Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sorry, left, you lost those words. I just played you
from Trump. We're from twenty and sixteen. He's been saying
it from the get go that there's been a mess
created with our immigration system. Well, we need immigration reform, No,
we don't. We just need to follow the signs enter exit.
(00:21):
It's pretty simple, and we need to know who's entering
and who's exiting. None of this should ever have been
allowed to happen in the first place. Do you not
recall Trump? Do you not recall Tom Holman months ago?
Do you not recall law enforcement in California with SB
fifty four stating that, okay, law enforcement can't work with
the Feds here, you know, for deportation, they can't work
(00:45):
with ICE here in California. Well, what has I said?
What's border patrol set? What's home? And said? What's Trump said?
What have I said on this show? That that means
you're going to have to go out into the community
and find people. That's what they've always said. SB fifty
four makes the community way less safe, even on the
aspect of having to go out and do these raids.
(01:06):
They should have already contacted ICE. Hi, we have somebody
in our jail here that's committed a crime that needs
to go Okay. We won't have to go find them
in the community. We won't have to go arrest them
at the playground. We won't have to arrest them at
the bus stop or on their way to their job.
They still have to survive the New York posts at Homeland.
(01:28):
What's a hotline you heard that established to report suspected
criminal illegal aliens? Now, I would say every illegal alien
has committed a crime by being here illegally. That's why
they had to change the name and they get rid
of that illegal stuff. Nobody would be behind that right now.
They're undocumented. Now they're newcomers and migrants and whatever word
(01:51):
that you want to use. Tom Holmans said, I want
to place where American citizens can call and report. We're
going to take care of the American people. We got
to make sure they have an outlet to report child
traffickers and force labor traffickers. I would think that they
if if you were an illegal alien here working and
you called up and go, hey, there's some funny business
(02:11):
going on out here in a bar. And I've seen
a lot of humans that are there for only a
few hours and then they all get in a van
and they just leave. They would probably be like thank
you and might even give you a pass. See, who
knows what Trump's gonna put out there. Report child sex traffickers,
report drug runners, report the forced labor traffickers. Maybe you're
(02:35):
working for them. It's kind of like, Okay, go in
the military, and you can earn your citizenship, earn your
green card by reporting somebody. If they get in court,
get you know, confirmed and sentenced, then all right, you,
thank you, you helped the country. I don't know if
that's come up around the roundtable at mar Largo. I
(02:55):
hadn't thought of it until just right then. Holman said,
we want to give a man Murricans the opportunity to
be part of the fix. There were some roundups, and
I wonder if this is what many are going. This
is just a glimpse of what's going to be happening
in the coming weeks and months. And you are correct.
Operation return to Cender Border Patrol, not ice Border Patrol,
(03:17):
came all the way up here in an operation. About
eighty arrest happened several sex offenders, some with existing criminal warrants,
and others involved in drug trafficking. Border patrols said the
mass deportation operation that will occur after January twentieth might
target specific individuals. Criminal gangs are others who have outstanding
(03:37):
removal orders. But if you are nearby and in an
illegal status, you could expect to be arrested as well. Now,
what are Fresno's elected officials saying about it? Gvwire dot
com headline What are Fresnel leaders saying about anti deportation protests?
I don't look at them as leaders, They're elected officials,
(04:01):
mayor dire I'm going to read a statement. I completely
understand the concerns raised by members of our community about
immigration related issues, as well as the protest at River
Park on Sunday. He completely understands people protesting sex offenders
being arrested. Really, he said, I want to make it clear,
City of Fresno. He's making it clear, guys, you remember
(04:21):
this next election season. I want to make it clear
the City of FRESNOE is committed to ensuring the safety
and well being of all our residents. As a city,
we do not participate in or enforce federal immigration matters.
That is the role of federal government. Our priority is
to build trusts within our diverse community and ensure everyone
(04:42):
feels valued, safe, and supported, regardless of their immigration status.
The Fresno Police Department's primary focus is to keep the
community safe, respond to calls for service, and to earn
the trust of those we serve. We respect the right
of individuals to peacefully protest express their concerns, but to
do so without in danger the public. I encourage all
participants to engage in respectful, constructive dialogue as we work
(05:05):
towards together solutions of benefit the entire community. I said,
he needs to change his political affiliation, I said to
first letter of his first name. I meant last name
d D. Let's talk about Let's break this down for
a moment. He says, our priority is to ensure that
everybody feels valued, safe, and supportive, regardless of their immigration status.
(05:28):
So he wants to ensure that illegals are that way too,
regardless of their immigration status. What about the fact someone
might be violent criminals? He wants to keep the community safe.
Doesn't that mean working with the FEDS to capture violent
criminals regardless of their country of origin. We don't work
(05:49):
with the Feds. We don't participate or enforce federal immigration matters.
That is the role of the federal government. How many
times do I interviewlaw enforcement or even elected officials. I'll
talk about the investigation of this federal state and local
law enforcement. Federal state and local law enforcement. What about
(06:12):
the Fresno's feedinol King that got twenty three years in
federal prison. Federal state and local law enforcement worked on
that together. But suddenly just one little subset of criminals
you're gonna stay away from. It's about strength, It's about
telling it like it is. Mayor Dier, I don't know
(06:35):
if you can read the room. I know you and
Newsom seem to have a little bit of trouble with that.
But you got Newsome itis, probably picked up by a
bro hug over your success, and you know you determine
the homelessness you guys gave each other. Bro hug, you
got some of that newso itis on you here this
you can't read the room. This county just went read again.
(06:57):
This county just went for Trump again. This county actually
voted to recall Newsome. You have a lot of Hispanics
in this county, and a lot of Hispanics do not
want illegal immigration infecting our country anymore. They want them
to go back home and to do it the legal way.
(07:20):
DIYer doesn't stand for anything well, not anything conservative, not
anything Republican. He wants to be liked by the left,
and they're not gonna like you. You watch push comes
to shove right, it means nobody will like you. We've
had more homelessness. He's basically go along with the leftist agenda,
(07:41):
whether it's fifteen minute cities, whether it's getting rid of cars,
whether it's high speed rail. That's our money, man, quit it,
stop it. Please. One thing that Joe Biden said that
that's correct, was sorry, Mayor Dyer might get you in
(08:03):
trouble out there in Fresno. It's not just Mayor Dyer.
There was a news conference organized by Frozne County Supervisor
Louis Chavez. I would think Louis Chavez would be against
child rapists, and I'm sure he's gonna say he's against
those kind of crimes. Well, then stop invoking the fear.
You're only adding to what needs to be piling it on.
(08:29):
In this giv wire article, Chavez said he expressed concern
over the potential for parents to be taken leaving their
children without a home, stranded kids. How far on the
fear level are you going with that one there, man, Chavez.
Here local leaders urging federal immigration agencies who adopt a
more targeted approach, avoiding actions that create widespread fear. That's
(08:52):
what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Stop that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Chavez pointed to SB fifty four of the California Values Act,
which is the sanctuary of state law blocks law enforcement
from doing their job. Chavez criticized the sweeping enforcing enforcement tactics,
calling on federal officers to focus on known offenders rather
than creating fear in public spaces. Now, let's break that down.
He's citing SB fifty four, which does not allow them
(09:17):
to focus on known offenders, because they could focus on
the known offenders if they were still in the jail.
That's how they focus on it. You're calling them federal
officers and focus on known offenders rather than creating fear
in public spaces. They have to go to the public
spaces to arrest them now because of SB fifty four.
(09:40):
Stop it, Chavez, Man, I tell you they talk out
of both sides of their mouth. First quote from President
City Council member Nick Richardson in the GV wire article.
In his district includes River Park where the big protests,
they said, hundreds people honk in their hearts. That's right.
(10:00):
Don't deport people at rate. Kids the dumbing down of America,
and they're out there waving their Mexican flags. You can
be proud of your heritage. It's okay. Let me, you know,
doing Saint Patrick's Day up or something like that. America
allows that. But what are you waving out there? In
(10:21):
defiance of council Member Richardson said quote, I understand the
immigration deportation are significantly emotional processes and can often change
the trajectory of someone's life as well as their families. Yeah,
like Jody Jones, he lost his brother to an illegal
alien and a murder spree. He said, I believe that
(10:42):
appealing to the decision makers behind state and federal policies
may be a more effective way to produce a compromise.
They can agree with making any part of our city
less safe by creating issues for law enforcement, commuters, and
other protesters during demonstrations, it's kind of productive to peace
and against the law. Okay, well me, we know that
I'm trying to get something. I can grab in here.
(11:05):
That would show a Republican on city council. I guess, really,
city council is not going to change anything. State and
federal policies will change it. But no, we have a
mayor here that's saying we're not going to work with
the feds. I would think that with the problems and
issues that a legal immigration bring here, a Republican on
city council would stand up and say, no, I think
(11:28):
we should work with the feds. I think we should
get these criminals off our streets. Don't bounce it off
to the state and federal policies and don't talk about it.
It's a significantly emotional processes. What does that mean? What
does it mean it's going to change a trajectory of
someone's life. Yeah that when you break the law and
(11:50):
if there's justice, isn't the trajectory of that life altered
and changed as well as the families. Yeah, it's not
the law's fault, it's a law breaker's fault. Start saying that, Republicans,
But they all water it down here to get along,
Get along, Get along now. A Raco Urias Junior, twenty
(12:10):
four years old, sent us to twenty three years in
one month in prison. He was selling counterfeit oxy codone.
He was called the Fetnyl King, the M thirty king
here in Fresno, and interesting here that state and local
work with the Feds on this crime. But Mayor Dyer
said they're not going to work with the fedsmen it
comes to illegal alien criminal crackdown. He said that. He
(12:31):
said it's a federal issue, like newsom sing, empty reservoirs
are a local problem. During the investigation of this kingpen
of fetanel, federal, state and local law enforcement conducted traffic stops,
intercepted packages, executed residential search warrants. They recovered fifty five
(12:54):
thousand FETANL pills, six pounds of fetanel, ten pounds of meth,
pound of coke, twenty five four arms and firearms, and
one hundreds around ammunition. So let me ask with the
state and the local law enforcement working with the Feds
on this, did they go is Hoirasio Eurias Junior is
If he's a citizen, we'll work with you. We need
to know his country. Well, oh he's not from Oh
(13:16):
he's illegal. No, we UHM not gonna get our help.
We're no, we're not going to do douctay traffic stops.
Now we're gonna let those packages go through as well. No,
we're not going to knock on residential doors. We don't
work with you. That's a federal problem. Can't have it
both ways. They're Mayor Dyer and anybody else that wants
to go along with this. Operation Killer High produced three
(13:39):
federal cases, charging a total of twenty defendants. It's a
great question. I think we should send that to him
and ask them, good job their law enforcement that brought
this kingpin down here. And now we've got a nuisance
spending fifty million dollars to fight Trump and to fight
these deportations at the federal government is going to put through.
(14:02):
We are in an abusive relationship with our government.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
It's Super Tuesday with Trevor Carey on the out Valley's
Power Talk.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Well, you know what that's I hadn't thought about this.
It's like when I'm all excited when my team wins
in the seventh game of the World Series, and then
it hits me, Wait, there's not going to be more baseball?
Remember that feel Wait? Trump won, But wait, I'm not
going having Joe Biden audio as a talk show host. Guys,
you don't realize the golden gift that was for show prep.
(14:36):
Every time the President of the United States opened his mouth,
you didn't know what was going to come out. We
got a new entry. Actually it's a few days ago.
It was January fifth, and it wasn't big news then,
but the media did cover what he said about He
started cussing out reporters, saying he knew quote more world
leaders than any of them had met in their gd lives.
(15:00):
But he wasn't finished there. That's the only headline I
saw about that. But he also said, let's get something
in mind about the border. When I became president, the
numbers came way down. He said. He pushed very hard
to put more Secret Service agents on the border. Kid,
you not secret Secret Service agents on the border, what
(15:24):
a liar. Numbers didn't come way down, just part of
the straight up huge lie, bret taking lie. They exploded.
We used to disagree over politics, Republicans and Democrats. Now
we say things like, why are you flat out lying
about that something that is so so obvious. The numbers
(15:48):
exploded because you undid everything that Trump did to attempt
to secure the border in his first term. That was
the Paul Ryan Republican error where they almost foughting back
as much as Nancy Pelosi. Hopefully we got new season
Trump two point zero coming in in six days. What
was he talking about secret Service agents on the border.
(16:09):
He might not know, that's maybe what it is. He
He might not quite have an idea down between the
Border Patrol and the Secret Service. Probably thought those Secret
Service agents, you know, they were whipping Haitians because they
were eating cats. No, Joe, it was Border patrol. They
had none do with cats, and they were Haitians, but
(16:30):
they weren't whipping them. Yeah, these stories that get out
a lot of stories, and I think the best that
I've heard today story wise, it's mister Leary, mister Wonderful
talking about California. I think so many of us can
(16:52):
relate to what I'm about to play right here. Well,
let's hear you, mister Wonderful.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I think every tax payer in American, including those in California,
would like to tie this aid to removing Newsome and
Bass now gone. Part of the deal would be and
I know truckles new ideas, here's one not a dime
until those two are whacked from their jobs immediately. They
are so incompetent, and all of the decisions they've made
led to this, and they're still making mistakes. They're horrific managers.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
This is the Trevor Jerry Show on the Valley's Power Dog.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
All jobs depend on AG, That's what I've been told.
And the longer I live here, the more I realize
that in all jobs depend on AG. Well, AG depends
on water. We could use some sure could use some water.
I'm sure my next guest has spent I don't know
how many countless nights, through so many growing seasons out
(17:46):
looking well, the weather forecast was wrong. We didn't get
that rain. Unless you're in AG or a farmer, you
don't even realize how the weather affects your life. And
the reason I know that is because I've had people
that have been farmers tell me that. I of course,
you know, born and raised in Tennessee, Well, then you
know about farms. I lived in Texas if you well,
(18:08):
you know, but no, I don't. It was always it
was always in city. So that's why it's always a
great time for me to get into the mind of
people that are farmers. My next guest, Brian Riisinger. Brian,
welcome in, sir. Good to glad you're in man.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Thank you for having me, Trevor, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yes, indeed, now he wrote a book Land Rich, Cash Poor,
My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing
American Farmer, and all our fields that have been followed
around here. I do know we're going to learn more
about Brian here, but I know he's from Wisconsin. Are
you a Green Bay Packer fan?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Oh? You got to bleed green and gold?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Ryan? Would you do me a favorite? Would you run
over to seekse desk over there and get that Green
Bay thing that I colored and just bring it on
in and show it to him. We got a guy
on B ninety five, the Morning Guy seek is a
big Packers fan. I love it as well. You made
it through the Brett Faarr retirement emotional. He took you
on a up and down right.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It was a saga that was a bona fide saga,
and there were some piss and turns there. I don't
think anybody from Wisconsin would have anticipated you.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Can go ahead and bring it in. I'm giving you permission,
right so you get to see what I listened to
Frazo State football on the on the radio, and I
sit and I color things on the weekends. What do
you think of that?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know, there aren't many radio shows you roll up
and get something like that. That's outstanding.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, look at that. We'll make a photo copy in
color for you.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
That's great. That's great. You know, there's packer bars everywhere.
I didn't expect to walk into a radio studio and
see this there.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
That's right there.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You go.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You obviously grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Take
us back. What was it like. Well, how old were
you when you were on your first tractor?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Man? Oh man, You know, I grew up working with
my dad from the time I could walk and I
was on a tractor well before that. I can remember
when I was a little kid. You know, my mom
was trying to break me a stuck in my thumb
and having my blanky and stuff, and my dad used
to sneak it along so I'd keep my mouth shut.
On the tractor, you can get more work done. So
that's how long I've been on the tractor.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Okay, it was fun when you were like maybe four
or five something around there. You just let's put a
one in front of that fourteen or fifteen Moody teenager.
We got to get up early. We got Did you
stay involved with it the whole time or did you
have a season there where you're like, I'm going to
the city, mom and dad.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I hit my Moody season. But I came back around
and you actually hit it nail on the head. It
was fourteen, and you know, it was around the time
when I was trying to figure out what am I
going to do with my life? You know. And I
grew up where I loved where I grew up. I
loved my roots. Never stopped that.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
How far from Green Bay was it, Well, it's about
two and a half. I heard the above southeast. It's
about about I heard that. Yeah, you can hear the
accent and there a little bit. Yeah, I lived up
in the Buffalo area and they'd get that little access.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It's very similar actually, and there's been some farm country
up in that area too.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Oh. I lived in Wyoming County where there's more cows
than people there.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You go, Yeah, very similar. So, you know, and I
got to the age where I was trying to figure
out what I was gonna do with my life. And
I didn't have the talent for cattle and crops and
my dad did. But I had the love far away life,
and I pursued a writing career, journalist in public policy.
And it makes me so grateful to be able to
have a chance to write the book and write about
royal issues, come back around, tell our story, you know.
But at the age of fourteen, I didn't know what
I was going to do, and I had to go
(21:03):
find my own way. And I'll never forget. You know
what happened a year when my dad was sick and
I had to help out. He had some internal bleeding.
He had to go through surgery operation. We later found
out it was cancer, and this is the kind of
thing the farm families go through. My mom, I remember
never forget. She sat me down and she said, you know,
we got a guy who's coming to help, but he's
got a family of his own too, so you're gonna
have to step up and help. And there's difficult things
(21:24):
every generation. I was fourteen when that happened.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Oh you were that young.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I was fourteen, and you know, I did the work
of my dad there for a couple of months, and
I'll it's one of the things I'm most proud of
my life. I wouldn't take it back. But it was
also the time I realized that it wasn't for me.
And so that's something I've wrestled with for a long time.
Because we're fourth generation. You know, every generation figures out
a way to carry the farm for My sister's working
with my dad gratefully, and I'm here to tell our story.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
But so obviously your dad survived that.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
He did, he did, he came through it, and you know,
it's just every generation faced something like that. My dad,
he started at the age of eight. So my grandpa
fell off a corn crib. We tell this story in
the book. My grandpa fallt core crib, fell thirty feet
and broke us back. He eventually got back up on
his feet. But my dad started doing the work with
a man at the tender age of eight. Now that
sounds like a lot of hardship to people who are
from outside farm country, but the reality is there's beauty
(22:10):
to it. It gets down your blood and your bones. I mean,
my dad would wouldn't rather be anywhere than on the
back of a tractor, you know.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know, Uh, congresson Devinnona is no longer a congresson
doing true social When Rush Limbaugh died, people called in
about their memories, and he called in. He said he
remembered listening to Rush out on the tractor with his dad.
So many memories.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Right, that's absolutely right for us. The only station that
would come in was the oldest station. So I grew
up listening to CCR and I can send you the
Four Seasons and all kinds of stuff because of riding
with my dad and the tractor.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Ah, well, that's that's that's good. That's good to hear.
Let me see where did I have? Oh, oh, there
you go, Apa, Yeah, that's what you'd be listening to.
We're listening to all kinds of stuff. Temptations absolutely, Now
did anybody trying to scourge you from writing?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
It?
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Come from the arm family, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I always had the love and support of my family,
but they didn't understand all the time. And that was
something my dad and I worked through. My dad wanted
us to have a choice, and I was the I
was the first generation in our family to go to college.
I was also the first eldest son in four generations
not to take over, and my dad wrestled with that
he wanted us to have those kinds of choices.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And that's kind of pressure, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
There's a lot of pressure, you know, and every generation,
you know, the pressure building. You look back and you say,
you know, great Grandpa, we tell all these stories in
the book. You know, great Grandpa he escaped World War One,
you're up to come here. Grandpa survived the pressure. Mom
and Dad's ride the fine crisis. Every generation says, how
are we going to make it? And then that compounds,
and so you want to carry that forward in one
way or another.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
You know how many people in the number one ad
county in America relate to that what you just said
about the pressure of stepping up. Maybe they had other
ideas or other dreams, but it was almost an obligation.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I asked, you know, it's amazed me. I knew that
there were families like us all over the country, But
until we picked our head up from the work and
desid to tell our story, I didn't understand how many
people would relate to that. And it is farm families
all across the country, and people who love the way
of work, people who had all kinds of hardship, all
kinds of beauty in their life. But there is that
generational pressure.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And it's different than taking over the family hardware store,
because there's no such thing as a hardware way of life,
but there is a farm way of life. Yeah, it's
a lot more than just establishment.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's right. I tell you, I have a lot of
respect for any family business, particularly a small family business
in this country. But the reality is that on a farm,
you know, it's not just your mom and dad's job
or business, but it's also your home. It's your community
because you probably just have a couple of farms in
the area, and it's your heritage, you know. So it's
a whole lot wrapped up in that piece of land.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Hard to probably come up with a book title land rich,
cash poor. Well that that kind of explains it. If
you died, your relatives would get some valuable property, but
you don't have maybe a lot of money in the
bank account at the moment.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Exactly right. We lived it. You know, I was lucky
to have a you know, grow up with the middle class.
Living with my parents could help me pay my way
through colleg which I did. I worked through and they
put in a little too. But farms like ours and
so many farms, it gets harder and harder each year
to grind out that living, and that middle class living
is slipping away for a lot of our farm. So
that's the cash poor part. On the land rich part is,
of course, you know, you got you know, a couple
(25:14):
hundred acres or whatever the case is, no matter how
humble the farm is, you could sell that land for
a little chunk of money, but then you lose everything else,
you know, again, you lose your home, your community, your heritage.
And so that's that dilemma that our farm families are
living in all across this country and including of course
in this county right here.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Your families hope their farm obviously I think you said
your sister's still working with your dad. Is it still thriving?
Is it?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah? You know where I would say, we're grinding it out.
And we say that with pride. You know. We we
were a dairy farm and it got to the point
where we either had to get way bigger or diversify it.
And you know, families make both those choices. They're both
valid choices. We decided to diversify and so my dad
sold the milk curd and that's kind of like a
death in the family for a dairy farm, and we
talk about some of the emotional hardship of that process
(25:58):
in the book. But my sister and my dad they're
taking over together and as it passes the next generation.
They're cash cropping. Like a lot of farms out here,
do they're raising?
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Explain what that is?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah? Yeah, so so cash cropping would be raising you know,
in our court case, corn, soybeans, different types of wheat. Also,
we're experimenting with different food products and things like that.
And you're and you're you know, you're growing those scraption,
you sew them on the open market and you plant
in the spring.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
You say experimenting, Do you mean like GMO experimentation.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
No, for us, it's more like alternative specialty food type stuff.
You know, we're looking at, for instance, like we grow wheat, Okay,
how how easily can we turn toward also growing Turkish
red wheat and spelt and things that can be using
food products because there aren't a lot of new entrepreneur
opportunities for farms in this country. So we're experimenting trying
to figure out what the future how to look like.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Well, we're hearing too many that are becoming solar farms. Yeah, yeah,
you know, I'm fields here in the valley.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, you know, I mean it's a it's a difficult
thing for any property owners decide what they want to
do with their land. And there's a whole lot of
things coming in and it's always difficult decisions, there's no
question about that.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
What about I always hear big AG or the ag mafia,
you know, the big companies that come in. Did your
family ever get offered by a big e and he decided, now,
we're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, we had opportunities to sell and we decided we
weren't going to you know, And you know, look, I
mean I think you know, there's farms of all kinds,
especially here in Fresno County too. People know, and some
of those farms they got bigger, just trying to survive,
same as any other farm. But there's also there's no
question that there's a huge corporate presence all throughout. And
one of the things that we've fased in this country
is that we got so many of our industries dominated
(27:31):
by big players in all these industries. So you got
the food industry trying to keep up with the rest
of the economy. You got the egg industry trying to
keep up, food insture, you got the farmers trying to
keep up with the aggubusiness companies. So everybody's trying to
keep up and trying to figure out a way to
survive because in this country we've made it so hard
to make a living growing something out of the ground.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Well, the cost of everything that is that is rising. Fertilizer,
I just saw a report where like combined sales tractor
sales are down like I was like fifteen or twenty percent. Yeah,
what is that say to you? Right there they're just
using their old equipment and not investing, or that there's
not as many around.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yep, every every farmer is also an electrician, carpenter, plumber, mechanic,
you know, and these guys are patching up machinery and
trying to keep it going a little bit longer because
the reality is that, you know, American farmers facing the
same kind of crunch that the American family is. When
costs are going up for families, they are for farmers too.
We got higher seed, fertilizer, energy costs, all of it.
And so they're trying to figure out a way to
(28:26):
stretch that equipment, make it another year without having to
put money into new equipment.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
My guess. Brian Reisinger. He is the author of land Ridge,
Cash Poor, My Family's Hope, and the untold history of
the disappearing American farmer and farmland disappears when we don't
have water. I want to come back with Brian, what
I see here? We you assume, well, there's a lot
of rain in Wisconsin probably right is there? Do you
do you have issues with water there?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
You know there are water issues everywhere in Wisconsin is
less pronounced than it is here. And you know, we
get we get some wet springs because we get that
snow melting in the spring, and we get we get decent,
strong seasons of rain. Heat. It's good for growing, you
know out here it's really good for growing too. But
the water issues are so serious.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Well, let's come back. I want to talk water and
also Brian can answer some of our chicken questions we've
had this week. More next hang on.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
This is Super Tuesday with Trevor Carey on the Valley
Spower Talk.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Brian Breisinger is my inn studio guest author of the
new book land rich Cash, poor Brian. During the break
right there, I was telling you I was back in Tennessee.
We're talking Tennessee, and he got all where where where?
And I was like, I know, he's from Wisconsin and
he moved to California. Why is he all where where?
We're tell everybody what you did in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Well, I lived in Tennessee for a number of years
and moved down there for job in business journals and
writing about the economy. And after a couple of years
doing that, I got hired to work for US Center
Lamar Alexander, who of course was longtime governor of Tennessee.
So we traveled every corner of that state, saw a
lot of beautiful farm country.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And when I said the little town I was born
in in northwest Tennessee up there, Union City, he goes, Yep, yep,
know that one. He even knew Diresburg and Rutherford and Jackson.
Well Jackson's a little bigger.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
But well, you know, you work for somebody who's in
ingrained in the state as he was, and you know
you got you gotta crawl over a corner of that
because he's earning every boat and he's making sure understands
the problem in every community.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Let me ask you this. You currently reside up in
Sacramento with your family, and you go back. You said
to Wisconsin during farm season? Is that?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah? I spent my time on buck there, you know
about nearly monthly, not quite, but nearly monthing. I live
on the family farm when I'm out there.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And you've been around America a lot, I assume, right,
if you could pick one state, family, one tied to it, job,
one tight, whatever it is, what or maybe what region
would you go back home? Tennessee, California, where.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I'll tell you my honest answer now is home because
the farm's there. I got cabin back in the woods,
out back of the farmhouse. That's my happy place, and
it's it's when I'm closest to my roots. But when
I was younger, I probably would have said Tennessee. That's
why I moved to Nashville. I was a big country
music fan. That's what took me down there. Another one.
I really love Colorado.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Put a guitar on your lap, you could be you
almost look like one. You got the hat and the beard.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I'd have to do the lips thing because I don't
have the musical right, right, you don't play any instruments, No, no,
you k Well, then there you go, and you could
draw them all those temptations songs. There you go.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Well, water, of course, here is such a big deal.
And the first year I lived in California and they
went away for quite a while, then came back and
I thought, after a year, I'll get this water thing
figured out. I'm ten years into it, and I don't
even think I know ten percent of the of the
problems that go through. I say, what they do with
our water during droughts even would be equal to during
(31:36):
a famine giving food to animals in the Sierra. It
doesn't make sense. It's like what about the humans, I'll
tell you.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And it is so confounding, and it's the kind of
thing that really piss you off because it's the kind
of area that we ought to be able to work
together on. I mean, I know that they say whiskeys
for drinking and waters for fighting over. But at the
end of the day, the people who are at odds
over this, they have a lot of shared interests, you know.
I mean, people who care about our environment, eating right,
eating absolutely absolutely, But even if they don't see that
in front of their face, because a lot of times
(32:05):
people don't recognize that connection. The reality is that wanting
to have clean, abundant water is in the interest of
our farmers as much as it is anybody. So there
ought to be ability for you know, people who care
about the environment and farmers to work together on abundant
supplies of clean water, soil health, all those kinds of things.
But instead there's all this focus on the divisive elements
(32:25):
of it, and we end up fighting over resources should
be working together to preserve.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I can't think, well, the two careers I think in
California that would be so frustrating is to be an
agg and to be in law enforcement because it seemed
like the state works against you to make your job
as difficult as they can make it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Well, and here's the problem when they do that with
egg the reality is that you know, you have a
guvernment regulation or some sort of you know, new mandate,
whatever it is. You know, the ones that have the
hardest time dealing with that are the smallest family operations
because there's cost involved in that, and the smaller guys
you know, they can't and the cost of the whole idea.
(33:02):
I mean, it's just it's the law of unintended consequences,
and they often hurt the people they supposedly want to
help or profess they want to help.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I hope some of our Republican congressmen back in
DC that understand the water issue, and I think the
incoming Trump administration because he did in his first term
he was out here with water. But it's a national
security issue with our food in this valley here in
the San Joaquin Valley. What we create to send fifty
percent of our water that under the bridge just doesn't
(33:30):
make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Well, you know, you're so right about that, and it
connects to our nation security and so anyways, think about this.
We've been losing farms forty five thousand a year on
average for the past century, wiping out our domestic food supply. Well,
at the same time, we're importing more food than ever before,
forty two and a half billion dollar egg trade depths
of meaning we import that much more food than we export.
So it almost reads like a dystopian novel. You're wiping
(33:54):
out your domestic food supply and depending more and more
on foreign countries to feed you. That is a recipe
for you know, a real national security problem.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
The man you said you met earlier today, Ryan Jacobson,
CEO of the President County Farm Bureau, your guys, first
time in a meeting. But I always say to him, man,
it's like, it's sinister what they're trying to do to
ag and farm and water in this state. It's sinister.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Well, I think it comes out of a lot of
it is people don't realize the connection. When you get
talking to your average person on the street, you talking
about farm, they they can understand that connection. But day
to day a lot of people don't think about it
and they're busy living their lives. But the people who
are attacking agriculture, I don't know if they don't understand
it or what it is, but they do not acknowledge
the connection between your farms and your food and they
end up causing many of the problems. I mean, especially
(34:37):
right now, look at the price eggs. You know, we
make it harder for farm families to persist in this country.
You're not going to help that issue. You know, bags
are through the roof because we have bird flu that is,
you know, impacting our supply chain, disrupting it you make
it harder.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
For they destroy more than they need to. In your
professional farm opinion.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, you know, that's a great question. It's hard to
necessarily know, but you always think they probably do a
little bit of overkill, you know what I mean. But
one of the issues that we really have is that
you know, you have integrated industries that it's it's a
supply chain that's fairly easily disrupted. We need more family
farms able to thrive growing food and eggs and everything
else in more parts of the country so we can
get farm from food gate to dinner table in more ways.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Brian I found out this week with the egg prices
that you can have up to twenty four chickens in
your backyard and presno city limits, as long as it's
forty feet away from a residence. What makes a chicken
egg one that we eat and one that a little
baby chickens in it?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You know, there actually isn't a whole lot difference. It's
about when do you grab them, and so you get
them early enough, and you know, an egg, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
So when I got that yellow stuff running around, I'm
dipping my toast in it with my bacon and stuff
that's a baby chicken that didn't make it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, well you got to them before he did put
it that way and changes things. Well, you're not the
first person I talk to this week who's talking about
geting chickens in their backyard, right, Okay, yeah with the yeah, absolutely,
people are looking and they can't get the eggs in
the store if they kennist to the rough, and you know,
it makes people think about it.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
This is the Trevor carry Show on The Valley's Power
Talk
Sorry, left, you lost those words. I just played you
from Trump. We're from twenty and sixteen. He's been saying
it from the get go that there's been a mess
created with our immigration system. Well, we need immigration reform, No,
we don't. We just need to follow the signs enter exit.
(00:21):
It's pretty simple, and we need to know who's entering
and who's exiting. None of this should ever have been
allowed to happen in the first place. Do you not
recall Trump? Do you not recall Tom Holman months ago?
Do you not recall law enforcement in California with SB
fifty four stating that, okay, law enforcement can't work with
the Feds here, you know, for deportation, they can't work
(00:45):
with ICE here in California. Well, what has I said?
What's border patrol set? What's home? And said? What's Trump said?
What have I said on this show? That that means
you're going to have to go out into the community
and find people. That's what they've always said. SB fifty
four makes the community way less safe, even on the
aspect of having to go out and do these raids.
(01:06):
They should have already contacted ICE. Hi, we have somebody
in our jail here that's committed a crime that needs
to go Okay. We won't have to go find them
in the community. We won't have to go arrest them
at the playground. We won't have to arrest them at
the bus stop or on their way to their job.
They still have to survive the New York posts at Homeland.
(01:28):
What's a hotline you heard that established to report suspected
criminal illegal aliens? Now, I would say every illegal alien
has committed a crime by being here illegally. That's why
they had to change the name and they get rid
of that illegal stuff. Nobody would be behind that right now.
They're undocumented. Now they're newcomers and migrants and whatever word
(01:51):
that you want to use. Tom Holmans said, I want
to place where American citizens can call and report. We're
going to take care of the American people. We got
to make sure they have an outlet to report child
traffickers and force labor traffickers. I would think that they
if if you were an illegal alien here working and
you called up and go, hey, there's some funny business
(02:11):
going on out here in a bar. And I've seen
a lot of humans that are there for only a
few hours and then they all get in a van
and they just leave. They would probably be like thank
you and might even give you a pass. See, who
knows what Trump's gonna put out there. Report child sex traffickers,
report drug runners, report the forced labor traffickers. Maybe you're
(02:35):
working for them. It's kind of like, Okay, go in
the military, and you can earn your citizenship, earn your
green card by reporting somebody. If they get in court,
get you know, confirmed and sentenced, then all right, you,
thank you, you helped the country. I don't know if
that's come up around the roundtable at mar Largo. I
(02:55):
hadn't thought of it until just right then. Holman said,
we want to give a man Murricans the opportunity to
be part of the fix. There were some roundups, and
I wonder if this is what many are going. This
is just a glimpse of what's going to be happening
in the coming weeks and months. And you are correct.
Operation return to Cender Border Patrol, not ice Border Patrol,
(03:17):
came all the way up here in an operation. About
eighty arrest happened several sex offenders, some with existing criminal warrants,
and others involved in drug trafficking. Border patrols said the
mass deportation operation that will occur after January twentieth might
target specific individuals. Criminal gangs are others who have outstanding
(03:37):
removal orders. But if you are nearby and in an
illegal status, you could expect to be arrested as well. Now,
what are Fresno's elected officials saying about it? Gvwire dot
com headline What are Fresnel leaders saying about anti deportation protests?
I don't look at them as leaders, They're elected officials,
(04:01):
mayor dire I'm going to read a statement. I completely
understand the concerns raised by members of our community about
immigration related issues, as well as the protest at River
Park on Sunday. He completely understands people protesting sex offenders
being arrested. Really, he said, I want to make it clear,
City of Fresno. He's making it clear, guys, you remember
(04:21):
this next election season. I want to make it clear
the City of FRESNOE is committed to ensuring the safety
and well being of all our residents. As a city,
we do not participate in or enforce federal immigration matters.
That is the role of federal government. Our priority is
to build trusts within our diverse community and ensure everyone
(04:42):
feels valued, safe, and supported, regardless of their immigration status.
The Fresno Police Department's primary focus is to keep the
community safe, respond to calls for service, and to earn
the trust of those we serve. We respect the right
of individuals to peacefully protest express their concerns, but to
do so without in danger the public. I encourage all
participants to engage in respectful, constructive dialogue as we work
(05:05):
towards together solutions of benefit the entire community. I said,
he needs to change his political affiliation, I said to
first letter of his first name. I meant last name
d D. Let's talk about Let's break this down for
a moment. He says, our priority is to ensure that
everybody feels valued, safe, and supportive, regardless of their immigration status.
(05:28):
So he wants to ensure that illegals are that way too,
regardless of their immigration status. What about the fact someone
might be violent criminals? He wants to keep the community safe.
Doesn't that mean working with the FEDS to capture violent
criminals regardless of their country of origin. We don't work
(05:49):
with the Feds. We don't participate or enforce federal immigration matters.
That is the role of the federal government. How many
times do I interviewlaw enforcement or even elected officials. I'll
talk about the investigation of this federal state and local
law enforcement. Federal state and local law enforcement. What about
(06:12):
the Fresno's feedinol King that got twenty three years in
federal prison. Federal state and local law enforcement worked on
that together. But suddenly just one little subset of criminals
you're gonna stay away from. It's about strength, It's about
telling it like it is. Mayor Dier, I don't know
(06:35):
if you can read the room. I know you and
Newsom seem to have a little bit of trouble with that.
But you got Newsome itis, probably picked up by a
bro hug over your success, and you know you determine
the homelessness you guys gave each other. Bro hug, you
got some of that newso itis on you here this
you can't read the room. This county just went read again.
(06:57):
This county just went for Trump again. This county actually
voted to recall Newsome. You have a lot of Hispanics
in this county, and a lot of Hispanics do not
want illegal immigration infecting our country anymore. They want them
to go back home and to do it the legal way.
(07:20):
DIYer doesn't stand for anything well, not anything conservative, not
anything Republican. He wants to be liked by the left,
and they're not gonna like you. You watch push comes
to shove right, it means nobody will like you. We've
had more homelessness. He's basically go along with the leftist agenda,
(07:41):
whether it's fifteen minute cities, whether it's getting rid of cars,
whether it's high speed rail. That's our money, man, quit it,
stop it. Please. One thing that Joe Biden said that
that's correct, was sorry, Mayor Dyer might get you in
(08:03):
trouble out there in Fresno. It's not just Mayor Dyer.
There was a news conference organized by Frozne County Supervisor
Louis Chavez. I would think Louis Chavez would be against
child rapists, and I'm sure he's gonna say he's against
those kind of crimes. Well, then stop invoking the fear.
You're only adding to what needs to be piling it on.
(08:29):
In this giv wire article, Chavez said he expressed concern
over the potential for parents to be taken leaving their
children without a home, stranded kids. How far on the
fear level are you going with that one there, man, Chavez.
Here local leaders urging federal immigration agencies who adopt a
more targeted approach, avoiding actions that create widespread fear. That's
(08:52):
what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Stop that.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Chavez pointed to SB fifty four of the California Values Act,
which is the sanctuary of state law blocks law enforcement
from doing their job. Chavez criticized the sweeping enforcing enforcement tactics,
calling on federal officers to focus on known offenders rather
than creating fear in public spaces. Now, let's break that down.
He's citing SB fifty four, which does not allow them
(09:17):
to focus on known offenders, because they could focus on
the known offenders if they were still in the jail.
That's how they focus on it. You're calling them federal
officers and focus on known offenders rather than creating fear
in public spaces. They have to go to the public
spaces to arrest them now because of SB fifty four.
(09:40):
Stop it, Chavez, Man, I tell you they talk out
of both sides of their mouth. First quote from President
City Council member Nick Richardson in the GV wire article.
In his district includes River Park where the big protests,
they said, hundreds people honk in their hearts. That's right.
(10:00):
Don't deport people at rate. Kids the dumbing down of America,
and they're out there waving their Mexican flags. You can
be proud of your heritage. It's okay. Let me, you know,
doing Saint Patrick's Day up or something like that. America
allows that. But what are you waving out there? In
(10:21):
defiance of council Member Richardson said quote, I understand the
immigration deportation are significantly emotional processes and can often change
the trajectory of someone's life as well as their families. Yeah,
like Jody Jones, he lost his brother to an illegal
alien and a murder spree. He said, I believe that
(10:42):
appealing to the decision makers behind state and federal policies
may be a more effective way to produce a compromise.
They can agree with making any part of our city
less safe by creating issues for law enforcement, commuters, and
other protesters during demonstrations, it's kind of productive to peace
and against the law. Okay, well me, we know that
I'm trying to get something. I can grab in here.
(11:05):
That would show a Republican on city council. I guess, really,
city council is not going to change anything. State and
federal policies will change it. But no, we have a
mayor here that's saying we're not going to work with
the feds. I would think that with the problems and
issues that a legal immigration bring here, a Republican on
city council would stand up and say, no, I think
(11:28):
we should work with the feds. I think we should
get these criminals off our streets. Don't bounce it off
to the state and federal policies and don't talk about it.
It's a significantly emotional processes. What does that mean? What
does it mean it's going to change a trajectory of
someone's life. Yeah that when you break the law and
(11:50):
if there's justice, isn't the trajectory of that life altered
and changed as well as the families. Yeah, it's not
the law's fault, it's a law breaker's fault. Start saying that, Republicans,
But they all water it down here to get along,
Get along, Get along now. A Raco Urias Junior, twenty
(12:10):
four years old, sent us to twenty three years in
one month in prison. He was selling counterfeit oxy codone.
He was called the Fetnyl King, the M thirty king
here in Fresno, and interesting here that state and local
work with the Feds on this crime. But Mayor Dyer
said they're not going to work with the fedsmen it
comes to illegal alien criminal crackdown. He said that. He
(12:31):
said it's a federal issue, like newsom sing, empty reservoirs
are a local problem. During the investigation of this kingpen
of fetanel, federal, state and local law enforcement conducted traffic stops,
intercepted packages, executed residential search warrants. They recovered fifty five
(12:54):
thousand FETANL pills, six pounds of fetanel, ten pounds of meth,
pound of coke, twenty five four arms and firearms, and
one hundreds around ammunition. So let me ask with the
state and the local law enforcement working with the Feds
on this, did they go is Hoirasio Eurias Junior is
If he's a citizen, we'll work with you. We need
to know his country. Well, oh he's not from Oh
(13:16):
he's illegal. No, we UHM not gonna get our help.
We're no, we're not going to do douctay traffic stops.
Now we're gonna let those packages go through as well. No,
we're not going to knock on residential doors. We don't
work with you. That's a federal problem. Can't have it
both ways. They're Mayor Dyer and anybody else that wants
to go along with this. Operation Killer High produced three
(13:39):
federal cases, charging a total of twenty defendants. It's a
great question. I think we should send that to him
and ask them, good job their law enforcement that brought
this kingpin down here. And now we've got a nuisance
spending fifty million dollars to fight Trump and to fight
these deportations at the federal government is going to put through.
(14:02):
We are in an abusive relationship with our government.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
It's Super Tuesday with Trevor Carey on the out Valley's
Power Talk.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Well, you know what that's I hadn't thought about this.
It's like when I'm all excited when my team wins
in the seventh game of the World Series, and then
it hits me, Wait, there's not going to be more baseball?
Remember that feel Wait? Trump won, But wait, I'm not
going having Joe Biden audio as a talk show host. Guys,
you don't realize the golden gift that was for show prep.
(14:36):
Every time the President of the United States opened his mouth,
you didn't know what was going to come out. We
got a new entry. Actually it's a few days ago.
It was January fifth, and it wasn't big news then,
but the media did cover what he said about He
started cussing out reporters, saying he knew quote more world
leaders than any of them had met in their gd lives.
(15:00):
But he wasn't finished there. That's the only headline I
saw about that. But he also said, let's get something
in mind about the border. When I became president, the
numbers came way down. He said. He pushed very hard
to put more Secret Service agents on the border. Kid,
you not secret Secret Service agents on the border, what
(15:24):
a liar. Numbers didn't come way down, just part of
the straight up huge lie, bret taking lie. They exploded.
We used to disagree over politics, Republicans and Democrats. Now
we say things like, why are you flat out lying
about that something that is so so obvious. The numbers
(15:48):
exploded because you undid everything that Trump did to attempt
to secure the border in his first term. That was
the Paul Ryan Republican error where they almost foughting back
as much as Nancy Pelosi. Hopefully we got new season
Trump two point zero coming in in six days. What
was he talking about secret Service agents on the border.
(16:09):
He might not know, that's maybe what it is. He
He might not quite have an idea down between the
Border Patrol and the Secret Service. Probably thought those Secret
Service agents, you know, they were whipping Haitians because they
were eating cats. No, Joe, it was Border patrol. They
had none do with cats, and they were Haitians, but
(16:30):
they weren't whipping them. Yeah, these stories that get out
a lot of stories, and I think the best that
I've heard today story wise, it's mister Leary, mister Wonderful
talking about California. I think so many of us can
(16:52):
relate to what I'm about to play right here. Well,
let's hear you, mister Wonderful.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I think every tax payer in American, including those in California,
would like to tie this aid to removing Newsome and
Bass now gone. Part of the deal would be and
I know truckles new ideas, here's one not a dime
until those two are whacked from their jobs immediately. They
are so incompetent, and all of the decisions they've made
led to this, and they're still making mistakes. They're horrific managers.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
This is the Trevor Jerry Show on the Valley's Power Dog.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
All jobs depend on AG, That's what I've been told.
And the longer I live here, the more I realize
that in all jobs depend on AG. Well, AG depends
on water. We could use some sure could use some water.
I'm sure my next guest has spent I don't know
how many countless nights, through so many growing seasons out
(17:46):
looking well, the weather forecast was wrong. We didn't get
that rain. Unless you're in AG or a farmer, you
don't even realize how the weather affects your life. And
the reason I know that is because I've had people
that have been farmers tell me that. I of course,
you know, born and raised in Tennessee, Well, then you
know about farms. I lived in Texas if you well,
(18:08):
you know, but no, I don't. It was always it
was always in city. So that's why it's always a
great time for me to get into the mind of
people that are farmers. My next guest, Brian Riisinger. Brian,
welcome in, sir. Good to glad you're in man.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Thank you for having me, Trevor, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Yes, indeed, now he wrote a book Land Rich, Cash Poor,
My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing
American Farmer, and all our fields that have been followed
around here. I do know we're going to learn more
about Brian here, but I know he's from Wisconsin. Are
you a Green Bay Packer fan?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Oh? You got to bleed green and gold?
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Ryan? Would you do me a favorite? Would you run
over to seekse desk over there and get that Green
Bay thing that I colored and just bring it on
in and show it to him. We got a guy
on B ninety five, the Morning Guy seek is a
big Packers fan. I love it as well. You made
it through the Brett Faarr retirement emotional. He took you
on a up and down right.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It was a saga that was a bona fide saga,
and there were some piss and turns there. I don't
think anybody from Wisconsin would have anticipated you.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Can go ahead and bring it in. I'm giving you permission,
right so you get to see what I listened to
Frazo State football on the on the radio, and I
sit and I color things on the weekends. What do
you think of that?
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know, there aren't many radio shows you roll up
and get something like that. That's outstanding.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, look at that. We'll make a photo copy in
color for you.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
That's great. That's great. You know, there's packer bars everywhere.
I didn't expect to walk into a radio studio and
see this there.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
That's right there.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You go.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
You obviously grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Take
us back. What was it like. Well, how old were
you when you were on your first tractor?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Man? Oh man, You know, I grew up working with
my dad from the time I could walk and I
was on a tractor well before that. I can remember
when I was a little kid. You know, my mom
was trying to break me a stuck in my thumb
and having my blanky and stuff, and my dad used
to sneak it along so I'd keep my mouth shut.
On the tractor, you can get more work done. So
that's how long I've been on the tractor.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Okay, it was fun when you were like maybe four
or five something around there. You just let's put a
one in front of that fourteen or fifteen Moody teenager.
We got to get up early. We got Did you
stay involved with it the whole time or did you
have a season there where you're like, I'm going to
the city, mom and dad.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I hit my Moody season. But I came back around
and you actually hit it nail on the head. It
was fourteen, and you know, it was around the time
when I was trying to figure out what am I
going to do with my life? You know. And I
grew up where I loved where I grew up. I
loved my roots. Never stopped that.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
How far from Green Bay was it, Well, it's about
two and a half. I heard the above southeast. It's
about about I heard that. Yeah, you can hear the
accent and there a little bit. Yeah, I lived up
in the Buffalo area and they'd get that little access.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It's very similar actually, and there's been some farm country
up in that area too.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Oh. I lived in Wyoming County where there's more cows
than people there.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
You go, Yeah, very similar. So, you know, and I
got to the age where I was trying to figure
out what I was gonna do with my life. And
I didn't have the talent for cattle and crops and
my dad did. But I had the love far away life,
and I pursued a writing career, journalist in public policy.
And it makes me so grateful to be able to
have a chance to write the book and write about
royal issues, come back around, tell our story, you know.
But at the age of fourteen, I didn't know what
I was going to do, and I had to go
(21:03):
find my own way. And I'll never forget. You know
what happened a year when my dad was sick and
I had to help out. He had some internal bleeding.
He had to go through surgery operation. We later found
out it was cancer, and this is the kind of
thing the farm families go through. My mom, I remember
never forget. She sat me down and she said, you know,
we got a guy who's coming to help, but he's
got a family of his own too, so you're gonna
have to step up and help. And there's difficult things
(21:24):
every generation. I was fourteen when that happened.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Oh you were that young.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I was fourteen, and you know, I did the work
of my dad there for a couple of months, and
I'll it's one of the things I'm most proud of
my life. I wouldn't take it back. But it was
also the time I realized that it wasn't for me.
And so that's something I've wrestled with for a long time.
Because we're fourth generation. You know, every generation figures out
a way to carry the farm for My sister's working
with my dad gratefully, and I'm here to tell our story.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
But so obviously your dad survived that.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
He did, he did, he came through it, and you know,
it's just every generation faced something like that. My dad,
he started at the age of eight. So my grandpa
fell off a corn crib. We tell this story in
the book. My grandpa fallt core crib, fell thirty feet
and broke us back. He eventually got back up on
his feet. But my dad started doing the work with
a man at the tender age of eight. Now that
sounds like a lot of hardship to people who are
from outside farm country, but the reality is there's beauty
(22:10):
to it. It gets down your blood and your bones. I mean,
my dad would wouldn't rather be anywhere than on the
back of a tractor, you know.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
You know, Uh, congresson Devinnona is no longer a congresson
doing true social When Rush Limbaugh died, people called in
about their memories, and he called in. He said he
remembered listening to Rush out on the tractor with his dad.
So many memories.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Right, that's absolutely right for us. The only station that
would come in was the oldest station. So I grew
up listening to CCR and I can send you the
Four Seasons and all kinds of stuff because of riding
with my dad and the tractor.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Ah, well, that's that's that's good. That's good to hear.
Let me see where did I have? Oh, oh, there
you go, Apa, Yeah, that's what you'd be listening to.
We're listening to all kinds of stuff. Temptations absolutely, Now
did anybody trying to scourge you from writing?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
It?
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Come from the arm family, you know.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I always had the love and support of my family,
but they didn't understand all the time. And that was
something my dad and I worked through. My dad wanted
us to have a choice, and I was the I
was the first generation in our family to go to college.
I was also the first eldest son in four generations
not to take over, and my dad wrestled with that
he wanted us to have those kinds of choices.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And that's kind of pressure, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
There's a lot of pressure, you know, and every generation,
you know, the pressure building. You look back and you say,
you know, great Grandpa, we tell all these stories in
the book. You know, great Grandpa he escaped World War One,
you're up to come here. Grandpa survived the pressure. Mom
and Dad's ride the fine crisis. Every generation says, how
are we going to make it? And then that compounds,
and so you want to carry that forward in one
way or another.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
You know how many people in the number one ad
county in America relate to that what you just said
about the pressure of stepping up. Maybe they had other
ideas or other dreams, but it was almost an obligation.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I asked, you know, it's amazed me. I knew that
there were families like us all over the country, But
until we picked our head up from the work and
desid to tell our story, I didn't understand how many
people would relate to that. And it is farm families
all across the country, and people who love the way
of work, people who had all kinds of hardship, all
kinds of beauty in their life. But there is that
generational pressure.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And it's different than taking over the family hardware store,
because there's no such thing as a hardware way of life,
but there is a farm way of life. Yeah, it's
a lot more than just establishment.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's right. I tell you, I have a lot of
respect for any family business, particularly a small family business
in this country. But the reality is that on a farm,
you know, it's not just your mom and dad's job
or business, but it's also your home. It's your community
because you probably just have a couple of farms in
the area, and it's your heritage, you know. So it's
a whole lot wrapped up in that piece of land.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Hard to probably come up with a book title land rich,
cash poor. Well that that kind of explains it. If
you died, your relatives would get some valuable property, but
you don't have maybe a lot of money in the
bank account at the moment.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Exactly right. We lived it. You know, I was lucky
to have a you know, grow up with the middle class.
Living with my parents could help me pay my way
through colleg which I did. I worked through and they
put in a little too. But farms like ours and
so many farms, it gets harder and harder each year
to grind out that living, and that middle class living
is slipping away for a lot of our farm. So
that's the cash poor part. On the land rich part is,
of course, you know, you got you know, a couple
(25:14):
hundred acres or whatever the case is, no matter how
humble the farm is, you could sell that land for
a little chunk of money, but then you lose everything else,
you know, again, you lose your home, your community, your heritage.
And so that's that dilemma that our farm families are
living in all across this country and including of course
in this county right here.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Your families hope their farm obviously I think you said
your sister's still working with your dad. Is it still thriving?
Is it?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah? You know where I would say, we're grinding it out.
And we say that with pride. You know. We we
were a dairy farm and it got to the point
where we either had to get way bigger or diversify it.
And you know, families make both those choices. They're both
valid choices. We decided to diversify and so my dad
sold the milk curd and that's kind of like a
death in the family for a dairy farm, and we
talk about some of the emotional hardship of that process
(25:58):
in the book. But my sister and my dad they're
taking over together and as it passes the next generation.
They're cash cropping. Like a lot of farms out here,
do they're raising?
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Explain what that is?
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah? Yeah, so so cash cropping would be raising you know,
in our court case, corn, soybeans, different types of wheat. Also,
we're experimenting with different food products and things like that.
And you're and you're you know, you're growing those scraption,
you sew them on the open market and you plant
in the spring.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
You say experimenting, Do you mean like GMO experimentation.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
No, for us, it's more like alternative specialty food type stuff.
You know, we're looking at, for instance, like we grow wheat, Okay,
how how easily can we turn toward also growing Turkish
red wheat and spelt and things that can be using
food products because there aren't a lot of new entrepreneur
opportunities for farms in this country. So we're experimenting trying
to figure out what the future how to look like.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Well, we're hearing too many that are becoming solar farms. Yeah, yeah,
you know, I'm fields here in the valley.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, you know, I mean it's a it's a difficult
thing for any property owners decide what they want to
do with their land. And there's a whole lot of
things coming in and it's always difficult decisions, there's no
question about that.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
What about I always hear big AG or the ag mafia,
you know, the big companies that come in. Did your
family ever get offered by a big e and he decided, now,
we're not going to do that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, we had opportunities to sell and we decided we
weren't going to you know, And you know, look, I
mean I think you know, there's farms of all kinds,
especially here in Fresno County too. People know, and some
of those farms they got bigger, just trying to survive,
same as any other farm. But there's also there's no
question that there's a huge corporate presence all throughout. And
one of the things that we've fased in this country
is that we got so many of our industries dominated
(27:31):
by big players in all these industries. So you got
the food industry trying to keep up with the rest
of the economy. You got the egg industry trying to
keep up, food insture, you got the farmers trying to
keep up with the aggubusiness companies. So everybody's trying to
keep up and trying to figure out a way to
survive because in this country we've made it so hard
to make a living growing something out of the ground.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Well, the cost of everything that is that is rising. Fertilizer,
I just saw a report where like combined sales tractor
sales are down like I was like fifteen or twenty percent. Yeah,
what is that say to you? Right there they're just
using their old equipment and not investing, or that there's
not as many around.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Yep, every every farmer is also an electrician, carpenter, plumber, mechanic,
you know, and these guys are patching up machinery and
trying to keep it going a little bit longer because
the reality is that, you know, American farmers facing the
same kind of crunch that the American family is. When
costs are going up for families, they are for farmers too.
We got higher seed, fertilizer, energy costs, all of it.
And so they're trying to figure out a way to
(28:26):
stretch that equipment, make it another year without having to
put money into new equipment.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
My guess. Brian Reisinger. He is the author of land Ridge,
Cash Poor, My Family's Hope, and the untold history of
the disappearing American farmer and farmland disappears when we don't
have water. I want to come back with Brian, what
I see here? We you assume, well, there's a lot
of rain in Wisconsin probably right is there? Do you
do you have issues with water there?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
You know there are water issues everywhere in Wisconsin is
less pronounced than it is here. And you know, we
get we get some wet springs because we get that
snow melting in the spring, and we get we get decent,
strong seasons of rain. Heat. It's good for growing, you
know out here it's really good for growing too. But
the water issues are so serious.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Well, let's come back. I want to talk water and
also Brian can answer some of our chicken questions we've
had this week. More next hang on.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
This is Super Tuesday with Trevor Carey on the Valley
Spower Talk.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Brian Breisinger is my inn studio guest author of the
new book land rich Cash, poor Brian. During the break
right there, I was telling you I was back in Tennessee.
We're talking Tennessee, and he got all where where where?
And I was like, I know, he's from Wisconsin and
he moved to California. Why is he all where where?
We're tell everybody what you did in Tennessee.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Well, I lived in Tennessee for a number of years
and moved down there for job in business journals and
writing about the economy. And after a couple of years
doing that, I got hired to work for US Center
Lamar Alexander, who of course was longtime governor of Tennessee.
So we traveled every corner of that state, saw a
lot of beautiful farm country.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
And when I said the little town I was born
in in northwest Tennessee up there, Union City, he goes, Yep, yep,
know that one. He even knew Diresburg and Rutherford and Jackson.
Well Jackson's a little bigger.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
But well, you know, you work for somebody who's in
ingrained in the state as he was, and you know
you got you gotta crawl over a corner of that
because he's earning every boat and he's making sure understands
the problem in every community.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Let me ask you this. You currently reside up in
Sacramento with your family, and you go back. You said
to Wisconsin during farm season? Is that?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah? I spent my time on buck there, you know
about nearly monthly, not quite, but nearly monthing. I live
on the family farm when I'm out there.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And you've been around America a lot, I assume, right,
if you could pick one state, family, one tied to it, job,
one tight, whatever it is, what or maybe what region
would you go back home? Tennessee, California, where.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I'll tell you my honest answer now is home because
the farm's there. I got cabin back in the woods,
out back of the farmhouse. That's my happy place, and
it's it's when I'm closest to my roots. But when
I was younger, I probably would have said Tennessee. That's
why I moved to Nashville. I was a big country
music fan. That's what took me down there. Another one.
I really love Colorado.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Put a guitar on your lap, you could be you
almost look like one. You got the hat and the beard.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
I'd have to do the lips thing because I don't
have the musical right, right, you don't play any instruments, No, no,
you k Well, then there you go, and you could
draw them all those temptations songs. There you go.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Well, water, of course, here is such a big deal.
And the first year I lived in California and they
went away for quite a while, then came back and
I thought, after a year, I'll get this water thing
figured out. I'm ten years into it, and I don't
even think I know ten percent of the of the
problems that go through. I say, what they do with
our water during droughts even would be equal to during
(31:36):
a famine giving food to animals in the Sierra. It
doesn't make sense. It's like what about the humans, I'll
tell you.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And it is so confounding, and it's the kind of
thing that really piss you off because it's the kind
of area that we ought to be able to work
together on. I mean, I know that they say whiskeys
for drinking and waters for fighting over. But at the
end of the day, the people who are at odds
over this, they have a lot of shared interests, you know.
I mean, people who care about our environment, eating right,
eating absolutely absolutely, But even if they don't see that
in front of their face, because a lot of times
(32:05):
people don't recognize that connection. The reality is that wanting
to have clean, abundant water is in the interest of
our farmers as much as it is anybody. So there
ought to be ability for you know, people who care
about the environment and farmers to work together on abundant
supplies of clean water, soil health, all those kinds of things.
But instead there's all this focus on the divisive elements
(32:25):
of it, and we end up fighting over resources should
be working together to preserve.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I can't think, well, the two careers I think in
California that would be so frustrating is to be an
agg and to be in law enforcement because it seemed
like the state works against you to make your job
as difficult as they can make it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Well, and here's the problem when they do that with
egg the reality is that you know, you have a
guvernment regulation or some sort of you know, new mandate,
whatever it is. You know, the ones that have the
hardest time dealing with that are the smallest family operations
because there's cost involved in that, and the smaller guys
you know, they can't and the cost of the whole idea.
(33:02):
I mean, it's just it's the law of unintended consequences,
and they often hurt the people they supposedly want to
help or profess they want to help.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I hope some of our Republican congressmen back in
DC that understand the water issue, and I think the
incoming Trump administration because he did in his first term
he was out here with water. But it's a national
security issue with our food in this valley here in
the San Joaquin Valley. What we create to send fifty
percent of our water that under the bridge just doesn't
(33:30):
make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Well, you know, you're so right about that, and it
connects to our nation security and so anyways, think about this.
We've been losing farms forty five thousand a year on
average for the past century, wiping out our domestic food supply. Well,
at the same time, we're importing more food than ever before,
forty two and a half billion dollar egg trade depths
of meaning we import that much more food than we export.
So it almost reads like a dystopian novel. You're wiping
(33:54):
out your domestic food supply and depending more and more
on foreign countries to feed you. That is a recipe
for you know, a real national security problem.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
The man you said you met earlier today, Ryan Jacobson,
CEO of the President County Farm Bureau, your guys, first
time in a meeting. But I always say to him, man,
it's like, it's sinister what they're trying to do to
ag and farm and water in this state. It's sinister.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Well, I think it comes out of a lot of
it is people don't realize the connection. When you get
talking to your average person on the street, you talking
about farm, they they can understand that connection. But day
to day a lot of people don't think about it
and they're busy living their lives. But the people who
are attacking agriculture, I don't know if they don't understand
it or what it is, but they do not acknowledge
the connection between your farms and your food and they
end up causing many of the problems. I mean, especially
(34:37):
right now, look at the price eggs. You know, we
make it harder for farm families to persist in this country.
You're not going to help that issue. You know, bags
are through the roof because we have bird flu that is,
you know, impacting our supply chain, disrupting it you make
it harder.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
For they destroy more than they need to. In your
professional farm opinion.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, you know, that's a great question. It's hard to
necessarily know, but you always think they probably do a
little bit of overkill, you know what I mean. But
one of the issues that we really have is that
you know, you have integrated industries that it's it's a
supply chain that's fairly easily disrupted. We need more family
farms able to thrive growing food and eggs and everything
else in more parts of the country so we can
get farm from food gate to dinner table in more ways.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Brian I found out this week with the egg prices
that you can have up to twenty four chickens in
your backyard and presno city limits, as long as it's
forty feet away from a residence. What makes a chicken
egg one that we eat and one that a little
baby chickens in it?
Speaker 2 (35:36):
You know, there actually isn't a whole lot difference. It's
about when do you grab them, and so you get
them early enough, and you know, an egg, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
So when I got that yellow stuff running around, I'm
dipping my toast in it with my bacon and stuff
that's a baby chicken that didn't make it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, well you got to them before he did put
it that way and changes things. Well, you're not the
first person I talk to this week who's talking about
geting chickens in their backyard, right, Okay, yeah with the yeah, absolutely,
people are looking and they can't get the eggs in
the store if they kennist to the rough, and you know,
it makes people think about it.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
This is the Trevor carry Show on The Valley's Power
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