute causation is hard to prove, U.S. regulators let chemical companies flood the air, water, land with toxins.

The clothes and crib you put your baby in? Those too.

The burden of proof is on the poisoned, not the poisoners. @nickkristof.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

Corn cannibalism at the Iowa football game is really on the nose.

"This time, DNR inspector Lois Benson snapped pictures of excrement cascading from the Tentinger feedlot and creating piles around town. She drew a red line on a map for her file, showing the effluent’s path past the school and ballfields and homes and a playground."

A very nice thread on why Iowa has really bad water quality.

So… the county needs to look like a cancer patient drinking CAFO water?