Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 613 ｜ Baby Formula Shortage, Food Plant Fires & the Great Reset

00:00:00.000 Hey, y'all. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. This episode is brought to you by our friends

00:00:05.060 at Good Ranchers. Go to GoodRanchers.com slash Allie. That's GoodRanchers.com slash Allie.

00:00:19.580 You know, speaking of Good Ranchers, I received a funny tweet this morning from some blue check

00:00:24.500 mark. I don't know who this person is. Her name is Ginny Hogan. She bills herself as a comedian,

00:00:32.600 and she responded to a tweet that I did yesterday about toxic mommy culture. If you guys listen to

00:00:41.240 this podcast at all, or if you read my book, you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this

00:00:45.880 trend, this culture of moms jokingly, quote unquote, complaining about how terrible their kids are and

00:00:52.540 how their kids are brats and burdens and how I just think it's so toxic in that it contributes

00:00:56.880 to low birth rates, to abortion rates, and poor mental health in kids. There's just no doubt in

00:01:02.940 my mind that there is a causal relationship there. And so I said, you know, positive mommy culture is

00:01:07.760 something different. It can be both real, vulnerable, transparent, sharing in the struggles and

00:01:12.500 sacrifices of motherhood, but also joyful and grateful. And this person, Ginny Hogan, felt the

00:01:18.460 need to take time out of her morning to reply to my tweet saying this, Allie, every ad on your podcast

00:01:24.680 is for meat. How pro-life are you? L-O-L. L-O-L, Ginny Hogan. Maybe this is supposed to be a joke

00:01:34.260 because she bills herself as a comedian. Now I looked at one of her bits, and it's the most

00:01:39.640 unoriginal bit that you can possibly, possibly think of. Surprise, surprise. She's a female comedian

00:01:46.720 joking about how she slept around when she was drunk. Wow. No female comedian has ever made

00:01:53.320 that joke before. That is just some grade A original content. So I don't think that she's

00:01:58.400 actually trying to joke here. I think that she is probably serious. Every ad on your podcast is

00:02:04.320 for meat. How pro-life are you? Because apparently being actually pro-life is being for the killing of

00:02:12.340 human babies, but against the killing of cows for hamburgers. I don't know. Maybe there is some

00:02:19.760 kind of differentiation between a human being and an animal. Now, I do think that she brings up an

00:02:26.020 important point about how kind of secular thinking can lead to the equating of worth between animals and

00:02:35.320 human beings. And that, again, is why the biblical worldview is so important. The differentiating

00:02:40.060 factor there is that human beings are made in the image of God, and therefore we do have more value

00:02:45.460 than any other organism on earth. More power to you if you want to be a vegan. I have nothing against

00:02:51.260 that. But you do not have the moral authority to tell other people what it really means to be pro-life

00:02:58.560 because you think that we shouldn't be killing chickens, but you do think that we should be killing

00:03:05.360 pre-born children. I'm sorry. You just don't get to be the one to talk about what it actually means

00:03:12.300 to be pro-life. And if you just want to call me anti-abortion to be more specific, that's perfectly

00:03:17.600 fine. That's a very accurate label when it comes to my views. So I just wanted to point that out.

00:03:24.620 That's actually not what we're talking about today. We have been talking about abortion a lot

00:03:28.960 for the past several days, obviously because of the leaked draft of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade

00:03:36.160 decision or decision on Dobbs v. Jackson. And if they decide that that law is upheld in Mississippi,

00:03:42.780 that would effectively overturn Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which would then bring

00:03:49.880 the decision of abortion to the states. And so that is why we've been talking about it so much. But

00:03:55.160 we actually are going to take a break from talking about that today. I might talk about some things

00:04:01.900 at the end about these clinics that are being attacked if we have time. If not, we'll talk

00:04:06.540 about that tomorrow. You guys have continued to, you know, ask me some questions about the arguments

00:04:12.140 and the headlines that you're hearing in regards to abortion legislation that's coming out of these

00:04:18.720 red states. Like what is actually being banned? Can ectopic pregnancies be treated, miscarriages? And

00:04:24.400 what about IVF and all this stuff? A lot of what you're seeing and hearing is just propaganda. So

00:04:28.600 we'll bust a lot of those myths tomorrow and throughout the week. But I just kind of wanted

00:04:33.120 to focus on some other things that are going on because that is not the only thing that is happening

00:04:39.680 in the world in the news. There are other things that are really important and really affect people

00:04:46.480 and the most vulnerable people. And it actually has to do with babies. So there is a formula shortage.

00:04:52.940 There is a baby formula shortage that is happening right now in the United States. You guys have

00:04:58.040 probably heard about it. So we're going to talk about why that is. And we're going to kind of use

00:05:03.240 that as a jumping off point to talk about some of the things that are happening in the labor market

00:05:08.840 and in the economy right now and even regarding food shortages and these crazy fires that unfortunately

00:05:18.560 we are seeing and have seen consistently over the past six months that have burned down or destroyed

00:05:24.800 in a lot of cases food processing plants. So what is going on there? Are all of these things

00:05:30.780 connected? And so we're going to analyze that as we kind of take a break from Roe v. Wade and abortion

00:05:38.000 news today. So let's start out with this formula shortage. You guys have probably seen maybe even

00:05:44.580 just in your local news, you have probably seen stories of mothers saying, I can't find the formula

00:05:52.280 that I need. A lot of moms need particular formula for their baby because their baby has some kind of

00:05:58.820 sensitivity or their baby only takes a certain kind of formula because they have allergies or

00:06:05.440 whatever it is. And they cannot find a particular kind of formula that they need for their child.

00:06:11.420 And look, before we get into the numbers and why this is happening, this is a nightmare scenario.

00:06:18.680 This is a nightmare scenario for families. And I tweeted yesterday that I think that women fearing

00:06:27.000 the inability to get baby formula is actually going to affect the midterms and people's vote far more

00:06:37.440 than women's fear of being unable to get an abortion. Because this is something, this is not a potential,

00:06:45.560 this is not a hypothetical scenario. There are a lot of hypothetical hoops that a woman has to jump

00:06:51.060 through in order to really think that the decision on Roe v. Wade is going to directly affect her or

00:06:58.880 someone that she knows. There are a lot of things that would have to happen in order for that to be

00:07:04.200 something that she faces directly in her own life. But this is something, this formula shortage is

00:07:10.200 something that is happening right now. Like we are looking at women and families and babies

00:07:14.940 that are unable to get the food supply that they need, the nutrition that they need for their

00:07:21.240 child. So this is a lot more tangible. This is a lot more real. This is really impacting people

00:07:27.760 right this second. And so I think that it's going to actually have a much bigger effect on the midterms

00:07:35.040 and this kind of thing. People just feeling very uneasy about the economy and food supply in general

00:07:40.460 than this abortion decision will. I think that economic issues and shortage issues are actually

00:07:48.300 going to be more mobilizing as far as midterm voting goes, far more than the abortion issue.

00:07:58.140 And when I said that, I did get some kind of just what I thought were very unfeeling responses,

00:08:06.280 presumably from people on the right. Now, most people, I think, who retweeted or liked my tweet

00:08:12.080 or responded to my tweet agreed with me. But there were some people that said, well, you know,

00:08:18.860 why are women, it's so crazy that people are even saying this, but why are women using formula anyway?

00:08:23.820 Can they not just breastfeed? These women need to be breastfeeding. Why are women using formula?

00:08:30.080 Look, I am as pro-breastfeeding as they come. I highly encourage moms to breastfeed. I have breastfed

00:08:39.660 both of my children for long periods of time. I am very pro-breastfeeding. However, there are a

00:08:47.320 thousand different reasons why a mom might be giving formula to their child. You have no idea. You have

00:08:53.540 no idea the different scenarios. And I could get into all of the different physical or medical

00:08:59.280 reasons that a woman, that a mom might be using formula, or maybe this child is adopted. You really

00:09:07.060 just don't know. So maybe, you know what they say about when you assume. So let's just abide by

00:09:15.240 that rule when it comes to this and recognize that the women, that the mothers who are using formula

00:09:20.680 for their kids, they are just trying to give their kids proper nutrients. Okay. So let's not be

00:09:25.520 presumptuous and judgmental when it comes to moms trying to care for their kids. The fact of the

00:09:29.940 matter is, is that there are moms that are trying to give formula to their kids that they need,

00:09:33.620 and they can't find it at their local stores. They can't find it at Target. They can't find it at

00:09:37.760 Costco. They can't find it at Walmart. So what is happening and why is this happening? And is it

00:09:43.720 going to change? That's what we're about to get into. All right. So what is happening? In six states,

00:09:51.120 in six U.S. states, according to CBS, more than 50% of formula was out of stock as of late April.

00:09:57.020 Parents in Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota are grappling with severe shortages

00:10:00.500 of 50% to 51%, according to Dat Assembly. Out of stock levels are even higher in Missouri,

00:10:06.720 52%, Texas, 53%, and Tennessee, 54%. At the same time, between 40% and 50% of baby formula products

00:10:15.060 were out of stock in 26 states. I mean, that is insane. Think about the impact that that is having

00:10:22.480 on families, especially vulnerable families, because there are very expensive brands of formula

00:10:27.660 that you can get. You can get them shipped from overseas. And I'm sure people who have the means can

00:10:32.980 find a way to stock up on, you know, maybe hundreds of dollars worth of formula when they find it.

00:10:39.220 And, you know, I don't blame them for doing that, but that is probably exacerbating the problem,

00:10:45.460 especially for people who cannot afford to do that. I mean, the impact of this just cannot be

00:10:50.640 overstated. This is according to Independent, and this was the end of last month. They say this,

00:10:57.320 quote, large retailers across the U.S. have begun rationing baby formula after a recall and supply

00:11:02.820 chain issues caused shortages. In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA,

00:11:09.120 issued a warning to consumers after baby formula manufacturer Abbott Nutrition recalled powdered

00:11:14.700 formula following reports that multiple babies had gotten sick with bacterial infections after

00:11:20.020 consuming formula produced in its facility in Michigan. The formula was later linked to the

00:11:24.980 deaths of two infants. You guys probably remember when this happened. With the FDA reporting in its

00:11:30.260 findings in March that the formula maker failed to maintain sanitary conditions and procedures at

00:11:35.220 its manufacturing plant. That's awful. It's awful. That is not a thing that you can be lazy about.

00:11:40.520 That's not a thing that you can lower the standards. So because someone was lazy, because someone didn't

00:11:45.700 follow the rules, because either an employee or someone higher up decided that they were just going

00:11:52.800 to let something fall through the cracks and they weren't going to uphold their standards,

00:11:56.100 two babies died and multiple babies got sick because of these unsanitary conditions. So sad. In addition

00:12:03.200 to failing to maintain clean surfaces, FDA inspectors also reported finding a history of contamination with

00:12:08.480 the bacteria, Cronobacter. And I also just wonder, okay, was the FDA not inspecting these facilities

00:12:15.480 regularly? Like, was there a ball dropped by the FDA here and why? The rationing comes as an analysis

00:12:22.120 by DatAssembly, which analyzed 11,000 sellers of baby formula in the country, found that baby formula

00:12:27.780 brands hit out of stock percentages of 31% in April 2022. The latest shortage findings marked an increase

00:12:34.180 from 11% nationwide in November. So according to the CEO of DatAssembly, Ben Reich, inflation, supply

00:12:42.020 chain shortages, and product recalls have brought an unprecedented amount of volatility for baby formula.

00:12:49.140 We expect to continue to see the baby formula category being dramatically affected by these

00:12:53.920 conditions. Baby formula stock has been one of the more affected categories so far in 2022 and one that

00:13:00.360 will continue to demonstrate higher than average out of stock levels. A spokesperson for Walgreens said

00:13:06.620 that increased demand in various supplier challenges have resulted in constraints for formulas across the

00:13:12.760 country. There are other retailers who are reporting the same thing. They have had to start rationing

00:13:18.840 how much formula they put out, how much formula people can buy so that families, all families, or the

00:13:26.480 families that are able to show up to the store in time can at least have some formula. According to the

00:13:33.480 Washington Post, the same limit is currently being placed by CVS, which is rationing purchases online and

00:13:39.120 in stores to three units. So this is absolutely devastating. Now, what we keep hearing is that it's not just a

00:13:48.140 recall, but that it is supply chain challenges. That's what we're hearing about the shortages of a lot of

00:13:54.840 things. Supply chain challenges. So what exactly does that mean? What are the different factors that are

00:14:02.140 playing in to supply chain shortages? What exactly does this mean? Well, we have done a previous podcast on

00:14:11.600 this with Ross Kennedy. We've done two podcast episodes on this with Ross Kennedy. Both of them have been very

00:14:17.040 popular. So we will link those episodes in the description of this episode. But I will just kind

00:14:24.400 of give an overview on what is happening there. And this will kind of lead us into talking about this

00:14:31.120 crazy phenomenon of food processing plants that are being burned because I do kind of think this is all

00:14:39.140 connected. So a few things are causing supply chain issues. And I'm not talking exclusively about baby

00:14:46.140 formula. But as I said, I do think that one thing is kind of leading to another. So yes, the Ukraine

00:14:53.500 Russia conflict is causing problems in the supply chain. Now you will hear the Biden administration

00:14:59.880 blame all of our supply issues and our shortages on the Ukraine Russia conflict. You will hear him say

00:15:06.420 that that's the reason for high gas prices. That's the reason for inflation. But of course, that's not true.

00:15:11.020 If you look at any chart of gas prices or the prices of any good in service or of the shortages that we

00:15:21.760 have experienced, you will see that all of those things were happening in 2021, long before Russia

00:15:27.600 invaded Ukraine. So this is just kind of a political tactic for the Biden administration to try to shift

00:15:33.660 blame. Because this does have to do not entirely, but it does have to do at least partly on Democrats and

00:15:40.260 Biden's economic policies, which we'll get into just a little bit. But the Ukraine Russia conflict

00:15:46.380 does play a part in this. Ukraine has often been known as the breadbasket of Europe. A lot of a lot

00:15:53.740 of food, a lot of natural resources that Europe particularly relies on comes out of Ukraine. Obviously,

00:16:01.580 that's a problem right now. They're not able to get the food and the supplies and the natural

00:16:05.320 resources out of Ukraine that they typically do. Another factor at play here is China. As we talked

00:16:11.660 about a couple of weeks ago, Shanghai has been on lockdown because of a very low rate of COVID

00:16:20.280 positive cases. They have completely shut the city of tens of millions of people down. And there are

00:16:27.240 multiple cities in China that are still dealing with these very unscientific, draconian measures

00:16:33.600 in the name of trying to control the spread of COVID. But of course, we know, as communist

00:16:40.480 dictators do, they're using COVID simply as a pretense, as a justification to control the populace,

00:16:47.480 period. And a lot of our stuff, a lot of the things that we need, a lot of the ingredients that we need

00:16:53.060 for a whole variety of things come out of China. I'm surprised that we haven't seen more issues with

00:16:58.060 people needing to get the life-saving medicine that they get for all kinds of different

00:17:03.100 medical problems, that that's not being even more affected than we are seeing right now.

00:17:08.880 And then we are also seeing this issue, which I think absolutely plays into the shortages

00:17:14.300 that we are seeing right now. And just kind of the general feeling that I know that you all have,

00:17:20.760 that you can't get exactly what you want. And in some cases, like when it comes to baby formula or

00:17:25.560 medicine, the things that you actually need and the general feeling that things just aren't how they

00:17:31.080 used to be. You can't get the same service that you used to be able to. You go to a restaurant and

00:17:37.080 you kind of expect that things just aren't going to be as hospitable or as efficient as they once

00:17:43.200 were. You don't know if your plane is going to land on time or if you're going to have a flight at

00:17:49.180 all. Now, some of these things have definitely improved, but a lot of things have just stayed

00:17:53.980 stagnant. It seems like the restaurant, the hospitality industry have really taken a hit,

00:17:59.460 and that we have just been forced to kind of lower our expectations when it comes to the kinds of

00:18:09.380 services and the efficiency that we are going to experience in these realms. And a reason for that

00:18:18.120 is low labor participation rate. Now, the participation rate in the labor market has been falling for years.

00:18:26.380 So this is not something that we can only lay at Joe Biden's or the Democrats' feet. A greater number

00:18:33.740 of people have been getting older. They have been retiring. But this has been exacerbated.

00:18:42.700 This low labor participation rate has precipitated because of COVID and really because of COVID lockdowns.

00:18:50.160 A bunch of baby boomers went into retirement early in 2020 and 2021. And also a lot of mothers stopped

00:18:58.480 working during COVID. And so this has added to the falling labor participation rate, which means

00:19:06.740 that places are having a hard time hiring people, which means they're just not going to be able to

00:19:12.460 provide the same services in the same amount of time as they were before. And we're going to get more

00:19:20.780 into what the numbers actually are in just a second. So as I said, a bunch of baby boomers going into

00:19:28.400 early retirement, they were probably planning to retire within the next 10 years anyway. But they said,

00:19:33.340 hey, you know what, why don't I just go ahead and quit my job or go ahead and retire? Now seems like

00:19:41.880 a good time to do that. So that affected the labor market. And then a lot of moms were like,

00:19:47.840 what the heck am I supposed to do for child care? Or hey, I don't want my kid just virtually learning

00:19:51.900 sitting in front of a screen. So I'm going to start homeschooling my kid. That took them out of the

00:19:57.100 job market. So this is according to the U.S. Census. Around 10 million U.S. mothers living with

00:20:02.680 their own school age children were not actively working in January of 2021. 1.4 million more than

00:20:09.740 during the same month last year, 2020, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data. Millions of baby

00:20:17.380 boomers retire each year from the U.S. labor force. But in the past year, the census says, oh, no, this is

00:20:23.240 according to Pew Research. Sorry. But in the past year, the number of retired boomers increased more

00:20:28.860 than in prior years, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of monthly labor force data.

00:20:34.340 In the third quarter of 2020, about 28.6 million baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964,

00:20:41.000 reported that they were out of the labor force due to retirement. This is 3.2 million more boomers than

00:20:47.660 the 25.4 million who were retired in the same quarter of 2019. So this is all affecting everything

00:20:56.540 that we're talking about because companies have a lot of jobs that are unfilled. And yet they can't

00:21:05.880 necessarily find the people or they don't have the same pool of people to choose from because older

00:21:12.500 Americans and because women are just not participating in the labor market the way that they

00:21:20.100 used to. Now, this does not account for everything, though, because a lot of these companies that are

00:21:25.740 looking for workers aren't necessarily attracting baby boomers. They're actually probably looking for

00:21:31.840 much younger candidates. And even those kinds of companies, restaurants, hotels, businesses are not

00:21:40.000 able to find employees. So why is that? Business Insider talks about this a little bit. They say as

00:21:47.260 employees leave their jobs, businesses are saying they have few or no qualified candidates. While

00:21:51.880 companies are competing to find talent, some businesses are having trouble getting applicants to

00:21:56.100 even show up for interviews. One common explanation is that workers aren't looking for the types of jobs

00:22:01.540 employers have on offer and potential employees lack the skills for the positions that are open.

00:22:09.800 And so that is definitely a theory. Businesses have boosted wages to attract and keep workers during

00:22:17.120 the tight labor market. Now, some people who are seeking jobs, this is according to Slate, a very

00:22:22.700 left-wing outlet, they say that some people seeking jobs are saying, no, the money's just not right, or

00:22:30.780 I don't want to work that kind of job. I have 8 to 10 years experience, and I'm not going to take

00:22:37.620 that kind of low-level job, which I understand. But if you are looking for a job and there is a job

00:22:44.960 offer, then I'm not so sure that you are necessarily in a position to reject it. Although I do understand

00:22:52.500 that concern and that frustration, absolutely. But it's a scenario where if you are actually in need

00:22:58.280 of the money, you will take the opportunity that is presented in front of you. The fact is that some

00:23:03.280 people are simply disincentivized from getting a job. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says this,

00:23:12.760 quote, right now, the labor force participation is 62.4%, down from 63.3% in January 2020. It's clear

00:23:21.200 that able workers are being overlooked or sitting on the sidelines. But there's not just one reason

00:23:26.000 that workers are sitting out, but several factors have come together to cause the ongoing shortage.

00:23:30.640 The U.S. Chamber surveyed unemployed workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic on what is

00:23:36.060 keeping them from returning to work. Nearly one in three women indicated that the need to be home

00:23:41.920 and care for children or other family members has made the return to work difficult or impossible.

00:23:47.280 So we already noted that. More than a quarter of men indicated that their industry was still suffering

00:23:52.260 and not good enough jobs were available to return to work. So obviously, if someone is saying,

00:23:59.120 I'm not going to return to work because the jobs that are available aren't jobs that I want,

00:24:05.200 then someone like someone is giving them the money to stay home, right? So U.S. Chamber of Commerce

00:24:13.280 says this, enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and not being able to go out and spend money

00:24:20.040 during the lockdown all contributed to Americans collectively adding $4 trillion to their savings

00:24:24.880 accounts. Since early 2020, the extra few hundred dollars a week from enhanced unemployment benefits,

00:24:30.280 which ended in September 2021, specifically led to 68% of claimants earning more on unemployment

00:24:38.440 than they did while working. So even though the COVID-specific unemployment benefits expired in September 2021,

00:24:47.820 there is still an incentive, particularly depending on what state you live in, there is an incentive

00:24:54.740 to not work. If, including transit and all of the expenses that come with actually going to a job,

00:25:02.500 if you are making more money staying at home because of your unemployment benefits,

00:25:08.940 then you are actually going to work. And so that is absolutely a factor here.

00:25:14.500 For the Daily Signal, John Stossel wrote in May of 2021 that America has a record 8.1 million job

00:25:22.760 openings. I think that's more now. I think it's like 10 million. The media call it a labor shortage,

00:25:27.460 but he argues it's not a labor shortage. It is an incentive shortage. No one wants to work,

00:25:32.620 says a sign on a restaurant drive-thru speaker in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Please be patient with the

00:25:37.000 staff that did show up. And I just have to say, like, whenever I go to a coffee shop or whenever I go to

00:25:42.140 some kind of fast food restaurant, I am actually, like, impressed and thankful for the people who

00:25:49.340 are there because I know there are so many people who are simply opting out of work because they don't

00:25:53.940 want to work and they don't want to work in what they see as menial jobs. And I am especially impressed

00:25:59.640 when I see people in those jobs working really hard and being as joyful as they can in those jobs

00:26:05.980 because so many people who are there, they are there begrudgingly and they have bad attitudes.

00:26:10.960 They're not working hard. So I do think in light of all that we're talking about that we should have

00:26:16.080 a whole lot of grace and a whole lot of gratitude for all the people who are showing up to work right

00:26:20.660 now, even if they have an incentive to stay home, even if they would be making more money from the

00:26:25.960 government, they are choosing the dignity that is inherent with work. And that is something to be

00:26:31.140 applauded. He goes on to say, John Stossel for the Daily Signal, well, he talks about that he didn't

00:26:38.080 want to work either. He worked because he had to work. And he says the American Rescue Plan passed

00:26:42.800 in March of 2021 increased unemployment payments by hundreds of dollars and extended them for up to

00:26:47.860 73 weeks. Given the cost of commuting, etc., many people find they are better off financially not

00:26:53.280 working. Denmark once offered workers five years of unemployment. Then Denmark noticed that workers

00:26:59.600 found work after exactly five years. So Denmark cut the benefit to four years. Then most workers found jobs

00:27:06.040 after four years. Now Denmark wisely has cut benefits in half. Therefore, incentives matter.

00:27:13.400 America's unemployment handouts began during the Great Depression, he explains when desperate people

00:27:17.600 really needed help. Still, you could only collect for 16 weeks. And so now we have a very we have

00:27:25.000 perverse incentives in the United States, where it is actually worse in a lot of cases to make more

00:27:30.960 money or get a job. You're worse off financially than you would be if you just didn't work at all. We

00:27:36.440 disincentivize marriage. We disincentivize responsibility when it comes to work. We disincentivize

00:27:42.320 people working harder so they can get a promotion. I personally know a family now. They have a lot of

00:27:47.920 integrity and they're very hardworking people. But her husband had a job and they were on Medicaid

00:27:54.520 and her husband got presented with a promotion opportunity. Well, if he took this promotion

00:28:00.800 that made them a little bit more money, they would lose all of their health care benefits.

00:28:05.540 And so they made the really hard decision to actually take the promotion and basically tough it

00:28:09.700 out until they could get health insurance and until he was, you know, making more money and a little

00:28:16.300 bit more secure. But look, most people aren't going to make that decision. Most people, a lot of people

00:28:21.640 can't make that decision. A lot of people aren't thinking five to 10 years, okay, it's going to be

00:28:27.020 better long term if I take this particular promotion. They're only thinking, how am I going to

00:28:32.620 care for my family right now? And I don't blame them for that. But we have a very perverse incentive

00:28:38.360 structure when it comes to welfare. And I guarantee you that is playing a part in all of this. That is

00:28:46.740 playing a part in people not going back to their jobs in addition to the other factors that we're

00:28:51.400 talking about. So that is playing a part in the corporations, the companies, the businesses in

00:28:57.940 this country not being able to supply the things they need to supply. This is in addition to all of

00:29:03.720 the global supply chain issues that we are seeing. And I guarantee you that has something to do with

00:29:10.160 the manufacturers of baby formula being unable to put the formula on the shelves that they need to put

00:29:17.680 on the shelves. There are so many moving pieces when it comes to any given product getting into

00:29:24.040 our hands. And labor shortages and supply shortages and supply chain disruptions all have to play into

00:29:32.440 that. And so gosh, once again, guys, why do politics matter? Because policy matters. Why does policy

00:29:39.720 matter? Because people matter. Like you realize that all of these things, even though they're not

00:29:43.720 exclusively political, and they don't only have to do with the people who are in charge right now,

00:29:49.620 still the political realm matters. I mean, economics matter and politics certainly play a role in all of

00:29:57.680 this. And we'll talk a little bit about how progressives are kind of seeing this supply chain

00:30:03.140 issue that we are dealing with as an opportunity for something that we've talked about many times that

00:30:09.040 if you haven't listened to these episodes may sound conspiratorial and unfortunately is not for these

00:30:13.580 kinds of great reset economic overhaul policies that the World Economic Forum and some of the world

00:30:19.880 leaders have been plotting and planning for a very long time. And I think they see this crisis as an

00:30:25.060 opportunity for, you know, green energy, for their so-called stakeholder capitalism model, for less

00:30:33.940 private ownership, less self-reliance, all the things we've talked about in the past that I will link the

00:30:39.360 past episode on that. It is all connected. I don't think that this is all necessarily purposeful.

00:30:46.060 I've seen some people say, I think that they are purposely withholding baby formula to basically

00:30:50.880 torture families. I don't think that that is happening. I do think it's a crisis that will be used

00:30:56.960 in a way that is perverse. And I do think that it's all kind of connected. I don't see evidence of

00:31:04.320 some kind of conspiracy theory for purposely withholding baby formula for people. But a lot

00:31:09.800 of the policies that we are, that we have talked about in the past are affecting the things that we

00:31:14.440 just described, which then does lead to the baby formula shortage. So there is some kind of connection

00:31:19.640 there, even if it is not direct and completely deliberate. And part of this, I guess, speaking of

00:31:27.080 conspiracies or speaking of theories or questions that people have, legitimate questions that people have

00:31:32.580 that also have to do with the shortages that we're seeing is the the fires, the fires that we have

00:31:39.160 seen at food processing plants across the country for the past six months. What the heck is going on

00:31:44.380 there? Why is this happening? And why does it seem like so few outlets are reporting on it? So we'll

00:31:49.800 mention that we'll explain that in just one second. All right, so let's talk just briefly about these food

00:31:57.520 processing plants that have burned down. So there was this viral tweets by someone by the name of Dr.

00:32:05.260 Benjamin Braddock. He originally tweeted an article to or he tweeted a link to a Newsweek article titled

00:32:14.620 seven injured and explosion as fire engulfs food plants smoke visible for miles. And his first tweet

00:32:21.660 says several very large food processing plants in the US have blown up slash burned down.

00:32:27.520 In the past few days. And then he has compiled this long thread that was updated just a few days ago

00:32:34.820 of all of these food processing plants that have mysteriously burned or burned down just in the past

00:32:43.000 few months. So I have a list of some of those in front of me. Azure Standard in Dewford. Is that what it is?

00:32:52.160 Dewford, Oregon. That one burned. Taylor Farms processing plant in Salinas, California. East Conway beef and

00:33:00.380 pork butcher shop in Slaughterhouse in Conway, New Hampshire. Pinup Scott McCrumb potato processing plant

00:33:08.000 in Belfast. Nestle plant in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Shears Foods potato chip plant in Oregon. Bonanza

00:33:18.080 Meat Co. Wisconsin River meat. Cargill neutrino plant. Poultry processing plant. Food processing

00:33:24.740 plant in San Antonio, Texas. Made Right State Company. JVS USA beef processing plant. Patak meat

00:33:32.420 products in Cobb County, Georgia. Tyson's River Valley ingredients rendering plant. And Alabama Kellogg

00:33:37.520 plant in Memphis. Smithfield foods pork plant. Deli star meat processing plant.

00:33:44.120 Those are just those are just a few. And a lot of them are under investigation. Now, some of them, they're saying

00:33:52.040 that it was just an accident. They think they know how these how these fires were started. And I think it's totally

00:34:00.320 legitimate for people to ask a very sane question. Is this orchestrated? Is this deliberate? Now, there are a lot of

00:34:07.900 theories out there. I don't know. I mean, I do think that we should talk about the possibility of

00:34:13.740 eco-terrorism. That is something that exists and that has been responsible, unfortunately, for disasters

00:34:20.920 that have happened in the United States over the years. Something that I think was really underreported

00:34:26.680 was the guy who lit himself on fire a couple weeks ago in front of the Supreme Court, on the steps of the

00:34:34.900 Supreme Court protesting for climate change. He ended up dying because he lit himself on fire. I mean, these are very

00:34:42.300 extreme, radical people. And so I don't know that is a complete theory, a complete guess. And unfortunately, we have

00:34:51.540 to theorize and guess because we don't have an honest media. The media who is on the left simply doesn't report things

00:34:58.520 that are inconvenient to its narrative, typically. And we've got a bunch of climate change activists in

00:35:04.360 the media that would never say that these are, you know, radical eco-activists who are trying to

00:35:13.360 intentionally, you know, ruin these plants that they think are bad for the environment. A lot of those

00:35:19.640 people are also vegan, going back to the beginning of this episode, who probably just don't like

00:35:26.900 these meat processing plants. Now, again, that is a total theory. It's really hard to believe that this is just

00:35:34.180 coincidental, that this is that this is something that is just happening back to back. If that's the case, if that's the

00:35:41.700 case, if this is not contrived at all, if this is not orchestrated or organized, if this is not a deliberate act of

00:35:49.240 terrorism, which I hope to God it's not, then why are the safety standards dropping? Like what's what's happening here?

00:35:56.540 Are these places, again, as we were talking about with Abbott Labs, like are they not being inspected

00:36:01.760 properly? Is it because of these other issues that we've talked about that there are just too few

00:36:06.680 people that are working there? They can't have the same number of employees, so they're trying to turn

00:36:11.700 out the same number of products as before, and that is causing some sloppiness or some laziness or just

00:36:21.840 the inability to keep up with the process because there are too few people to do it. Like is is that part

00:36:29.100 of it? And so I think that there are a lot of possibilities beyond terrorism, beyond the theory

00:36:37.720 that this is that these are deliberate people or these are people who are deliberately setting these

00:36:42.680 plants on fire. Obviously, that's a possibility. If we had an honest press, they would be seriously

00:36:47.660 exploring that. But I also think that it is a possibility that this is happening simply because

00:36:53.580 of the other issues that we were talking about, because every single industry is being crushed kind

00:37:00.060 of under the weight of these shortages and of low labor participation. And so all of this goes hand in

00:37:11.120 hand with not just the inconveniences that America is experiencing, but the inability to get the things

00:37:17.980 that you desperately need to live. And then on top of all of this, on top of all of this, we have a

00:37:25.160 fertilization shortage, which again, plays into everything that we are talking about. It plays into the food

00:37:31.720 shortages. It plays into people being unable to get the things that they need. And it plays into farmers

00:37:37.080 being unable to provide for their families and then just quitting their jobs altogether because they

00:37:42.240 are unable to do the job that they are being compensated for. The USAID's Samantha Power said in

00:37:51.780 a May 1 ABC interview, she admitted that fertilizer shortages are real now. And if you just imagine all of

00:37:59.660 the implications and the consequences of that, of a fertilizer shortage, think about all of the things that

00:38:05.920 could potentially affect, I mean, that is going to be absolutely, is going to continue to be absolutely

00:38:11.340 disastrous. Now, one conspiracy that I had heard in the past and was going around on TikTok is that

00:38:20.040 farmers were being paid to ruin their crops, that the USDA was sending letters to farmers and that they

00:38:26.680 were saying, hey, if you ruin your crops, we will compensate you. Or if you'll like burn your harvest,

00:38:33.740 we will make sure that you get paid X amount or you won't receive your subsidies if you don't ruin

00:38:40.000 your crops. And so I looked into this. And while Snopes is not always reliable because it does lean

00:38:45.180 to the left, I did think that their fact checking on this was trustworthy and good. And I want to just

00:38:51.000 fact check this quickly, according to Snopes, because I've seen a lot of people talk about it on

00:38:55.420 Instagram. So Snopes says in the summer of 2021, rumors started circulating on social media that the U.S.

00:39:01.360 government was forcing farmers to destroy their crops. This rumor was largely spread in TikTok

00:39:05.700 videos by people claiming that they had received letters from the USDA instructing farmers to destroy

00:39:11.400 their crops. And so this person, Niefly and Farmer, I guess that's how you pronounce their handle,

00:39:18.960 said that they, you know, they posted a letter from the USDA saying, hey, you better destroy your crops.

00:39:25.440 But USDA said this is not true. And then the guy who originally posted it was like, oh, yeah,

00:39:32.900 it was a joke. And then someone else on Twitter, Ryan Peter posted a video saying, oh, they're just

00:39:42.600 pouring oil into the ground because the U.S. government told them to dump oil into the ground.

00:39:49.340 And then he posted, oh, that was just a joke that that was just a parody. It wasn't real. That's not

00:39:55.160 something that is happening. So the government is not paying farmers, as far as we know, to destroy

00:40:01.040 their crops. The New York Times reported in April 2020 in Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping

00:40:06.380 thousands of gallons of fresh milk into lagoons of manure pits. An Idaho farmer has dug huge ditches

00:40:11.680 to bury one million pounds of onions. And in South Florida, a region that supplies much of the eastern

00:40:15.500 half of the United States with produce tractors are crisscrossing bean and cabbage fields, plowing

00:40:20.040 perfectly ripe vegetables back into the soil. After weeks of concerns about shortages in grocery

00:40:25.300 stores and mad scrambles to find the last box of pasta or toilet paper roll, many of the nation's

00:40:29.800 largest farms are struggling with another ghastly effect of the pandemic. They are being forced to

00:40:33.780 destroy tens of millions of pounds of fresh food they can no longer sell because of the closing of

00:40:39.220 restaurants, hotels and schools that has left some farmers with no buyers for more than half their

00:40:44.040 crops. So here is where the truth comes in. And here is again, that this is all this is a matter

00:40:49.820 of policy because it wasn't because of COVID that these farmers were in 2020 actually being forced

00:40:55.980 not by the government directly, but being forced to destroy their crops because they didn't have any

00:41:00.880 buyers because of the lockdowns. I mean, awful, awful, awful. So we are actually seeing a disaster when

00:41:07.760 it comes to farming, not just because of lack of fertilization, because of all the issues that we talked

00:41:12.100 about, even in Ukraine and China and all of that and, you know, lack of employees and things like that.

00:41:18.900 But also farmers are struggling and the food supply is struggling because of this, because they had to

00:41:25.180 destroy their crops, which means that they weren't able to get the money that they needed because of

00:41:29.400 Democrat policies that shut down most of the economy based on absolutely no science whatsoever. And so it is

00:41:36.300 true that the government in an indirect way and Democratic run governments specifically did cause

00:41:44.860 farmers to destroy their crops, but not in the form of actually receiving a letter and saying,

00:41:49.800 hey, destroy the crops. So I do think it's important to mention that. And I do think it's important to

00:41:55.900 mention the fertilizer shortage. And I also think it's important to bring up the fact that as Samantha

00:42:01.900 Power said in this interview, Democrats, progressives in the government are going to use

00:42:07.160 this as an opportunity. They're going to use this as an opportunity to try to transition the economy,

00:42:13.280 to try to push green energy. And I won't even get in. I have a whole other section of notes that I just

00:42:20.440 think is a little bit too much because we've already kind of run out of time about what this means for

00:42:26.800 the transition to green energy and how the World Economic Forum is seeing all of this as an

00:42:33.000 opportunity for the things that we mentioned earlier. So there's a lot going on here. A 2020

00:42:40.300 white paper from WEF and the consulting firm McKinsey and Company warns of greenhouse gas emissions and

00:42:45.760 potential runoff from fertilizers advocating for an end to fertilizer. This is according to the Epoch Times

00:42:51.420 for an end to fertilizer subsidies in developing countries and praising China for its efforts to

00:42:57.260 reduce fertilizer use. In a 2018 WEF white paper co-authored with the consulting firm Accenture

00:43:05.080 claims that a 21st century approach to organic farming should strive to close the gap in yields

00:43:11.040 between organic and conventional farming. WEF's vision of 21st century agriculture comes into greater

00:43:18.120 focused in another 2018 report titled Bioinnovation in the Food System. It advocates for the bioengineering

00:43:24.660 of new microbes to fix nitrogen more efficiently in plants. This offers the prospect of lowering and

00:43:30.400 more optimally applying nitrogen fertilizer. They have also pushed the use of biosolids, in other words,

00:43:38.160 sewage, sludge like urine and feces, I suppose, as fertilizer.

00:43:46.440 So the question is, again, as we have brought up several times, as we have sprinkled in throughout

00:43:52.860 this episode, like what is intentional and what is just being used by the people in power?

00:43:59.380 What crises are kind of, I don't know if any of this is completely organic, but what crises are just

00:44:04.880 consequences of the policies over time and which ones are intentional, which ones are not,

00:44:11.040 and are just kind of being used as an opportunity by these people to kind of push their agenda?

00:44:17.420 Or how much of this is actually deliberately and directly contrived so that we, so that the people

00:44:26.200 in charge can kind of move us even further off of the reliance of our own resources and onto the

00:44:34.320 global market? And wow, I could just keep talking about all of that and we could really get into how

00:44:39.000 this plays into what the World Economic Forum wants. But we don't have time. Needless to say,

00:44:46.120 needless to say, this is all interconnected in ways that is very complex and hard to fully explore.

00:44:55.380 But keep that in mind. Whenever you hear that there is a shortage or there is a chain or we can't

00:45:00.820 figure out why a problem is happening, at the very least, it is a crisis that is going to be

00:45:06.700 exploited by the people in power to get them more power.

00:45:12.820 Okay, I just wanted to end with a little bit of encouragement for you guys and just to tell you

00:45:17.620 what I was thinking about as I was driving in this morning because I know that it can be very

00:45:23.200 overwhelming talking about the things that we are talking about. How are we supposed to fix all of

00:45:27.580 these things that are so far beyond our control? And just as a practical measure, I do think reliance on

00:45:34.000 our families, reliance on our church and our neighborhoods and communities, making our world

00:45:38.100 smaller and depending on our friends and on the fellowship of fellow believers to supply the

00:45:46.680 things that our family needs. I think that that is a solution to all of this. Of course, you know,

00:45:52.920 gardening yourself and making your own food and all of that is great. I understand that that's not

00:45:57.520 necessarily feasible for everyone depending on your life stage and your resources and where you live.

00:46:02.420 But I do think self-reliance and localization is helpful here and being generous and sharing

00:46:09.820 everything that we have and really reflecting as Christians, the local church. And I was listening

00:46:14.400 to a podcast by Elizabeth Elliott this morning. And you guys know probably that I love Elizabeth

00:46:21.080 Elliott. There is a podcast, I think it's called the Elizabeth Elliott Podcast. And it has a lot of,

00:46:28.740 or excerpts at least, like 20 minutes of her talks that she gave. Some of them in the 70s, 80s. Most

00:46:36.120 of them are from the early 90s, I've found. But one thing that she talked about this morning in her

00:46:42.140 latest episode was the gift of relinquishment, relinquishing the need to control outcomes,

00:46:47.760 relinquishing the need to control other people, relinquishing the drive to control things that we

00:46:52.680 cannot control to try to be everything that we need for ourselves and for everyone else. And there

00:47:01.160 is a lot of joy and peace that passes all understanding that comes with surrender. And so

00:47:06.260 as we're thinking about all of these overwhelming things that we discussed today, and the anxiety,

00:47:12.620 gosh, that comes with something like not being able to get the baby formula that you need,

00:47:18.820 I think that we should remember Philippians 4.19, which is a verse that she was talking about as

00:47:23.880 I was listening this morning. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory

00:47:32.820 in Christ Jesus. My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

00:47:41.480 So we serve a God that will supply every need. And also reminds me of, I believe, I'm just looking

00:47:49.240 this up as I am speaking, Matthew 10, 29 through 32, we talk about this passage a lot,

00:48:02.100 are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.

00:48:07.720 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than

00:48:14.120 many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father

00:48:19.420 who is in heaven. Whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven.

00:48:26.120 And really the more important thing there were the first two verses that I read, that you are of much

00:48:32.600 more value than two sparrows, and not one of them falls from the sky apart from your father's will.

00:48:40.340 And so you have nothing to be concerned about. God will supply every need of yours in Christ Jesus.

00:48:47.100 And we as the church, as the hands and feet of Christ, we should be showing up for people and making sure

00:48:51.420 that they are provided for. This, I'm talking to myself, I'm actually convicted right now.

00:48:55.220 I should be asking people in my church, is anyone out of baby formula? I should be asking my local

00:49:01.440 pregnancy center, do you guys need baby formula? Like, should I be going to the store right now,

00:49:07.200 getting baby formula and making sure that I donate it to the people who need it? I'm thinking about

00:49:11.760 what can I do today to help contribute to the problems that we're talking about? We can't all do

00:49:16.780 everything. We can't all worry about everything, but we can all do one thing. So if it seems like it's

00:49:21.900 far beyond our control, maybe the next thing we can do is just acting in faith and in love

00:49:27.060 according to God's will. Maybe we are part of the solution simply by reflecting the love of Christ

00:49:32.740 towards other people. And so I'm thankful that we serve a God who is sovereign, that is going to

00:49:37.760 meet all of our needs according to Christ Jesus, and that we have a God who numbers the hairs on our

00:49:45.460 head and that not one hair can fall without his knowledge and will. And so there is every reason

00:49:52.240 to find comfort, even in the craziness of everything that we talked about today. All right, we've got a

00:49:56.780 lot to cover this week that I'm excited about, and we will be back here tomorrow to do just that. See you

00:50:01.820 guys then.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 09, 2022

Ep 613 ｜ Baby Formula Shortage, Food Plant Fires & the Great Reset

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