Parity Agriculture Is The Answer To The Farming Crisis

Brandon Turbeville

BrandonTurbeville.com

April 13, 2025

The United States is in the midst of an existential farm crisis. From the wholesale disappearance of the family farm, overproduction, and industrial scale farming to depleted farm land, corporate control of farms, and the unsustainability of the subsidy culture, America’s “amber waves of grain” are threatening to become the deadened brown husks of an entire way of life.

But farming is not the only crisis to come from the failure to practice sustainability and harvest healthy food. An environmental, economic, and human health crisis is approaching the United States unlike the country has ever seen. One of the fattest, sickest nations on earth, our country spends more than any other nation on healthcare. The majority of this spending is aimed at chronic health issues yet the country is becoming fatter and sicker with each passing year. The United States cannot sustain such expenditures.

In addition, aggressive farming has reduced natural habitat, depleted the soil, and set the United States in motion to face a crisis in which the soil itself is no longer able to render crops at all.

Farming is, by nature, an up and down game, with many variables going into the production of food that can drive both prices and production. Throughout American and, indeed, world history, agriculture has been susceptible to the climate, weather, human action, war, and economic policy. Even bumper crops producing high volumes of extra product can be detrimental by lowering the prices received for them. But, for all history, one thing has remained constant: the fact that human society totally depends on the ability of farmers to produce food. It is quite a simple realization but a powerful one. The death of the farmer is the death of humanity as a whole.

In the United States, since the early 1900s, the entire country has experience various farm crises – some as a result of weather and climate disasters but mostly as a result of governmental policy, i.e. the inability of the U.S. government to ensure that farmers actually have an incentive to produce food.

EU Rules Genetic Engineering Is Genetic Engineering

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
July 26, 2018

As Big Ag develops new and more effective ways of genetic engineering, it is also developing new and more effective means of marketing and propagandizing the public. For instance, while citizens across the world march against and protest genetic engineering conducted by adding a gene from one species to another, Big Ag began developing a new process that saw genes taken out. CRISPR, or gene editing, is, without a doubt, still genetic engineering. However, since the genes being engineered are being taken out instead of added in, the industry lobbied that the process is something entirely different and thus not genetic engineering.

As one might suspect, many governments across the world lept upon the claims by Big Ag so as to move ahead with approval of the products and thus make good on this opportunity to satisfy the major corporations that pay them and keep them fat in the halls of “public service.”

The question over whether or not gene editing is considered genetic engineering has been a battle that has been brewing in Europe for quite some time, with the issue making its way to the European Court of Justice. Today, that battle has seen the ECJ rule that gene editing and products made from CRISPR are indeed genetic engineering and that they are covered under the 2001 EU GMO Directive.

Member of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament and spokesperson on GMOs, Bart Staes said:

"Today's ruling is a victory for food safety and the environment. Just because the industry has come up with new ways to modify organisms does not mean that these techniques should be exempt from existing EU standards on GMOs. Recent scientific studies show that these new techniques might not be as accurate as the industry claims them to be, that's why it's essential that they come under the same labelling requirements and impact assessments as existing GMOs. These new patented organisms may have unintended effects, as well the potential to increase our dependence on the agri-chemical industry, and therefore must be stringently monitored by the European Food Safety Authority for any risks to human, animal and environmental health."

The Bailout Bandaid - Tariffs Work But What Is The Solution For American Farmers?

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
July 25, 2018

Despite the tense nature of American politics in 2018, there are a number of issues both Republicans and Democrats can agree on. Namely, support for Israel, police state measures, and foreign wars. But, recently, another issue of mutual agreement has popped up in the news - the issue of tariffs. After decades of watching Free Trade gut the American economy until it has become nothing more than a shell of its former self, virtually all Republicans and Democrats can agree that what America needs is more Free Trade.

That’s right. After decades of jobs being shipped overseas, lower wages, longer hours and general living standards plummeting in America, Republicans and Democrats claim that tariffs or (*shudders at the word*) “protectionism” could lead to disaster, i.e. job loss, lower wages, longer hours and general living standards plummeting in America. Never mind that tariffs and (here’s that scary word again) “protectionism” led to the creation of the greatest economic system in recorded history. Never mind that Free Trade has all but destroyed the greatness of that system. Just keep “thinking globally” even if your own home is falling apart at the seams.

Thus, hysteria over Trump’s tariffs has erupted from all quarters of the US government, particularly Congress, a collection of people who are well known to be the property of major corporations who, coincidentally, benefit from the lack of tariffs, cheap foreign labor, and low living standards among the working class.

After having rushed full steam ahead into the “global system” and internationalism, any hint of putting one’s own national economy first is met with hyperventilation and hysteria. Naturally, other countries like China who have been benefiting from internationalist policies (i.e. Free Trade) have responded in kind in order to keep the gravy train coming, imposing tariffs of their own and even taking their cases to the World Trade Organization.

In a cunning move to pressure US President Trump over the issue of tariffs, China responded by imposing tariffs of its own. The difference, however, is that China targeted industries specific to Trump’s base in the working class and agricultural sectors hoping that the pain of tariffs would hit  Trump supporters specifically and thus force Trump to back off his policies.

Illnesses From Pesticide Drift Increase By 50% In Just One State

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
June 27, 2018

Troubling numbers have arrived from California regarding illnesses caused by agricultural pesticide exposure.

According to data released by the Department of Pesticide Regulation for 2015, the number of illnesses increased by 50% from 2014

The number of cases labeled “definite,” “probable,” and “possible” related to pesticides increased from 265 in 2014 to 397 in 2015.

As the Register Pajaronian writes,

Overall pesticide-related illnesses, including those stemming from non-agricultural exposure, were up 10 percent over the prior year. DPR’s latest Pesticide Illness Report documented 1,187 cases in 2015, a third of them agricultural. Drift was to blame for most of the agricultural incidents, including one in Kern County that sickened 82 workers.

Monterey County’s 89 agricultural pesticide illnesses and injuries were third most in the entire state only to Fresno County’s 102 and Kern County’s 98 cases. Monterey County saw a 370 percent increase in such pesticide illnesses above 2014.

Interestingly, the report shows that, even when workers followed federal and state regulations, hundreds of people were still harmed.

Reports Of Off-Target Injury From Dicamba Skyrocket As Summer Hits

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
June 21, 2018

Troubling amounts of off-target injury reports are coming from across the South and Midwest of the United States from 2, 4-D dicamba spraying. The new reports are forcing weed scientists and regulators to urge farmers that are going to utilize dicamba to stay “on label.”

According to Texas A&M Extension Cotton Specialist Gaylon Morgan, cotton growers in Texas are seeing more dicamba damage to cotton than would otherwise be considered normal during this time of year. Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee Extension weed scientist has also seen a number of reports of injury in the Western part of the state and at least one dicamba injury report.

Dicamba injury complaints have been filed in Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, and Arkansas according to the American Association of Pesticide Control Officers, primarily on non-soybean plants including vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, and trees.

Morgan states that applicator confusion about spray buffers is probably the most common reason of the damage in Texas. "If there is susceptible crop downwind from your field, you cannot spray when the wind is blowing in that direction -- there are no buffers that allow you to spray," he said. "I think that is the single biggest misunderstanding out there."

Steckel says recent rainy weather has forced Tennessee farmers to utilize a tinier window of time when deploying dicamba. "There simply being no good day to spray has been the biggest problem here," he said.

As The Progressive Farmer writes,

Family Farmers Are Going Extinct, Parity Can Bring Them Back

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

December 20, 2017

A recent article in the Omaha World Herald paints a dire picture for Nebraska farmers and for the farming community in the rest of the country as well. As reports of economic improvement – despite real metrics – continue to be paraded about in the media, America’s farmers are facing extinction. Family farmers in the traditional sense are all but gone and what’s left is Big Ag who holds farmers under its control at the barrel of a gun and produces toxic non-food items for consumption.

The United States has been in a depression for well over a decade but it has been in a farming crisis for almost forty years.

As Barbara Soderlin writes for the Omaha World Herald,

Farmers clean up their equipment after harvest each year. This year, some are also polishing their résumés. 

The situation facing corn and soybean growers has southeast Nebraska farmer Steve Sugden looking for an off-farm job to help support his family. That includes his wife, a schoolteacher; his daughter, a University of Nebraska junior; and twin sons, freshmen in high school. 

Big Ag Offers More Genetic Modification To Solve Crisis Caused By Genetic Modification

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

September 12, 2017

Genetic modification is now taking on a new appearance. Although if you were to read many reports announcing arrival of the new technique it would sound as if it is an entirely new and separate process.

Because plants are able to “turn off” their genes through RNA interference in order to block protein translation – researchers are now attempting to weaponize this trait and genetically engineer crops that can produce specific RNA fragments that begin the process of RNA interference to shut down a specific gene which is necessary for life and reproduction.

This RNA fragment production would be set to begin upon ingestion by insects. it would then kill or sterilize the insects who have eaten the crop. The new RNA interference modification was recently reviewed in Trends in Biotechnology in the journal’s special issue on Environmental Biotechnology.

As Cell Press writes:

RNA interference faces multiple obstacles before it could work for all major crops and their pests. On the plant side, scientists have not yet found a way to transform the chloroplast genomes of cereal grains such as rice and corn, the most direct route to producing enough RNA fragments to eliminate pests at a high rate. On the insect side, prominent pests such as some caterpillars can degrade those fragments, staving off shutdown of the target gene. 

Big Ag Reaps Benefits From Emerging Dicamba Crisis

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

September 11, 2017

While most of the focus has centered on glyphosate in terms of dangerous pesticides, there is another weed killer that is posing a danger to crop growers – dicamba.

Although not the only state affected by the growing dicamba controversy, Ohio has been one of the afflicted states.

Although the state has only received 19 official complaints of dicamba damage in 2017, weed specialists like Mark Loux at the Ohio State University Extension, an outreach arm of the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Services at Ohio State University, says this is most likely because farmers do not tend to want to report their neighbors.

They tend to fault the dicamba not the person who is applying it.

For this reason, Loux estimates that there could be 3-4 times more instances of harm. Loux says, “the sense I get from people here is, ‘this is not acceptable.’ What’s not acceptable is this movement with no ability to control it.”

What Loux is referring to is the fact that dicamba often spreads beyond the intended target area.

After dicamba is applied to crops it can turn into a vapor and then move to the surface of leaves and spread to neighboring fields with the wind. Loux says that it can sometimes spread as far as half a mile away.

“I’ve seen it cover whole soybean fields,” he said.

U.S. Inadvertently Proves Free Trade Doesn't Work; Sanctions On Russia Result In Better Russian Ag Economy, Food Independence

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
August 3, 2017

Over the past few decades, Americans may well have become the most heavily propagandized people on the face of the earth. This propaganda push reached a fever pitch after 9/11 and has intensified with each passing year, with Americans becoming more and more disconnected from reality by the month.

In 2017, hysteria and fear over the Russians, non-existent Russian hacking, and the most insane conspiracy theories surrounding Putin and Russia in general is running through the reporting of every single mainstream corporate media outlet, creating the environment in which a second Cold War can flourish and in which half of the country has been turned into political paranoid schizophrenics. Thus, when the United States imposed sanctions on Russia for defending national sovereignty, fighting terrorism, and opposing the Western financier agenda of world hegemony, these unfortunate American souls tended to believe that America had really done a number on the Russian economy. After all, the same media that tells them daily that they are out of the “recession” also tells them that the Russians are suffering under America’s regime of sanctions.

Likewise, Americans are incessantly reminded that Free Trade is here to stay and that, despite it having been a miserable failure ever since day one, the United States needs more free trade if it’s ever going to “get back on track.” The few Americans who remember such things as tariffs are told that tariffs are dangerous relics of a bygone era of scary “nationalism” and even that they are racist. Indeed, the river of propaganda runs thick in America.

But what about these issues? What can we learn from the actual data and from the actual chain of events?

U.S. Threatens World Seed Security In Its War On Syria

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze 

July 7, 2017

ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas) is one of 15 important international agricultural research centers. It is also the host of a seed bank which contains 150,000 samples in its temperature-controlled seed vaults.

Based in the Syrian town of Tal Hadya, the organization was focused not only on saving seeds and working with the Svalbard Seed Vault in the North Pole, but also focused on improving livelihood in dryer areas such as Syria’s east.

But ICARDA’s work was suddenly interrupted when the United States launched its proxy war against Syria. Tal Hadya was overtaken by western-backed terrorists, also known as Al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham. As is the nature of western-backed terrorist groups, anything remotely resembling civilization and progress was banned, killed or destroyed.

Somehow, America’s deviance overlooked the ICARDA facility, and for awhile the organization was able to continue operations. Foreign employees were removed from the facility early on but some employees were unable to flee and instead preserved the facility, putting their lives at risk because at any moment, America’s freedom fighters might have decided to give them a heavy dose of democracy which usually takes the form of beheadings, rape and torture.

These employees that remained, were of course, Syrians. They negotiated their way to the facility so that they could continue to retrieve data and check operations. The herbarium, a collection of 16,000 pressed and dried, wild, cereal and legume specimens coming from the fertile crescent which traverses Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iran, was rescued, packed away and sent to a safer location at the center of Aleppo.

Bayer Unleashes Army Of Re-Educated Farmers From GMO Training Program

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

March 30, 2017

Set to become the world’s largest seed technology company, if it is successful in acquiring Monsanto – Bayer’s Adrian Percy, a global head of Research and Development with Bayer, has publicly bemoaned the fact that consumers in Europe are staunchly resisting genetic engineering and even stated that he believes that the battle over GMOs in Europe is over.

“To be honest,” he said. “I think that battle is probably lost.”

Percy says that countries like France and Germany are simply not going to budge when it comes to GMOs and that there is no point in fighting it. But that doesn’t mean that Percy, Monsanto or Bayer are actually giving up. In fact, they’re simply gearing up for a new fight, this time, with more “educated” “scientists,” “farmers” and “consumers.”

The company is planning to push for a new form of genetic engineering known as gene editing. And this time, the corporation wants consumers pacified before the fight even starts.

Percy said he believes it’s critical that the scientific community get behind gene editing and other forms of genetic engineering and take the lead in advocating for the technologies to be used in Europe. There is little doubt, of course, that the legions of scientists who are getting paid by GMO seed companies to find positive results in their experiments…oops, I mean, (*Ahem) objective results.

This is despite the fact that the last time scientists and Bayer went on a propaganda spree in Europe, it ended with the deaths of millions of people in concentration camps in the second World War. But what is a few million people gassed to death between friends, eh?

Study Shows Roundup Weedkiller Causes Liver Disease At Extremely Low Concentrations

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

March 13, 2017

If the toxic herbicide glyphosate had not provided enough reasons to justify a ban, a new study published in Scientific Reports is doing just that.

This study has revealed that Roundup, of which glyphosate is the main ingredient, has the potential to cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The study involved a test on rats that showed that even at extremely low levels of exposure, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was produced.

This peer-reviewed study showed that Roundup caused NAFLD at a concentration far below that which is found in the bodies of most Americans.

Indeed, the research showed that exposing the rats to Roundup in concentrations a thousand times lower than allowable limits in food and drinking water or even lower than concentrations found in the urine of most Americans caused changes in the liver which contained the molecular signature of NAFLD.

Around a third of U.S. residents are affected by NAFLD which generally causes no symptoms in most people but can lead to liver cirrhosis and cancer. There are known risk factors but these factors do not explain the increase of cases of NAFLD and why it is much more common in young people in the past. It is also worth noting that liver cancer has increased among Americans almost three-fold since the 1980s.

As Dr. David Schubert, Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies wrote,

In the world of drug development, in which I am a participant, before a drug is allowed into the clinic, it must be carefully screened in animals such as rats to determine if it shows toxic effects at the exposure levels where it is expected to be effective in humans. If any toxicity is observed, the drug is not allowed. In addition, once approved, signs of toxicity in patients must be monitored and reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One would hope that this would also be the case with prevalent agricultural chemicals, but it is not. 

GM Golden Rice Flops In New Trial, Mutant Plants Reduces Crop Yield

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

March 13, 2017

After millions of dollars and untold amounts of hype, the GM Lobby’s favorite crop is demonstrating itself to do the opposite of what it was allegedly intended to do.

As evidenced by a new study, Golden Rice, which was engineered to produce the precursor of vitamin A (carotenoids) has shown extensive abnormalities in growth as well as reduced grain yield.

The researchers named several reasons for the poor performance of Golden Rice, one of which being, that the new gene interferes with the plant’s gene that produces growth hormones. In addition, the new gene was not solely active in the kernels as it was intended, but also in the leaves. Both issues caused a substantial reduction in the amount of chlorophyll which is essential for the life of the plant.

Interestingly enough, these unintended effects were not detected in previous experiments. And Golden Rice was advertised as being a crop that would be genetically stable.

For years, Golden Rice has been hyped by the GMO lobby, Big Ag corporations and the “charitable” NGO community as the miracle that would save the third world from vitamin A deficiency, blindness and starvation. But so far, as is the case with most GMO crops, golden rice has produced nothing.

Instead, it seems that years of repeating the term Golden Rice in relation to saving the world and painting anti-GMO activists as stubbornly forcing the third world to starve is mainly more effective as a PR campaign than anything else.

Big corporations and NGOs run by bankers and financiers could not care less about starvation in the third world. After all, banks and corporations are largely the reason why Africans live on a continent of unimaginable abundance yet starve to death on a daily basis.

Parity Is The Answer To America’s Agricultural Crisis

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

March 6, 2017

Farming is, by nature, an up and down game, with so many variables going into the production of food that can drive both prices and production. Throughout American and, indeed, world history, agriculture has been susceptible to the climate, weather, human action, war, and economic policy. But, for all history, one thing has remained constant: the fact that human society totally depends on the ability of farmers to produce food. It is quite a simple realization but a powerful one. The death of the farmer is the death of humanity as a whole.

In the United States, since the early 1900s, the entire country has experience various farm crises – some as a result of weather and climate disasters but mostly as a result of governmental policy, i.e. the inability of the U.S. government to ensure that farmers actually have an incentive to produce food.

America made it through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression and still lived to establish perhaps the greatest or near greatest fair agricultural system in the world . . . until the mid-1950s when that system was ended with the advent of the 1980s farm crisis and a series of events that has seen big banks and big corporations take the place of family farmers, a process that is continuing to this day. In 2017, American farming is in the worst shape of American history.

Neil Young Slams Obama, Bayer, Says Fuck Monsanto!

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

September 22, 2016

In addition to providing a stunning performance during the 31st Farm Aid concert in Bristow, VA Neil Young stole the show at the press conference before the event began.

While Farm Aid has always been focused on saving family farmers who are in distress, decades of corporate control and monopolization of the American food supply has forced the organization to also move toward helping restart the tradition of family farming and facilitating the good food movement. Obviously, GMOs have become a major issue as a result. So when it came time for Young to speak at the press conference, the godfather of grunge didn’t hold back.

Speaking fresh on the heels of the Bayer/Monsanto merger, Young spoke about the growing concern over corporate control over the food supply and the fact that this merger is a frightening new development in the corporate war on American agriculture. He also took aim at Barack Obama who has supported, facilitated, and pushed corporate control since the day he took office.

Young stated:

We have just begun. This is a revolution. And we will look back on this one way or the other in ten or fifteen years and see what folks like this are doing. We recently have seen giant corporations that are selling for billions and billions of dollars that are joining together and we heard just a few minutes ago about how somebody was eating bad food and got sick and had to take a lot of drugs and now they are eating good food and are starting to not take so many drugs. And you have to notice that one of the biggest drug companies on the planet and one the largest pesticide providers on the planet, Monsanto and Bayer, have just joined together. 

Ante Upped On Bayer Monsanto Merger – Billions On The Table

Brandon Turbeville

Natural Blaze

September 12, 2016

The possibility of a merger between German pharmaceutical and chemical company Bayer AG and multinational seed and pesticide corporation Monsanto Co. has just increased with the recent rounds of discussions between the two companies.

Having been in discussion regarding Bayer’s potential purchase of Monsanto for some time, Bayer has now suggested that it is now willing to offer more than $65 billion dollars. This is a two percent increase from the previous offer made by Bayer. On the other side of the deal, Monsanto has agreed to open its books for Bayer to conduct thorough checks into the company’s business status.

Bayer’s previous offer was already considered the biggest all-cash takeover bid on record. Bayer has stated that it is prepared to offer 127.50 per share – $2.50 more per share than its previous offer. “Both sides are gradually nearing consensus,” said one person familiar with the discussions and quoted by Reuters.

If Bayer does indeed purchase Monsanto it will give the company the opportunity to become one of the top dogs in the “farm supplies industry” an already highly consolidated market.

Bayer would be combining its crop science aspect with Monsanto’s near-monopoly in seeds. Monsanto has stated that it is continuing the conversation with Bayer. As well as evaluating Bayer’s offer, it also stated that it was evaluating proposals from other prospective buyers although it declined to name these other parties.

While the deal has a high probability of going through, one must also wonder what will happen to Monsanto’s shares if Bayer declines to purchase the corporation.

Is NC Requiring Barcodes for Backyard Chicken Owners?

Heather Callaghan

Natural Blaze

Posted to Natural Blaze on July 23, 2015 

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is using the Midwestern poultry avian flu outbreak as an opportunity to decree new requirements for chicken farmers. These newly released rules - in case of a potential event - have prompted small family farms, and backyard chicken owners to wonder how cozy the Ag Commission wants to be - and what happens if a quarantine is declared.

9 WNCT News reports:

All poultry owners are now required to register for an NC Farm ID number, regardless of the number of birds owned.

This ID number will help the department to alert poultry owners about outbreaks. 

Owners can register online after August 1.

It's that word "regardless" that has people talking. Seriously - NCFarmID for one or two chickens? NCFarmID regardless. Some backyard chicken owners already don't appreciate what they feel is an invasive mandate. 

The Ag Department issued a press release. The designated information area specifically for backyard chickens reads: