NATO vs. Putin

January 6, 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-

The United States and our European allies are being challenged again as they were 8 years ago by Mr. Putin’s Russia. In 2014 we warned Vladimir Putin “don’t invade Ukraine or you will face painful economic consequence.” Putin went right ahead and took over the Crimean Peninsula. That’s part of Russia now. Last week President Biden warned Putin “don’t invade Ukraine.” Well let’s hope Putin doesn’t do what he did 6 years ago. The last thing that we need is a war with Russia.

In spite of the angry rhetoric, the NATO team of nations with the U.S. in the lead should be able
to cut a deal with Putin. Putin does not want Ukraine to become a full member of NATO. He has
some other requests on his wish list, but Ukraine is at the top. Why wouldn’t we agree to not
bring Ukraine into NATO? I’m not convinced that NATO wants them anyway. European
countries have good reason to foster positive relations with Russia.

Next subject. Can we fix the meat industry? The consolidation since 1980 has not been helpful to farmers and ranchers. The 4 largest meatpackers in 1980 had a 36% market share. The top 4 today control 85% of the market. It’s like many other industries, including tech companies, banks, steel companies, on and on. The federal government has not seemed to be interested in antitrust enforcement. We did get some legislation last year, the Packers and Stockyards Act to “safeguard farmers and ranchers.” Let’s hope it can help us.

President Biden just announced $1billion to help small meat processors. Meat prices at the store
have gone through the roof and farmers are getting short-changed. We shall see.
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