Drive through our country’s heartland — past golden fields, cattle-speckled hills, and humming dairies — and you’ll see the soul of America at work. But look closer, and a bitter truth emerges: The hands harvesting our crops and milking our cows are too often foreign-born laborers here illegally or on a costly visa program.
In my state, the Idaho Dairymen’s Association admits a staggering 70% or more of dairy workers are using phony documents — illegal labor propping up Idaho’s top commodity and our country’s No. 3 milk-producing state.
Today, we’re fed a line that Americans have gone lazy, addicted to cubicles or city lights. Nonsense.
We’re told Americans won’t do these jobs. Really? From the 1880s through the 1940s, Americans built these very industries. So what changed? It’s not the workers. It’s the bosses who stopped believing in them.
Idaho’s dairies, ranches, and construction sites can thrive with American grit — if employers stop making excuses and start making offers.
Go back to the late 19th century, when Idaho’s Snake River Valley was raw desert. Local settlers — farmers, laborers, families — dug canals, built dams, and turned dust into fields of potatoes and alfalfa, as historian Mark Fiege shows in his 1999 book “Irrigated Eden.” These weren’t hired foreigners; they were Americans, mostly Western settlers, whose sweat and cooperation built an agricultural empire through the Depression and wartime into the 1940s.
Those were hard years. Yet, these people showed up, sleeves rolled, ready to work. They weren’t too soft for the sun on their necks or the ache of a long day.
Today, we’re fed a line that Americans have gone lazy, addicted to cubicles or city lights. Nonsense. Some yes, but fewer than imagined. The problem isn’t our people; it’s an industry that’s forgotten how to call them home.
Don’t tell me Americans won’t work. Plenty of us still hunger for the kind of labor that smells of earth and steel — jobs that build calluses and communities. Idaho’s fields offer purpose: the roar of a tractor, the precision of robotic milkers, the quiet triumph of a harvest under wide skies.
Vice President JD Vance nailed it when he sarcastically gave in to the notion that deporting tens of millions of illegal aliens will send us back to 1960 — when homes apparently couldn’t be built without illegal labor. Absurd! The same goes for agriculture.
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These aren’t dead-end gigs; they’re the backbone of our nation. But employers need to stop acting like foreign workers are the only option. If you are one of these employers who show up to the town parade waving Old Glory, singing Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” — if you claim to be America First — then hire Americans first. Anything less is just talk.
Here’s where the elites squirm. As state Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen (R-Idaho) noted during a House debate, Idaho employers often admit that foreign labor isn’t even cheaper. Visas, travel, lodging, meals, and transportation add up — often rivaling what an American might earn in salary and benefits. Yet, they claim no amount of money will lure American workers.
Have they tried? Really tried? Take those bloated costs — every dime spent on foreign logistics — and pour them into wages, health plans, or housing for locals. Build training programs to teach kids how to run today’s high-tech rigs. If tech giants can sell college grads on coding in Silicon Valley, Idaho’s dairies can sell our youth on feeding America.
It’s not rocket science. It’s will.
The same elites twist unemployment numbers to prop up their narrative. They cite low jobless rates to argue that no one’s left to hire. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics excludes a key group: able-bodied men ages 25 to 54 who’ve dropped out of the workforce entirely. They’re not working, not looking, and not counted. That forgotten group alone includes an estimated seven million Americans.
Picture this: billboards across Idaho showing a young farmer steering a drone-guided planter, grinning like he owns the future. Community colleges partnering with ranchers to train veterans and high schoolers. County fairs where dairies hand out scholarships — not just milk samples. That’s not fantasy. That’s strategy. Businesses that want loyalty don’t wait for workers to show up — they go find them.
Right now, 70% of dairy workers rely on falsified papers. That’s not a workforce. It’s a failure of imagination. Legal, local labor builds trust, strengthens communities, and proves we take sovereignty seriously.
Idaho can lead the way. America’s watching.
Employers, quit hiding behind old excuses. Redirect your budgets, roll out campaigns, and watch Americans answer the call. Lawmakers, reduce or eliminate regulations that incentivize foreign labor.
Neighbors, cheer these jobs as the honorable work they are. Picture our fields alive with Americans, dairies humming with citizens who know this land as home.
That’s not just Idaho’s future, it’s America’s. We’ve done it before. We can do it again. All it takes is the guts to try.
American cattle rancher Shad Sullivan is sounding the alarm on the “war on beef” that the elites are waging against the American people, and Blaze media co-founder Glenn Beck is right there with him.
“This is all coming from elites,” Glenn tells Sullivan. “85% of elites and super elites — super elites are ones that went to Ivy League colleges and have a doctorate. Just the elite are making $150,000 a year, they’ve gone to college, have one postgraduate degree, and they’re involved in the companies or countries.”
“They just did a poll on those people. Eighty-plus percent say that Americans should not be allowed to eat beef or meat of any kind,” he continues.
“We have to remember what Klaus Schwab said in 2023 at Davos. He said, ‘You will enjoy meat as a treat, but not for sustenance,’” Sullivan agrees. “And we know beef is really the only animal that can provide total and 100% sustenance to human life.”
“These elite that you talk about, I hearken back to my dad. He’s gone now, but he was a self-made rancher. Started with nothing,” he continues. “I said, ‘Dad, what are we going to do?’ And he says, ‘Son, we’ll never change America until they sit in the dark, cold and hungry.’”
“And that’s the truth. And he came from a place of suffering, so he understood that,” he adds, noting that the elites will never understand the kind of suffering that makes them grow.
“I think about somebody on the side of the road with a flat tire. Those elites couldn’t even change a flat tire. They couldn’t do the most simple things that require real life, and here they are, demanding and dictating how we’re going to produce and consume, not only in America, but across the world,” Sullivan explains.
However, there is one thing that keeps the elites from all-out rule over the American people.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned earlier this year that vaccinating poultry against highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5) viruses might transform farms into incubators for mutant viruses — viruses that could potentially leap to humans.
"All of my agencies have advised against the vaccination of birds," Kennedy told Fox News' Sean Hannity, "because if you vaccinate with a leaky vaccine — in other words, a vaccine that does not provide sterilizing immunity, that does not absolutely protect against the disease — you turn those flocks into mutation factories."
"They're teaching the organism how to mutate," continued Kennedy. "And it's much more likely to jump to animals if you do that."
Despite Kennedy's concern — which is apparently shared by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration — the U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking seriously at mass vaccinations for American poultry.
A USDA spokesperson told Blaze News that the USDA "is exploring the viability of vaccinating poultry for HPAI" but noted that the "use of any vaccine has not been authorized at this time."
This vaccine exploration appears to have taken on greater energy in February when egg prices were reaching record highs.
After flying south of $3 between 1994 and 2022, the price for a dozen eggs began to rise dramatically during the second half of the Biden era, then even higher earlier this year, reaching an all-time average high of $6.22 in March.
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Although there were multiple factors at play — including the shift in various states to cage-free hens and record consumer demand — the price spikes were largely driven by the mass exterminations of commercial and backyard bird populations ordered by the USDA in response to HPAI viruses.
Blaze News previously noted that between Feb. 8, 2022 — when the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service first confirmed bird flu belonging to the clade 2.3.4.4b in an American commercial flock — and March 2025, the USDA directed the extermination of over 166.41 million birds. Fewer egg-laying birds naturally means diminished supply and higher prices.
'Vaccination in any poultry sector — egg layers, turkeys, broilers, or ducks — will jeopardize the entire export market for all U.S. poultry products.'
In a Feb. 26 op-ed, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins outlined "five steps to tackle avian flu and bring down costs for American families."
In addition to dedicating up to $500 million to help American poultry producers implement "gold-standard" biosecurity measures, increasing financial relief to farms whose flocks are affected by avian flu, removing "unnecessary regulatory burdens on egg producers where possible," and considering temporary import options, Rollins said her agency would "provide up to $100 million in research and development of vaccines and therapeutics, to improve their efficacy and efficiency."
Although egg prices have returned to relatively normal levels, a USDA spokesperson told Blaze News that the agency continues "to evaluate the potential use of vaccines."
"Before making a determination, USDA, in consultation with federal partners, will solicit feedback from state officials, veterinarians, farmers, the public health system, and the American public," said the spokesperson. "USDA is working with federal and state officials and industry stakeholders to develop a potential plan for vaccine use in the United States."
Reuters indicated that industry members anticipate that the agency will complete its plan in July.
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There is some controversy over the potential mass vaccination of poultry on the business side of the equation.
Dr. John Clifford, a former USDA chief veterinary officer who advises the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, told Reuters that chicken meat producers would be dealt a crushing blow if importers stopped importing U.S. poultry over concerns that vaccines were masking the presence of HPAI in flocks.
Some industry groups are, however, warming up to the idea.
Although the National Chicken Council previously suggested that "vaccination in any poultry sector — egg layers, turkeys, broilers, or ducks — will jeopardize the entire export market for all U.S. poultry products," they have since suggested they are on board with the program if exports go unaffected.
The United Egg Producers are apparently even more gung-ho, having helped hatch a plan suggesting an initial vaccination for baby chicks, a subsequent booster shot, then routine testing.
Nicolas Hulscher, an epidemiologist and administrator at the McCullough Foundation, has suggested mass poultry vaccinations are unwise, telling Blaze News that Kennedy's "worries about mass animal H5N1 bird flu vaccination are fully grounded in robust science."
'Biosecurity remains the best and most prudent approach to mitigate the impact of the disease today.'
When asked about the possibility that the USDA might nevertheless proceed with the mass vaccination agenda, Hulscher said that "the USDA is ignoring the glaring risks of creating dangerous mutant strains with their plans to mass vaccinate poultry against bird flu amidst a bird flu animal pandemic."
Blaze News senior editor Daniel Horowitz drove home the point in a recent op-ed, noting that "leaky, waning vaccines that rely on suboptimal antibodies against rapidly mutating viruses can lead to immune tolerance and imprinting. This can cause the immune system to misfire, resulting in negative efficacy. Any short-term protection against severe disease often comes at a long-term cost as the viruses adapt and grow stronger."
Hulscher suggested that the best way forward when tackling HPAI in domestic flocks is better biosecurity: "Installing surface-air purification systems into farms, combined with iodine-based nasal/oral prophylaxis for farm workers, is a much less risky option than mass vaccination."
On this, it appears the USDA agrees.
The agency spokesperson told Blaze News that in the meantime, "because biosecurity remains the best and most prudent approach to mitigate the impact of the disease today, USDA also continues pursuing collaborative efforts with poultry farmers and companies on education, training, and implementation of comprehensive biosecurity measures."
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Glyphosate is a word that’s beginning to slip into public consciousness as the MAHA movement continues gaining momentum. For those unfamiliar with the term, glyphosate is a chemical used in weed killers, like Roundup, which is the most popular herbicide in the United States. Since its development in 1970, we’ve been told it’s safe for humans and the environment by its manufacturers and by several regulatory agencies.
But surprise, surprise — now that we’re in an era of being honest about the additives and chemicals involved in our food production, it turns out that glyphosate is carcinogenic.
To get the scoop on this harmful chemical, Nicole Shanahan, BlazeTV host of “Back to the People,” invited Harvard-educated agricultural economist Dr. Chuck Benbrook, who’s spent his entire career fighting against the use of pesticides, to the show.
“The evidence is strongest linking exposure to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides … with non-Hodgkin lymphoma” — a type of cancer that attacks the lymphatic system, disrupting the body's ability to fight infections, says Dr. Benbrook. However, “there's a new study coming out in just a matter of days linking glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides to leukemia.”
Glyphosate, he explains, “[disrupts] DNA replication in people's bone marrow as their new blood cells are being formed,” which is exactly how “non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia start.”
Despite the mounting evidence proving glyphosate is carcinogenic, farmers are highly motivated to protect it from stricter regulations and potential banning. Chemical pesticides, like glyphosate, are “very seductive for farmers,” as they are “a simple solution to dealing with weeds or insects or plant diseases,” says Dr. Benbrook.
Farmers’ “overreliance” on pest and weed killers has created a booming industry that pesticide companies will fiercely guard. Just like vaccine companies gained legal protection from lawsuits for vaccine injuries through the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, “the pesticide industry is working very hard to to try to change federal and state laws so that pesticide companies can't be sued in state court over harms from pesticides,” say Dr. Benbrook.
Eating organically produced food seems like a logical option to avoid the harms of glyphosate, as the USDA National Organic Program prohibits the use of synthetic pesticides, including glyphosate, in organic farming.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
“I'm hearing from a lot of parents who are on all-organic diets [and] eat super clean, and their family members have really high levels of glyphosate coming back in their urine analysis,” says Nicole.
“It’s very difficult to avoid glyphosate completely through the American diet,” says Dr. Benbrook, noting that restaurant food, the water supply, and the very air we breathe can be contaminated with glyphosate. It “is so ubiquitous in the environment and in the food supply.”
To hear more of Nicole and Dr. Benbrook’s conversation on glyphosate, as well as genetically modified food and sustainable food production, watch the episode above.
“Major progress,” they said — 40% of egg-laying hens in the U.S. are now cage-free. The term rolled off marketers' tongues and into the consumer psyche. It was hailed as a victory for humanity, an animal-rights milestone, and a signal that the world had woken up.
Only it hadn't; it still hasn't.
Avian flu loves a cage-free barn. It’s paradise. Tens of thousands of birds, anxiety-ridden, packed together, moving constantly, shedding feathers and fluids — all under one roof.
This is the story of a bait and switch. A story about how a movement meant to free animals instead created a new, more lucrative illusion. A story about language, imagery, and money. Because this wasn’t just a change in how hens live. It was a change in how you think they live.
The real winners? It wasn’t the birds, and it sure wasn’t you.
Cage-free sounds like something you'd want. Like something a decent, thoughtful person would support. It conjures an image: hens roaming a sunny field, grass underfoot, maybe a red barn in the distance. There’s a reason egg cartons are covered in soft-focus photography — rustic charm, warm light, happy animals.
But cage-free doesn’t mean any of that. Yes, these hens are no longer kept in individual metal cages. Instead, they’re packed into massive industrial sheds, tens of thousands per building, with just enough space to move, but not enough to breathe.
There are no cages. But there’s no freedom, either.
It’s like upgrading from a prison cell to an overcrowded holding pen. More bodies. More panic. More chaos. You don’t need to be a biologist to know that stress in animals leads to injury, infection, and disease. But we told ourselves otherwise. We said, “At least they’re not in cages.”
That’s the bar now? Not in cages?
The “cage-free” revolution was born not out of compassion but necessity. It began as pressure — from activists, from voters, from a slow, growing discomfort among consumers who started to realize where their food really came from.
Animal welfare groups saw an opening. Their goal: Abolish the cage system. And to be fair, those cages are grim. A single hen gets less than a sheet of printer paper’s worth of space. Her beak is clipped. Her feathers rubbed off. Her bones brittle from disuse. It’s ugly. It’s cruel. It’s cheap.
Corporations, seeing the writing on the wall, got ahead of the legislation. McDonald’s. Walmart. Target. “We’re going cage-free,” they said. The headlines celebrated.
But here’s what most people didn’t notice: The corporations weren’t going pasture-raised. They weren’t committing to fewer birds, more land, or actual outdoor access. They were swapping one form of confinement for another and charging you more for the privilege.
Because cage-free costs more. More labor. More infrastructure. More mortality. And in a brilliant twist, those costs get passed on to you, the ethical consumer, who walks out of the store feeling morally superior with your $9-a-dozen eggs. It’s not reform; it’s a rebrand. A truly brilliant rebrand.
Industrial cage-free barns are horror films with better lighting.
No cages, yes. But the birds now may pile on top of each other. They may fight. They may crush each other to death. They may die from heat exhaustion in poorly ventilated mega-sheds. And when one gets sick, the whole shed goes down with her.
Avian flu loves a cage-free barn. It’s paradise. Tens of thousands of birds, maybe anxiety-ridden, packed together, moving constantly, shedding feathers and fluids — all under one roof. The moment infection enters, it’s over.
Starting from 2022, when outbreaks began to spike across the U.S. and Europe, authorities quietly admitted that cage-free farms were hit hardest. Controlled environments, as awful as they are, limit viral spread. Open environments amplify it. This is an indisputable fact.
And when outbreaks happen, do you think they treat the birds? Of course not. They cull. Fast and ruthlessly. That’s your cage-free egg system. That’s what you’re funding.
Follow the money. Always.
Corporations benefit from the price markup, egg producers benefit from market differentiation, animal-rights groups benefit from headlines and donation spikes, and politicians benefit from photo ops on "moral progress."
But the animals? They certainly don’t win. They’re just moved from one type of suffering to another, and you’re being charged more for a label that makes you feel less guilty — without actually changing the underlying cruelty of the system. It’s the perfect con. It’s cheaper than real reform. And it’s far more profitable.
Cage-free is a lesson in semantics, a master class in how to manipulate through language. Because language shapes perception, and perception controls behavior.
They could have called it “mass-housed.” Or “aviary confinement.” Or “non-caged industrial lay systems.” But that wouldn’t sell. Cage-free is slick. It’s open-ended. It lets your brain fill in the blanks with whatever fantasy you prefer. The egg industry didn’t have to lie. It just had to let your imagination do the heavy lifting.
And it worked.
Pasture-raised exists. It’s real. It's what most people think they're buying when they choose cage-free. Fewer birds. Outdoor access. Natural diets. Veterinary oversight. It costs more, yes — but it also delivers on the promise.
Then why isn’t it the standard? It’s expensive, logistically difficult, and land-intensive. Worst of all, it doesn’t scale.
You can’t run a billion-dollar egg empire on pasture. You can’t fill supermarket shelves with ethical, low-density protein and still turn quarterly profits. Which means the market had to invent something else — something cheaper, uglier, but still sellable. Enter "cage-free."
You don’t fix this by switching labels. You fix it by understanding what the labels mean — and what they don’t.
Cage-free isn’t exactly evil, but it isn’t progress, either. It’s a compromise wrapped in a promise it can’t keep. It was never meant to solve the problem. It was meant to neutralize it. To dull the outrage. To make us feel like something was being done.
If we want real change, we have to demand better, not just better marketing. We have to stop falling for feel-good euphemisms. We must stop measuring ethics in packaging font sizes and start measuring them in actual outcomes.
The future of food doesn’t need more jargon. It needs brutal honesty.
It starts by admitting the truth: Cage-free wasn’t a step forward. It was a detour, a pretty lie in a recyclable carton, and we paid extra for it.
'By saying we're going to tolerate illegal immigration, it destroys Trump's credibility, the credibility of enforcement, and takes what is a legal system and basically makes it meaningless.'
Jeremy Clarkson has become an icon of the farming world, a living rebuke to the artificial, technocratic, globalist, and humorless world order that prevails in the West.
Stop clinging to the fantasy that Mexico is a cooperative neighbor acting in good faith. This isn’t just a one-off failure, it’s part of a larger pattern.
Two years ago, I gave in to my wife’s passion for backyard eggs. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
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