On January 8, 2018, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, presented President Trump with Report to the President of the United States from the Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity. This report focused on rural America in general.

To the extent that agriculture was mentioned, the Task Force put forth five main objectives. The first being e-connectivity. US population is estimated to grow to 400 million by 2050. “To supply this number of people with food, American farms need reliable, real-time internet connectivity to oversee operations in the fields, manage finances, and respond to international market conditions. To match world food demand, innovative technologies such as precision agriculture can insure American farms reach the necessary levels of productivity. Such methods require every part of the farm be connected to the World Wide Web, not just the farmhouse.” What about traditional, family farms? Are they necessary? Is not “overproduction” the constant excuse for low farm prices? The Task Force report states that “Precision Agriculture Technologies . . . could mean the difference between success and failure.” It seems like “over production” and rock bottom farm prices are the real goal.

The second Ag related objective is to insure access to lawful agricultural work force, with the goal to implement policy and regulatory change to improve the H-2A visa program to facilitate more H-2A work visas. The Task Force does not value the incredible farm raised talent of both young farmers and older farmers who have been and are being forced off the farm because of low prices.

The third main Task Force objective is to expand technological innovation especially biotechnology. “On the biotechnology front, better coordination of the Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration, regulations on genetic modifications of crop, and livestock, is needed to reduce barriers to commercialization of safe, beneficial, and improved genetically engineered entities.” Certainly the rails are well greased, with a large revolving door, between the regulatory agencies and biotech firms. The goal of the Task Force is to “increase public acceptance of biotech products” both domestically and world-wide. Of course, no mention is made of consumer choice, or labeling, on the domestic front. Considerable space is devoted to the advancement of biotechnology. This does not bode well for skeptics and those who want a choice in the food they eat.

The fourth major Ag objective is to expand export markets. This claim, that exports will boost farm income, is at least 45 years old, and the results on farm income have not been all that positive.

The fifth major Ag objective is to increase access to capital. What good is that without a fair price and the ability to pay back loans?

In summary, the Task Force report does not mention farm price or consumer choice, but does promote policies which will likely accelerate the loss of family farms and the consolidation of the control of our food supply.

Sincerely,

Gerald Carlin, Meshoppen, PA

Mental health clinics noted outbreaks of histrionic personality disorder, a form of hysteria. Delirium, confusion, panic attacks and acute anxiety have swept over the nation. Something is terribly wrong.

The anomalies were traced to a remark by President Trump during the bipartisan meeting about DACA: "Why are we having all these people from xxxx-hole countries like Africa and Haiti come here?"

Trump triggered an orgy of outrage. How could he refer to countries in Africa and Haiti as---well, you know what?

If the politicos dismounted their soapboxes for a moment to think rather than to reflexively react, they might see that what Trump said is, unfortunately true.

There are dozens of nations in Africa to which few would go. Nor do we see vacationers traveling to Haiti. They are third-world---to clean-up Trump's vulgarism---hell-holes of corruption, racked by tribal wars, crime, poverty and ignorance. Why this is so is, at the moment, a peripheral issue. That it is so is undeniable.

Thirty-eight of Africa's 54 nations have populations living between 40 percent and 76 percent below the poverty line of that country. In Haiti, it's 59 percent.

Trump is guilty of saying the unsayable. It's a truth we all know but dare not speak. Score one for the president's forthrightness.

Trump went on to say that we should consider immigrants from nations like Norway, referencing a meeting he recently had with that nation's prime minister.

That is to say, wouldn't it make more sense to have people who come to our shores to have a commonality with the US of race, religion, culture, values, educational background, and are assimilable; rather than nations that are the antithesis of the US's population and resist any assimilation?

Many would like to have more immigrants from Scandinavian and European nations, but they're not the ones knocking on our door. Too bad. When we welcome other nationalities, we are also importing their culture.

For Trump's comments about Norway, the White House owes no apology, nor is one offered. Score two for the president standing by his controversial comments.

Two nations that have chosen homogeneity are Japan and Israel. "Every country must maintain its borders," said Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, "and protecting the borders from illegal infiltration is both a right and a basic duty of a sovereign state."

Netanyahu is giving the illegals, that is non-Jews, a choice: imprisonment or a cash settlement to leave the country.

In fact, homogeneity is the way it's always been, from the founding of the US in 1776 until 1965. It was in that year that Sen. Ted Kennedy discovered we had it all wrong.

We should have more migrants from nations unlike the US and fewer migrants from nations like America, said Kennedy. He got want he wanted. Kennedy's Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 marked the beginning of 50 years of ruinous immigration policy.

Without a doubt, there have always been African-Americans who, by any measure were extraordinary. In the past, we had men like George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington. They were men of outstanding character, intelligence and accomplishment.

Today, there are black Americans who are equally extraordinary. Syndicated communists like Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell come to mind.

The same can be said of any immigrant from a foreign birth land. Blacks are singled out because this writer is a great admirer of the four African-Americans mentioned.

Today, giants like Carver and Washington are almost an embarrassment and journalists never bother to report the insightful viewpoints of Williams and Sowell.

Now, after half a century of this topsy-turvey immigration policy, someone has finally said enough is enough. Score three for the president for calling it as he sees it.

Diversity is not, nor has it ever been our strength. On the Great Seal of The United States is inscribed, E Pluribus Unum---Out of Many One. Not E Unum Pluribus---Out of One Many.

If current demographic trends and birthrates continue, the US will be torn into three competing demographic groups.

• Europeans: 77 percent of the population. But the current birthrate of 725/100,000 is not sufficient to prevent a decline. By the year 2048 Europeans will be a minority.
  
  
• Hispanics: 16 percent of the population. Their birthrate is about the same as Europeans, but the influx of South American Hispanics has caused this group to be the most rapidly growing segment.
  
  
• Blacks: 13 percent of the population. The birthrate for blacks of 849/100,000 ranks them as the second fastest growing demographic.

The danger is that group loyalty will override the common good. In that way lies disunity, animosity, even violence. But whatever the case, the time has come for the US to reap the bitter fruit of what it sowed in 1965.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins, New Milford, PA