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When the Department of Defense added a multi-million-dollar line item to the national defense budget to feed lab meat to service members, it made waves especially in cattle country and it didn’t escape the attention of Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen.
Although the DOD has since announced they will not be pursuing lab-grown protein projects for human consumption, Gov. Pillen is ensuring the Husker State is proactive. Pillen is a hog producer, a veterinary practitioner and, he said, the first Nebraska governor from production agriculture in a century.
“I’m governor for four reasons and I keep it simple,” he said. “Kids, taxes, agriculture and values. I’m the first governor of Nebraska from agriculture in 100 years. I understand agriculture. I have a doctorate in veterinary medicine. We’ve made our living feeding the world and saving the planet and providing fuel.”
He said when the DOD was planning to invest in lab meat, he was moved to action.
“You just can’t comprehend that the DOD is subsidizing an industry that shouldn’t be taking place,” he said. “It’s just beyond belief to comprehend. As governor of Nebraska I said, holy cow, we better get in the game. Just thinking that the government was going to start feeding our troops and our people with fake meat, lab-grown meat, that’s literally grown in a dadgum bio reactor. You’ve got to be nuts.”
Pillen said his position is really simple.
“We’re sure as heck not going to do that in Nebraska,” he said. “And so, we’ve done a couple things so far. Retrospectively should have done it day one that I was governor, but just didn’t understand all. You know, there is a lot of stuff, but this is a high priority that we defend agriculture in Nebraska. Cattle are king, we feed the world and save the planet.”
FIGHTING PETA
As a hog producer, Pillen said he’s familiar with the actions of animal rights organizations.
“I spent most of my time in the pig world and we’ve been fighting against PETA for 35 years,” he said. “We’ve been fighting against the corrupt Wayne Pacelle and Humane Society of the United States for 35 years. It’s the greatest Trojan horse in agriculture trying to attack everything we do. So, we’ve said enough is enough. Let’s get after it.”
Pillen said he penned an executive order to make sure that no state agency is going to subsidize lab-cultured meat or fake meat. The Department of Agriculture is currently assessing all rules to ensure no mislabeling calling lab-grown protein meat of any kind. Finally, he said there will be priority legislation in January to ensure no lab meat is sold in grocery stores in Nebraska.
Pillen said cell-cultured meat research and development isn’t being driven by consumer demand.
“There are no consumers,” he said. “This is nothing but publicly traded companies, wealthy people coming up with far-left ideas and trying to figure out how to dupe the public and make a lot of money.”
Pillen said the answer to everything is more information and education.
“We just simply have to get all of us conservatives that have done nothing but work our tails off to recognize that we have to stand up for our values and stand up for what we do and what we believe in,” he said. “We have to do more than work hard.”
Pillen said it’s time consumers know and understand how attacks on agriculture are funded. “We just simply have to get people educated about how these attacks work and where the money’s coming from. We had our Governor’s Ag and Economic Development Summit earlier in August. We brought a guy that we’ve worked with Jack Hubbard, Consumers Freedom, to make sure we start educating people to understand the HSUS and all the other left wing groups that are doing nothing but attacking ag and making extraordinary false claims to dupe the consumer because that’s what all these games are, is duping the consumer because there aren’t consumers that want to buy it.”
FEEDING PEOPLE BETTER
Pillen said the goal of families has been and remains to feed their family better. That is illustrated in developing countries that experience financial growth and begin consuming more and better animal proteins.
“We don’t talk about it enough, but the hardcore reality is we have way too many publicly traded companies that have created processed foods,” he said. “I call it starvation in the midst of plenty where people are consuming stuff that has nothing but sugars and starches and attract your taste buds, create incredible obesity problems and health problems and never, never, never meet the nutrients that humans need. And most of that comes from protein. It comes from cows and cattle and pigs and chickens. Consumers aren’t PhD chemists to be able to read all the names of the stuff that is in this garbage that they call, that they’re trying to, uh, call meat. It’s an atrocity.”
Pillen said activists seeking jobs on farms to gather undercover video footage have attempted to pose as potential employees even in his hog business.
“The hardcore reality is we take better care of livestock than ever before,” he said. “If you really understand how an animal lives and you understand that the most important thing is clean water and feed, clean air and clean food, you understand that raising animals in production facilities versus out in snowbanks and mud holes is far superior and they raise more and grow faster than ever before. We’re taking incredible care.”
Meeting misinformation with facts is important, he said, and it prevents agriculture producers from being forced into a defensive position constantly.
“The challenge for all of us in the food gig is that our boss is the consumer,” he said. “I’m going to say at least 90% of the consumers want the most and the best for the least 100% of the time. There are some consumers are willing to go pay extra for extra claims, but most want the most and the best for the least.”
Pillen said a friend in rural Nebraska asked once what she should tell her children about what happens to “Jim’s pigs,” saying she couldn’t tell them the truth.
“I said, of course, you tell them the truth,” he said. “Of course, you tell your children that we make bacon and pork chops out of Jim’s pigs. That’s why we raised them. They’re not pets.”
Pillen said now is not the time for ag producers to rest on their laurels and depend solely upon trade organizations to fight for the industry.
“We have to constantly encourage everybody in agriculture to recognize we have a responsibility to brag about what we do,” he said. “We have a responsibility to brag about how we feed the world, and we save the planet. We are the nucleus of the economy of our country, agriculture drives the economy of our country, and the nucleus of agriculture is livestock. If we don’t have livestock, all the hay and corn and soybeans and everything, what do you do with that? We’re having an incredible impact on renewable fuels and bioeconomy and clean energy. And if we don’t have livestock, you don’t do that. It can’t be economically viable.”
He said Nebraska is the epicenter of the bioeconomy and is the No. 1 feeder of cattle, boasts the largest underground, sustainable aquifer in the Western hemisphere, and they’re working hard to preserve the land and water for the next seven generations.
“Our vision for agriculture as the governor of Nebraska is to make sure that we create value-added agriculture,” he said. “Our future is incredibly bright. We have incredible opportunities for growth because there’s one thing that’s not changing, there’s a lot of change in the world, but the one thing that doesn’t change is we all want to eat three times a day and there’s nobody that can compete with us.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-10 13:19:00
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