Ranchers and Farmers: Congress Needs to Hear from YOU
There are some scary 5G “Precision Ag” Tech bills making their way through Congress right now that will place millions of “smart” sensors to track every single aspect of farming via satellite, overexpose farm animals to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) in order to get new land sensors and towers connected to satellite AI monitoring systems, leave farms vulnerable to hacking, and ultimately create a new “microwave ecosystem” that will replace the original ecosystem environment. Besides the unprecedented level of control with algorithms and AI over our farming and ranching these bills pave the way for, implementing this many wireless sensors will have an adverse impact on milk and crop yields, make soil sterile and reduce fertility rates in farm animals to as low as 50%.
Currently, the FCC has no limits to the radiation levels animals can safely be exposed to without injury. There are no legal protections for flora and fauna from the harmful bio-effects that may result from this type of prolific satellite connectivity and the microwave ecosystem it needs for monitoring and reporting.
And get this: Farmers will have to absorb the capital investment costs of a “Precision”* Agriculture system, consisting of electronic processing equipment and a variety of sensors to continuously monitor the status on all farm activities 24/7; up to 1 million sensors per Km2!
What is Precision Agriculture?
PRECISION AGRICULTURE — The term “precision agriculture” means managing, tracking, or reducing crop or livestock production inputs, including seed, feed, fertilizer, chemicals, water, time, and such other inputs as the Secretary determines to be appropriate, at a heightened level of spatial and temporal granularity to improve efficiencies, reduce waste, and maintain environmental quality.
What Do the Offices of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Believe?
FROM THE 2018 REPORT THREATS TO PRECISION AGRICULTURE – “Most of the information management regarding cyber threats facing precision agriculture’s embedded and digital tools are consistent with threat vectors in all other connected industries. Malicious actors are also generally the same: data theft, stealing resources, reputation loss, destruction of equipment, or gaining an improper financial advantage over a competitor. Therefore, improper use of USB thumb drives, spear-phishing, and other malicious cyber-attacks, are readily available threat vectors for an attack; and the generally accepted mitigation techniques in other industries are largely sufficient for creating a successful defense-in-depth strategy for precision agriculture.”
“Precision agriculture is unique, however, because it took a highly mechanical labor-intensive industry and connected it online, dramatically increasing the attack space available to threat actors. Due to this, otherwise common threats may have unique and far-reaching consequences on the agricultural industry.”
What Do Other Experts Say?
From the Defender – Organic farming experts — including Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., and André Leu — relayed to The Defender that precision agriculture methods only expand industrial agriculture’s harm to the planet and farmers.
Vandana Shiva, Ph.D. – a food sovereignty and environmental activist who has written more than 20 books, said agriculture is a “living process” involving human interaction with living organisms and complex living systems.
“‘Precision’ works in using weapons against a target. It is an inappropriate approach to living systems,” she said. “What is needed is harmony, balance and respect for life.”
André Leu, author of “The Myths of Safe Pesticides,” said precision agriculture means increased financial “shackling” of farmers and is “just a further expansion by the industrial agribusiness cartels to trap farmers into more debt.” Corporations selling precision agriculture products may make promises of increased yields and efficiency, but the reality is often higher production costs for farmers, according to Leu. “Most independent published science shows no significant yield increases,” Leu said. “The corporate studies are riddled with conflicts of interest and are mostly of poor quality. They are sales pitches for industrial agriculture.”
Joel Salatin, lecturer and owner of Polyface Farm, told The Defender there’s no doubt farmers need access to quality internet. “For direct marketing farms needing customer connection [such as Polyface], the internet is literally the heartbeat of tomorrow’s opportunities. “No farmer who uses these platforms will get advice on how to have more happy earthworms or how to make pigs healthy and happy enough to have immune systems that keep them well without vaccines and pharmaceuticals,” Salatin said.
Moreover, quality internet could be provided through fiber-optic internet rather than wireless infrastructure, said Odette Wilkens, a technology attorney who is president and general counsel for Wired Broadband Inc., a nonprofit that advocates for hard-wired, high-speed internet.
Court Issues Unprecedented Ruling on 4G Tower After Ranchers Notice What Was Happening to the Cows
THE WESTERN JOURNAL – A French court has issued an order that could determine whether a nearby 4G cell phone tower is harming the health of nearby cows after the court noted there had been “a significant drop in the quality and quantity of milk produced, a serious disruption in the behavior of the herd and its voluntary denutrition and abnormally high deaths.”
You can read more here.
FOR MORE EXPERT INFORMATION ON THE HARM OF WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE ON ANIMALS, WILDLIFE AND FLORA GO TO ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH TRUSTS WILDLIFE AND WIRELESS WEBSITE
https://www.wildlifeandwireless.org/
What Does this Mean for You?
- Will your vet bills increase and your animals be more stressed?
- What will your upfront costs be? Are there assurances of profit?
- Do you want the government telling you how many animals you can have or how much of your land you can use? …or how much or the kind of feed, seed, fertilizer and water on your farm?
- Do you want the increased fire risk that comes with more electrical devices and cell towers?
- If these untested systems fail, do you want the risk of going bankrupt with the huge debt they bring?
- Are willing to allow your data to be sold and used without your knowledge or consent?
List of Precision Ag Tech Bills
S.2542 & Companion bill H.R.6142 – LAST ACRE ACT
What it would do: Establishes a USDA grant/loan program to provide broadband to farms for the purpose of precision agriculture, including wireless infrastructure and networks for IoT on farms.
Link to bills: S.2542 & H.R.6142
H.R.4351 – Broadband Internet for Small Ports Act
What it would do: Amend 7 USC 950bb to promote precision agriculture and allow grants to be made prior to environmental and historic reviews
Link to bill: H.R.4351
H.R.5062 – To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program under which the Secretary will award grants to specialty crop producers to acquire a certain equipment and provide training with respect to the use of such equipment.
What it would do: Creates USDA program under Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) for grants to purchase mechanized and automated farming equipment
Link to bill: H.R.5062
H.R.1339 – Precision Agriculture Satellite Connectivity Act
What it would do: Promotes satellite use on agricultural land
Link to bill: H.R.1339
S.734 & Companion bill H.R.1697 – Promoting Precision Agriculture Act of 2023
What it would do: Requires USDA, in consultation with FCC and NIST (National Institutes of Standards and Technology, part of Department of Commerce), to develop “private sector-led” precision Ag standards. Standards would encourage deployment of new technology, by allowing hardware and software from different vendors to interoperate (As an example, because there are Wi-Fi standards, a phone and a laptop and a Wi-Fi router can all communicate with each other, even if they are made by different manufacturers)
Link to bill: S.734 & H.R.1697
Source: ehtrust.org/congress
What Can You Do?
Step 1 – Email And Call Your Legislators
Find your legislators HERE and then call the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 225-3121 and ask for your legislator’s office. See letter below to send to your legislator.
Step 2 – Tell Your Farmer Friends
These bills can move at any moment and we need as many farmers and friends of farmers to know about this as possible! Click HERE to download a PDF and HERE for an HR 1339 fact sheet you can share. We also have a PDF jam-packed with vital, factual, and strategic info on cell phone towers and fires HERE.
Step 3 – Contact Us
Send an email to hello@thenationalcall.org and we will add you to our growing list of concerned friends of farmers to send out any updates or let you know about upcoming meetings.
Send This Letter to Your Legislator
As your constituent, I’m writing to express my concerns about Precision Ag Bills, S.2542 & Companion bill H.R.6142 – Last Acre Act , H.R.4351 – Broadband Internet for Small Ports Act, H.R.5062 – which is meant to amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to establish a program under awarding grants to specialty crop producers (Big Ag) , H.R.1339 – Precision Agriculture Satellite Connectivity Act, and S.734 & Companion bill H.R.1697 – Promoting Precision Agriculture Act of 2023.
These pro-industry bills introduced in Congress will overexpose farm animals to radiofrequency radiation (RFR), leave farms vulnerable to hacking, allow farmers data to be captured and possibly exploited, and ultimately create a new “microwave ecosystem” that will replace the original ecosystem environment.
In a 2018 report entitled, Threats to Precision Agriculture, and written by a private-public collaboration which included the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), outlines threats to include: Threats to confidentiality, Intentional theft of data collected through decision support systems (DSS) or the unintentional leakage of data to third parties, Intentional publishing of confidential information from within the industry such as from a supplier to damage the company or cause chaos, Foreign access to unmanned aerial system (UAS) data, Unscrupulous sale of confidential data, Threats to Integrity, Intentional falsification of data to disrupt crop or livestock sectors, Introduction of rogue data into a sensor network which damages a crop or herd, Insufficiently vetted machine learning modeling.
Besides the unprecedented level of control with algorithms and AI over our farming and ranching, these bills pave the way for implementing an unprecedented amount of wireless sensors which will have an adverse impact on milk and crop yields, make soil sterile and reduce fertility rates in farm animals to as low as 50%. That is the science.
Currently, the FCC has no limits to the radiation levels animals can safely be exposed to without injury. There are no legal protections for plants or animals from the harmful bio-effects that may result from this type of prolific satellite connectivity and the microwave ecosystem it needs for monitoring and reporting.
And get this: Farmers will have to absorb the capital investment costs of a “Precision” Agriculture system, consisting of electronic processing equipment and a variety of sensors to continuously monitor the status on all farm activities 24/7; up to 1 million sensors per Km2!
In addition to the health, privacy and safety risks, wireless technology harms our environment, as is demonstrated by the growing body of science pertaining to plants, animals, insects, bacteria, and the atmosphere.
I have grave concerns that this law will adversely impact my family, my community and my farm! I urge you to oppose these precision Ag bills.I appreciate your leadership in this very important decision.
5G Ag Tech Flyer
The flyer attached can be used in advocacy regarding federal bills promoting wireless technology on farms and ranches. Independent research shows that wireless technology is not safe for soil, water, plants and animals. Emailing this PDF and/or sharing the PDF online (full screen) during a Zoom will generate maximum visual and lobbying impact. When printing as a handout, orient the layout to landscape/horizontal.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FLYER
