Protecting the Harvest: Rural America Under Attack from Government Overreach and Activist Agendas

On April 29, 2024, Mike Siemens, Ty Winter, and Susan Kochevar joined the show. Exposed the coordinated campaign by animal rights activists to eliminate meat production, discussing the Denver slaughterhouse ban, wolf reintroduction, and the Palizzi Farm eminent domain case as interconnected threats to food security Described the systematic silencing of Republican legislators by the Democrat majority, including gaveling, redirecting, and suspending rules, while.

The Fight for Free Speech in the Colorado Legislature

Start listening at 17:47 – Hour 1

Ty Winter, representing Colorado House District 47, details the unprecedented silencing tactics deployed by the Democrat majority against Republican legislators. Winter describes a pattern of gaveling, redirecting, and interrupting minority members who attempt to speak on legislation, including providing a list of prohibited words during debate on an immigration bill.

The representative emphasizes that the 19 House Republicans represent 46 percent of Colorado voters, making their systematic exclusion from debate a direct affront to nearly half the state’s constituents. Winter explains that rules have been suspended 10 days before session’s end rather than the traditional three days, enabling the majority to accelerate passage of controversial spending and property tax legislation.

Winter frames the current political divide not as Republican versus Democrat but as rural versus urban, noting that many traditional “Kennedy Democrats” in his district now vote Republican because their party has abandoned them.

“As Americans, we should be scared to death of limiting the First Amendment right to free speech. As Americans, we should be scared to death of limiting the right to bear firearms. These are constitutional rights, God-given, unalienable rights, and they shouldn’t be red or blue issues. They should be American issues.”

Ty Winter, Colorado State Representative, District 47

The Coordinated Attack on American Food Production

Start listening at 35:22 – Hour 1

Mike Siemens, Executive Director of Protect the Harvest, exposes the sophisticated campaign by animal rights activists to eliminate meat from American tables. Siemens warns that a Denver ballot initiative targeting Superior Farms, the city’s last remaining livestock processing facility, represents the opening salvo in a broader assault on the beef industry concentrated in nearby Greeley and Fort Morgan.

Drawing on 25 years of experience fighting activist organizations, Siemens explains how groups craft ballot language designed to appeal to reasonable voters while concealing their ultimate goal: a vegan agenda that would eliminate consumer choice and control the food supply. He connects California’s Proposition 12, the Denver slaughterhouse ban, and the wolf reintroduction program as interconnected threats to food security.

The discussion turns to the Palizzi Farm in Brighton, where government overreach through eminent domain threatens a multi-generational family farm that serves as a rare bridge between urban consumers and agricultural producers. Siemens argues that such connections are increasingly vital as urbanites grow further removed from understanding where their food originates.

“If you control the food supply, you control the people. I mean, that is an absolute, you know, from the very beginning in terms of whatever more you want to talk about, whatever, you know, economy you want to talk about, whatever, you know, historical reference you’re going to make. You control the food, you control the people.”

Mike Siemens, Executive Director, Protect the Harvest

The Economic Fallacy of Forced Minimum Wage

Start listening at 70:10 – Hour 2

Susan Kochevar, owner of the 88 Drive-In Theater, analyzes the economic destruction unfolding in California and Seattle following implementation of forced minimum wage increases. Citing economist Thomas Sowell, Kochevar explains that labor is a cost to employers, and mandating higher prices for labor inevitably reduces the amount of labor businesses can afford to purchase.

Seattle’s attempt to require DoorDash pay drivers $26 per hour resulted in a 300,000-order drop as consumers rejected the resulting price increases. Kochevar emphasizes that workers should view themselves as independent businesses, trading time and skill for compensation, and should invest in increasing their value rather than relying on government mandates that ultimately destroy jobs.

The conversation expands to examine public-private partnerships, which Kochevar characterizes as fundamentally fascist arrangements where private entities nominally own assets controlled by government. She cites the Highway 36 toll road as an example where taxpayers funded 90 percent of a project operated by a private company with access to government enforcement powers.

“One of the simplest and most fundamental economic principles is that people tend to buy more when the price is lower and less when the price is higher. Yet advocates of minimum wage laws seem to think that the government can raise the price of labor without reducing the amount of labor that will be hired.”

Susan Kochevar, Owner, 88 Drive-In Theater