Pirate's Cove

Do these climate cultists realize this is where their food comes from? That prices will spike, like we’ve seen in European countries? Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?

Big Ag has misled the public when it comes to fighting climate change

For the last several years Big Agriculture has tried, with some degree of success, to bamboozle the public into believing it’s all in when it comes to combating climate change when in fact it ain’t.

It’s nothing new. Big corporations have been playing the misinformation game for a long time.

Big Tobacco spent billions of dollars to saturate the public with propaganda that denied, deflected, and obfuscated the health risks of smoking. It wasn’t until 2017 that a court order required Big Tobacco to air television spots proclaiming smoking kills. But even then Big Tobacco wiggled off the U.S. Justice Department hook by winning concessions. Among them included not having to admit the industry deliberately lied to the public in promotional and advertising campaigns or show lurid pictures of what smoking does to people’s lungs and body.

Big Oil took the Big Tobacco playbook and ran with it, efforting to deny the impact of burning fossil fuels on the environment. In 1998, the American Petroleum Institute created the Global Climate Science Communications Team. The plan called for a coordinated effort from Big Oil and pro oil activists to single out the media, demanding in the name of balance they report on uncertainties in climate science. Big Oil provided their own contrarian scientists as expert media sources so that the public would learn the “truth” that climate change was nothing more than a left wing hoax.

In short, by demanding journalistic balance Big Oil turned climate change into a partisan issue.

Yes, being reporters and not biased advocates is a Bad Thing for the climate cult.

But what Big Ag is desperate to keep secret from Congress and the rest of us is just how invested the nation’s food producers are in green technologies. The Security and Exchange Commission is floating rules that would require large publicly-traded companies – including Big Ag – to reveal the impacts of climate change on their businesses.

Do you run the company? No? Then it’s none of your f’ing business.

One proposed rule would require Big Ag to report to the SEC all Scope 3 greenhouse gasses they emit directly from their operations. Scope 3 emissions include energy purchased and energy from their supply chains. Scope 3 emissions account for roughly 90 percent of all Big Ag greenhouse gas emissions but it largely goes unreported to the federal government.

In order to comply with the SEC rule Big Ag would need to provide an accurate assessment of the energy consumption of the farmers they work with. For Big Ag, that’s a bridge too far. Since at least March, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the National Pork Producers Council have been twisting SEC staff and lawmakers’ arms to get Scope 3 reporting requirements tossed on the trash heap.

This would cause the cost of food to rise. All for a scam.

So it’s fair to say Big Ag is in an all out blitz to prevent transparency when it comes to its energy consumption as it relates to climate change. The why is unclear.

Congress needs to ask.

No, it doesn’t. They don’t need to be meddling ninnies. But, if they do, I would love to see what of the Big Ag leaders say “Have you given up your own use of fossil fuels?”