In 1998, the USDA told the truth. Then they buried it.
Before “regenerative” became a buzzword and “climate-smart” became a cover story, a group of farmers, researchers, and rural advocates delivered a warning—and a way out. Their 120-page report, A Time to Act, was the final product of the USDA’s National Commission on Small Farms, created in the wake of a civil rights scandal that exposed systemic discrimination against minority and independent producers.
It wasn’t a rant. It was a blueprint.
And it got buried.
USDA vs. Its Own Mission
In 1998, the USDA’s Civil Rights Action Team uncovered deep institutional bias in farm lending and program access. To save face, Secretary Dan Glickman convened a national commission. Over 800 people attended hearings. The consensus: small farms weren’t obsolete—they were under siege.
The Commission’s findings exposed how government policy was fueling consolidation, killing local processors, and pushing rural families off the land. It warned that corporate concentration, unfair contracts, and a lack of market transparency would destroy the very food system the USDA was tasked with protecting.
What They Recommended (and Washington Ignored)
- Break up the monopolies → Enforce the Packers & Stockyards Act to stop meatpacker collusion
- Fund local infrastructure → Invest in small-scale slaughter, storage, and distribution, not global trade boondoggles
- Protect land access → End farmland loss to developers and corporate buyout schemes
- Support real farmers → Prioritize beginning farmers, Black landowners, and regenerative operations in USDA programs
- Redirect the science → Put land-grants and USDA research dollars back in service of low-input, place-based systems
- Fix contract abuse → Regulate vertically integrated poultry, pork, and beef giants who offload all risk to the grower
None of it was adopted. Instead, the next 25 years delivered CAFOs, carbon markets, and Cargill consolidation.
25 Years Later
The numbers speak for themselves:
- Four companies (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, National Beef) now control 85% of beef processing
- Over 400 million acres of farmland have shifted into corporate hands, with Bill Gates emerging as the largest private owner
- Minority land loss continues. Independent butchers and co-ops face extinction.
- USDA continues to promote “climate-smart” incentives that reward synthetic food and GMO seed companies over soil-based systems
The 1998 Commission saw it coming. And now, the biotech machine is accelerating.
The Last Line of Defense
“They are providing you a slow death,” writes Texas Slim, founder of the Beef Initiative.
“And using your ignorance and your consumption as a tool.”
Slim sounded the alarm in 2021. Today, the consolidation he warned about isn’t just real—it’s federal doctrine.
And now even RFK Jr. is naming it.
Earlier this month, RFK Jr. unveiled MABA — Make America’s Biotech Accelerate, stating that biotech would become a pillar of U.S. economic renewal. Synthetic meats, gene-edited crops, and mRNA-enabled “climate solutions” are now the bipartisan consensus. Even health freedom allies are calling for more funding to expand it.
This isn’t innovation. It’s surrender.
And it’s the family farm, not the food tech lab, that now stands as America’s final firewall.
Where We Go From Here
We don’t need another commission. We need to finish the work they started.
Because the USDA didn’t just forget. They chose.
And now Washington is choosing again—with CRISPR cows, lab-grown chicken, and quietly deregulated mRNA pork.
You can’t have MAHA without the Heartland.
And you can’t have a Heartland without farmers who still control their seeds, their soil, and their sons’ inheritance.
Choose wisely.
Find real beef from real ranchers—no mRNA, no middlemen—at BeefMaps.com. The map they don’t want you to see.
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