Bird Flu and More

March 23, 2022

Hello, everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the
National Corn Growers Association, CropLife America, and Renewable Fuels Association. They
are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America.
Thank you.

And now today’s commentary-

I’m going to cover some different issues today. As we all know the war in Ukraine dominates all

the news. But if you were in the poultry industry, you would be very concerned about bird flu.
Bird flu is deadly, and you don’t want it on your chicken farm. A Fulton County flock of 240,000
chickens had to be destroyed. Seven million chickens and turkeys in 13 states have been killed this
year. Disposal of the infected flock is the only way to stop the spread.

Bird flu is being spread by migrating birds that fly north and south. Canada reports cases of bird
flu. This influenza is not something to ignore. It raises my concerns about African Swine Fever.
That started in China. China had to dispose of almost half of their hogs. That deadly disease is on
islands in the Caribbean not far from the U.S. If it gets here that could be devastating.
Another subject – I graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. I am reading about

six young cadets on their spring break. They went to Florida to celebrate. And they got some drugs-
they tried them. The drug was cocaine laced with fentanyl. Two of the cadets almost died. I don’t

think we are doing enough to shut the door on fentanyl. Drug overdoses are killing more than
100,000 of our people every year. There are more people dying from drugs than in car accidents.
Fentanyl is up to 50 times as strong as heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. I don’t know
anything about these drugs, but it’s time to raise the red flag. Reports that I see tell us that a lot of
fentanyl is coming from China. How does it get into our country? Well, one path is across our
open Southern border. The smuggling cartels can make a lot of money bringing it in, and then we
pay the price.

I’m thinking about planting season- only about a month away. We’re not ready for it yet, but John
Deere has a new fully autonomous tractor ready to till your fields. Hard for me to imagine. No one
even riding in the tractor seat. When I grew up, we had 2 old horses pulling our corn planter.
If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go online to
www.johnblockreports.com.