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John Klar - Is Trump about to lose ranchers to save your burger?
•The Lars Larson Show
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John Klar, a Vermont farmer, author, attorney and founder of Small Farm Republic, joins Lars to discuss Trump’s decision to allow more foreign beef imports and the backlash from American ranchers.
Hey, welcome back to the program. It's a pleasure to be with you. Well, beef prices are up. Foreign imports have American ranchers pushing back. Is our hamburger going to get cheaper or will ranchers pay the price? I thought the perfect guy to talk to about that is a man who wears many hats. John Clark is a Vermont farmer, author, attorney, and founder of Small Farm Republic. Mr. Clark, welcome to the program. Oh, good afternoon. Thanks for having me. So tell me how bad a situation uh American ranchers are in right now when it comes to providing the beef that a lot of us want.
SPEAKER_00
Well, it's really, as many people know, a a long-standing problem. It was really aggravated by years of drought. And COVID disrupted a lot of the processing facilities when many of the big plants shut down. And if you have a beef cow, it they they cost a lot to feed. So if you have a large herd of animals and you can't take them to processing when they're ready, that that costs you a fortune to have to keep feeding them for months. And this became a backlog across the country. And there just have been many, many pressures, including uh higher land prices, and now beef prices are higher as a consequence. We have the lowest number of cows in the country as a national herd in 75 years. So how do you rebuild the herd when hamburger demand is so high? That's the challenge.
SPEAKER_01
I'm talking to John Clark, who's a Vermont farmer, and I take it farmer and rancher both, right? You're raising uh livestock as well.
SPEAKER_00
Well, yeah, I find that amusing because ranchers don't like to be called farmers, I've learned out west, and we don't make much of a distinction on the uh East Coast, though. Okay. I know we do eat Tillamook ice cream here in Vermont. Um, what about Tillamook cheese? No, I don't I have not seen the cheese, but we have Cabot. We have Cabot. So and we have Ben and Jerry's. You're probably eating Ben and Jerry's or people are in Oregon. Socialist Socialist ice cream? I'm I'm not sure I can do that. Yeah, I won't eat it. I won't eat it. I I badmouth it all the time. I wouldn't even give it to me for free. I wouldn't feed it to my pigs. I don't want them to be sick. But don't want to get in trouble now with Ben and Jerry's.
SPEAKER_01
You're not going to get in trouble. But but let me ask you this. So you you're right to say it's a long-standing problem. I know there are people who would like to lay all the problem at the feet of Donald Trump. But what should happen to try to change this situation? Because we've got reg well, there's drought that government can't uh, you know, can't control and can't dictate, but regulations are a different thing. And things like allowing 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef to be imported, if it's a short-term measure to get Americans through a a a thin spot, that's one thing. But I'm not sure it incentivizes farmers or ranchers to increase their herds, does it?
SPEAKER_00
Well, it doesn't. It actually created downward pressure on live cattle prices in the short term, but a lot of uh a lot of ranchers and farmers are keeping back their stock because they know long term that the demand is going to be there and the supply has shrunk. So yes, you're correct, and I don't think that the three hundred thousand metric tons is actually going to do a lot for grocery store prices, but the can the president is a situation betwixt and between. He's stuck between the consumer and the farmer. And he didn't create any of these problems and he really can't solve them all on his own. Um but I I think that um we're gonna see continued pressure until we rebuild the herd, and I think uh farmers are have finally been making some good money, and ironically, they benefited from tariffs for domestic beef prices. And now many of the people who are complaining uh about tariffs are complaining that he uh he relaxed the tariffs to allow more uh lean trimmings imports. Um but so I think you cannot blame I'll tell you what, I just wrote an article about this. Uh I'm just finishing it now.
SPEAKER_01
Plug it for my audience so there is so they know where to find it, John.
SPEAKER_00
Well, I'm probably gonna put it at American Thinker if they take it. I write regularly for American Thinker. Uh also my Substack where I republish my material is called Small Farm Republic at Substack, so thank you. Um burger prices were higher in 2015 under Obama than they are now in a p inflation adjusted terms. Well, and so I've written about it and I linked to my uh you know my resources and I wasn't handpicking them. It's just math when you adjust for inflation. Eggs were higher in under Obama in August of 2015 than they are now, twice as high. And gasoline was higher under Obama in May of 2011 when it was at the inflation adjusted equivalent of five thousand five dollars and ninety cents a gallon in today's dollars. So of course it's all about anything Donald Trump is is does is bad, and it keeps us from addressing the root problems that should bring all Americans together and ranchers, farmers, and their consumers together.
SPEAKER_01
Well, and one of the things I've been wishing for for years, John, is that we'd build more refinery capacity. But you don't get just like you don't incentivize the farmers to add more to their herd, you don't incentivize the oil companies to add more refineries when you tell them, as Joe Biden did, we're gonna put you out of business in a decade. You know, you're not even gonna be in the oil business anymore. Great, then we don't have to invest in in new refineries, do we? And that's part of the problem of why diesel is so extraordinarily high.
SPEAKER_00
Well, and I think that's why the rhetoric attacking Donald Trump now with memes and everything else just shows the desperation of a Democratic Party, but also uh uh it's dishonesty. Because you can't very well claim that Donald Trump is responsible for high gas prices after you've spent years trying to crush our refineries, but also our production and our pipelines and our and breaking leases with our Native American tribes and decimating them economically, and also spike sparking a huge inflation with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. Um we we have lower inflation now. We have lower uh we have improved real wage growth, lower unemployment. We have a lot of positives right now on the economic horizon, and they're focusing on on hamburger is just uh instead of eggs. And egg prices came down and then they're quiet. It never has anything to do with the underlying problems.
SPEAKER_01
We were just at the grocery teen and I do our family grocery shopping uh every week together. And uh and I said, look where egg prices are now. I mean they've come down a lot. And frankly, John, uh I'm talking to John Clark, who's a vermont farmer. You can find him at Small Farm Republic on Substack. People say, Well, you know, gasoline is so expensive. And I said, you know what? When I was working my first radio job in 1975, minimum wage was $1.85. For an hour of work, I could get four gallons of gasoline. Today, an hour of minimum wage work will get you four gallons of gasoline. And except the gasoline I buy today in the cars you make today are gonna get me a lot farther down the road than the gasoline I bought in my 1975.
SPEAKER_00
Well, I completely concur since we're very close in age and minimum wage memories.
SPEAKER_01
And it was a crazy time back then. John, we're gonna suggest that people check you out at Small Farm Republic on Substack and uh keep up the farming. We'll prefer to call the animal part of it ranching out here, and we'll have you back on, all right? Thank you very much. God bless you. God bless you as well. John Clark with us. Glad to have you with me. If you want to join the best conversation in talk journalism, it's here every single day at 866. Hey Lars. That's 866-439-5277. You can send your emails to talk at LarsLarson.com, and you can vote in our poll on X. The question today, you'll find it. Should the government make a home visit to every single newborn in your state, Massachusetts, is pushing that big brother for new babies. And you can find the question at Lars Larson Show. And you're listening to the Radio Northwest Network.
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