July 9 I'll be giving about 5 presentations in Orlando, Florida at the Libertarian Party National Convention.  No, I am not a registered member of the Libertarian Party; I'm not a member of any political party.  But it's still an honor to be invited and a pleasure to address this remarkable group.

By now you're no doubt aware that the U.S. Justice Department has formally indicted executives at some big poultry companies for price fixing over the last few years. Today, we now know the anti-trust probe is moving on to beef and pork, including all the biggest companies.

Today I'm publicly announcing for the first time the upcoming release of book number 14:   POLYFACE DESIGNS.    Another collaborative effort like the just-released BEYOND LABELS, this book presents in living color and beautiful diagrams step-by-step building techniques for a lifetime of Polyface infrastructure.

Anyone familiar with my blogs knows about the current tsunami of farm succession. The average farmer is 60 years old so in the next 15 years, half of all farm equity--land, buildings, equipment--will change hands. Furthermore, if this coronavirus has taught us one thing, it's that the current industrial food system is fragile and we desperately need more regional production, processing, marketing, and distribution for resilient food security.

In today's industrial agriculture world, too many farms identify with noxious odors and a place of death.  Syringes and chemicals are the instruments of choice, spreading toxins throughout the ecology.

Saturday we finally had our first on-farm Lunatic Tour of the year; we canceled the two in April and I was supposed to be in Europe most of May, so this was the third scheduled one and ended up being the first actual one of the season.

By now all of us are well aware about the glitches in the meat and poultry processing food chain in the U.S.  It's severe enough in pork and poultry that animals are being euthanized rather than going to processing.  Beef will probably not get to that point simply because beef grows slower and therefore has more forgiveness.  A month of holding pattern for a chicken is a long time; for a beef it's not that long.

Rural America is slowly losing its options.  The phone companies no longer want to maintain hard infrastructure; they've gradually abandoned them over the last 10 years expecting wireless to take over everything.

By now all Virginians know that today our Governor Northam implemented new executive orders mandating wearing masks in all businesses. Graciously, he said if you were eating you could take it off. And you don't need to wear it if you have "health reasons."

Teresa and I co-own a small abattoir (slaughterhouse) in Harrisonburg that employs 20 people and is our closest federal inspected facility. We get our beef, pork and lamb processed there; it's about 40 miles away.

The PORK Checkoff Report is the official mouthpiece of the American pork industry.  It's funded by a mandatory tax on pigs.