The Chinese Threat to America’s Food Supply: Kip Tom

Any Nation that's not food secure is only three meals from chaos nearly 70% of these crop care products or pesticides are produced in India and China mainly in China all of a sudden what happens if they want to hit the kill switch Kip Tom is an Indiana farmer and former US ambassador to the UN agencies for food and agriculture we had Chinese Nationals that were coming out at night digging up the pure parent lines of the seat that we was producing on our farm only to be taken to Chicago hair put in a warehouse and then ship back to China we have to protect that intellectual property in this episode he breaks down key vulnerabilities in America's Food Systems and how the Chinese regime is exploiting them senta is a chemical and SE giant around the world the reality is now the Chinese on it this is American thought leaders and I'm Yan Kell Kip Tom such a pleasure to have you on American thought leaders it's an honor to be with you today we've been talking a lot about how communist China is an existential threat to America we don't often think about it through the lens of food and you've been in the thick of this so tell me that picture please you know often times I think we think of that existential threat is something maybe that's military or some other uh component of uh the way the Chinese try to uh gain more control of the world but the reality is food security is our national security Any Nation that's not food secure is only three meals from chaos so I've had an extreme Focus during my tenure serving as the ambassador to the Rome based UN food and AEG agencies where I worked globally and I saw firsthand how the Chinese are trying to up in the world order but then the threat they posed to us Agriculture and us being a global leader in providing foods and feed stuffs to the world before we jump into the US side obviously the US plays a huge role in those organizations and the FAO and so forth H How Deeply is China integrated into that today actually the the Chinese control mainly almost half or they're the largest uh leader in a lot of those different organizations at the UN so when we look at uh what's going on in the food and agriculture organization we know that uh uh kangu was elected there back in 2019 we know that under his leadership obviously the the tune and the focus of the FAO organization has changed significantly we'd be in FAO conferences and we would hear these these taglines of win-win and hand inand and it was usually the setup to where you know they wanted to use our money our expertise our intellectual property to try to improve food Security in places that would benefit China and China solely not an African nation not the US not anybody else it's it was always about them and I think the Chinese are very focused on trying to capture the largest uh amount of heritable land and that is in the continent of Africa I think often times we think that the Chinese are there for the mineral or the mining that can be taking place to get the critical elements that they need to build batteries or whatever it is but the reality is they're there for their land mass they're there for the ability to produce enough food to feed their own people to be self-reliant and so anything that would do with FAO anything we would do in Africa we have to realize how much of this is actually benefiting China and not the nation that we're going in intending to help and support the local people so you know we often hear about uh the Chinese regime basically buying different companies the notable one was smithfields I mean hu right largest pork producer in America um I guess the first question is how is it possible that that even happened well I'm not sure would even happen today whether it was Smithfield or whether it's senta the reality is let's talk about Smithfield a little bit first so the reason why that uh the Chinese Communist Party had such great interest in acquiring Smithfield was you know most they have a hog herd that's nearly 10 times the size of that in the United States and it's hard to imagine but it's 10 times but the reality is it was typically production that took place in everybody's backyard they had Hogs there it was it was a great background for where diseases would spread uh productivity was low uh it was very dysfunctional in terms of producing the amount of pork that the Chinese people wanted to consume so the Chinese government figured out well if we want to get to where we need to be let's go buy a company and we'll see how they process package produce transport move it on into food retail and how they get it done there well now that they've owned them for over well over 10 years they've done it now you see these pork complexes throughout China they call Condominiums some of them um you know maybe 10 story buildings where they start feeding the pigs at the very top and at the bottom they're going out for processing but they've they've Consolidated they've industrialized that complex and the only way they could get that done was collecting the intellectual property from Smithfield of just how they produced processed packaged transported and sold to the consumer that's why that happened there now sna is a little bit different obviously we know that senta is a is a chemical and Seed giant around the world there was a number of companies bidding to purchase them back uh probably seven eight nine years ago uh none of them are successful in either Europe or United States in acquiring them so the Chinese Communist Party bought them they produce chemistries they produce seed genetics and uh all the more reason why China would want to acquire them is obviously they needed to improve their chemistries that they use to control weeds and insects and diseases but they also need to improve their genetics they grow much more corn more wheat soybeans than we do but this give them the ability to build up their own production on their own Shores now they still have restrictions in water but the reality is if they can just produce 10% more corn as an example on their existing Acres they no longer need Brazil they no longer need the United States so this is something they acquired but it was us technologies that developed a lot of these GM products and some of these chemistries but the reality is now the Chinese own it but uh they've been trying to do an IPO for a number of years but uh have been unsuccessful at doing so so I look for him to be continued to be owned by the Chinese Communist party and continue to do what they do let's talk about senta because this is this is sort of more your your you're of course a you know kind of prominent Indiana farmer what are the implications of this Chinese regime controlled company operating here with the chemistries and the and the seed banks and so forth yeah so I'm a little bit torn on that uh when I look at a company like sent and I got good friends that work there uh they're leaders in the industry they're in it for the right reason they want to support American values but unfortunately they're working for senta and but they are protecting and making sure that you us is protected but at the same time they have to protect the interest of the owner of senta which is the Chinese Communist party so in the US we still see them doing research we see them doing a lot of work where they're doing breeding on us soil uh and you can build and understand the case where they're actually advancing some genetics here in the United States but it's not going to be to benefit us solely it's probably going to benefit us maybe a little bit but it's going to benefit the Chinese Communist Party more because this is where they're already uh this is research that could probably take place somewhere else uh I get very suspect uh when I look at companies like fuang who was wanting to build a plant I believe it was in North Dakota near one of our military installations uh we can't take anything for granted with the Chinese their ability to collect information disseminate that information and use it against us in the future so uh very much against uh allowing too much manufacturing or any manufacturing especially around air or you know military bases but anywhere in the country actually um why explain to me that that National Security Dimension from your Vantage Point well I I think we have to understand that uh we tend to think that the Chinese will operate us with us with a layer of trust like we trust other individuals other companies and and protecting intellectual property they have no interest in protecting our intellectual property you know we had a situation on our farm and other Farms throughout the Midwest where we were producing seeds in our case for buyer and we had uh Chinese Nationals that were coming out at night digging up the pure parent lines of the seat that we was producing on our farm only to be taken to Chicago hair put in a warehouse and then ship back to China they think that's perfectly fine well it's not fine there's a you know hundreds of millions of dollars going to research develop these new products and then to produce and take it to the marketplace but yet the Chinese captured that the value of that and stole it from the United States that's just one of many examples of how you could look at it how the Chinese once they're here once they have their people here how they can collect information and It Go spans all the way to our digital tools that we use on our Farms where they've tried to steal our Trade Secrets or intellectual property that has created on our own Farms it's that's our own data that they've tried to attempt to take back to China to improve their produ activity so this I mean these are just your personal experiences here you're talking about right a couple of examples that's that's remarkable you know so those are a few examples that we know of and that that the individuals have been caught prosecuted and uh some have served their time but how many didn't we catch and uh you know as even on this TV show here I tell people remember they're watching they're they know know what we're saying here today and uh they will continue up their game to uh make sure they can capture our intellectual property we say this often times the US innovates China replicates and the EU regulates and uh I want to make sure that we protect that intellectual property so we in the United States can take uh the value that's created from the development of that intellectual property and reinvesting developing new Innovations we can't set still our world will not be fed you know the challenges we're face if we cannot control that intellectual property and collect the value that it's there and reinvest in developing and research and development we won't be successful in the future so we have to protect that intellectual property we're going to take a quick break right now and we'll be right back and we're back with Kip Tom Indiana farmer and former US ambassador to the UN agencies for food and agriculture one of the things you've talked about in the past is sort of different creative means of of of basically tapping into this IP and I'm wondering if you have some some other examples that you came across in your tenure or or in your work well we know there's there's genetics uh there's our crop care products that uh they have tried to copy you know a lot of people refer to them as pesticides or chemicals uh we may innovate a new product we may produce it here for a while but then all a sudden the Chinese start producing it they highly subsidize the production of it and then they sell it back into the US market and it could uh maybe offer a uh discount to a farmer to buy that Chinese product for a fourth or 40% less than what he would pay from the US manufacturer well how long can we keep going with wheels of innovation if we continue to push the manufacturing offshore the other risk we have there is if nearly 70% of these crop care products are p pesticides are produced in India and China mainly in China all of a sudden what happens if they want to hit the kill switch think about the productivity loss that will occur right here in the United States it would it would be not uncommon to believe that we would reduce productivity by 50% if we could not protect our crops China has the ability to do that today and this is where I I think we really need to look at our regulatory regime here in the United States and how we can bring some of those critical Supply chains those building blocks for food back to the United States or back to our allies around the world and make sure that we can create the jobs here the productions here where we can control it and make sure that we can be our food security which protects our national security I mean this is fascinating because you often hear how the US can be easily self-sufficient when it comes to food this is one of the huge strengths that the US has in fact right because China cannot um for example but you're telling me that that there's actually a food security issue on the China side that's not obvious to people I think to us no I don't think most consumers around the US understands the threat that we are under uh you know I don't care if it's uh from animal proteins uh you know Beef Pork poultry I don't care if it's the crops we grow anywhere from rice to cranberries to corn to soybeans there all is a linkage back to China in certain components that's used to produce those crops or those animals that is a threat and I think we need to pay particular attention to it we actually need a US agriculture strategy to understand how we can bring these components back and make sure that we're food secure you know you only have to go back in time back to the dust bow 1928 The Great Depression we had people spending 40 to 50% of their income on on food our food our country was food insecure at that point in time people were actually Starving in the United States and then we start as we started to mechanize our Farms as we start to bring the Green Revolution we started to produce Advanced seed genetics agronomic practices improved and then we had the digital Revolution that's occurring in agriculture today that is really rapidly changing the way in our productivity so we need to make sure we do that so we don't get back to 1928 I share this story and it comes from my heart cuz my my father passed away about 2 and a half years ago shortly before he's passed we went down to the first Farm where he walked behind his father in the furrow and watched his father plow with horses it's the same farm that I walked in a Furrow and saw my father plow with a tractor and my father looked at me and he said what was our yield on this farm this year and I said well I'm going to ask you the question question first what was a yield when you were a boy he said 30 bushels per acre of corn I said well this year yielded 240 bushel per acre think about that that eight-fold increase that came from American innovation that came from you know advancements in Agronomy genetics our crop care products and knowledge our ability to make sure that we were food secure it's happening in other crops too but the reality is we need to protect that because we don't keep up that same rate we won't be able to feed a world population of N9 or 10 billion people so we have to do it today tell me a little bit about your background you know you started here so so tell me more yeah yeah certainly so our family came to the United States uh back in the late 1600s both sides from Switzerland uh you know we we landed in Philadelphia and uh actually lived down in Virginia for a while but you know we fought in a revolutionary War we fought in the Civil War uh we fought in World War I and World War II but during that time frame we made our way from the east coast and uh bu wagon with nine children on and made it to Northern Indiana where it's home today has been since 1837 uh I'm the Seventh Generation farmer there my children are running it they're eighth generation of course and I have two grandchildren just graduated from Purdue University that uh they'll be the nth that they choose to come back to the farm with their agriculture degree so during that time frame I I look at those productivity increases I look for the the hardships that they had to live through during that time frame but today I look at our agriculture then I look where it's at now and our ability to protect the environment our ability to protect Earth the climate our productivity gains we've done a lot but we don't talk about it often now tell me a little bit about this uh the the corn SE seed that you sell right and and why uh the Chinese Nationals you describe might be so interested in that like what what is it about this corn seed that makes it so valuable to them in your mind well it's obviously what's so valuable to them is the increased productivity the yields you can get from it but you know I don't want to get to down in the weeds here but we'll we will take a a version which we call the female and a male version we'll grow them together in a field and we create a hybrid M but when we plant them they are still inbred parent lines and so it's taken can take 10 12 years to produce some of these inbreds or to insert the genes into them that you need to protect them against insects or some weeds or some disease so there's a lot of value there and I think it's very attractive and very easy it's not like we have security fences around all our fields to protect them but uh you know they're very permeable and uh they've been able to come in and and dig up these seeds and start from scratch and produce it themselves I guess this is what I'm trying to it takes it took you 12 years to breed this specific line and so this is the IP this is your intellectual property that's being stolen yes it is you know whether it it would be the intellectual property of buyer or CA some of the major producers of the seeds they're the ones that do all the breeding and scan and analyze millions of different varieties every year it's just not random where they go to the shelf and pull a couple off and say let's try this it's they actually catalog and and can screen a lot of varieties and that comes at a huge expense some of these companies are spending upwards of four to5 million a day uh trying to discover new genetics and making sure that they're increasing productivity but we we look forward to the time where we're producing sea genetics that may have a neutraceutical component to it for consumer health we look forward others that maybe have a better attribute for livestock or maybe something for the biofuel sector so there's a lot of work continually goes on in the seed industry but it's uh it's probably advanced us agriculture more than anything else and that that genetics also plays over into the livestock or the protein sector whether it's pork or cattle or chickens uh the way we can advance them to be more efficient you know we want to use less fuel we want to use less chemicals um we want to increase producct ity and and make sure that we're doing what's right for the environment so how much of a hold over a US egg does the Chinese regime have right now I don't know if you can give me some kind of a picture some kind of measure yeah you know to say what they have hold over I would say my earlier comments of where nearly 70% of our crop care products pesticides or chemicals if you want to call them are produced abroad most of that in China that's a big hold uh we see some of our computer chips that run equipment uh that are coming from China that's a big risk uh we look at the drones that sometimes we spray our Fields with that are produced in China DJI uh it's hard for a US manufacturer to compete against them because of the subsidy that uh the Chinese government is giving to DJI and then of course our photos and our data is being uploaded into their own servers so uh there's many places where the Chinese can insert themselves and collect data and that's why I get really cautious about uh when I see companies like fuang and others that wanted to build in our case a lysing plant in kingsbery Indiana next to a major rail line major and uh intersection of where data is transported through optic fiber cable too so there there just so many ways and we can't take anything for granted as we finish up if there's one specific thing that you think would be a urgent policy prescription now what would that be I think uh we need to have a national agricultural strategy Focus solely on agriculture and food to where we work with the private sector alongside government to really analyze what the risk is and then take the measured steps and action to go forward and make sure we're protected from any risk from the Chinese Communist Party infiltrating and taking away our own food security here in the United States is as I said food security is our national security and if we leave that open to be continually to be compromised by the Chinese Communist party our own food security is at risk and as I said all societies are only three meals from chaos and I don't want that to happen here well Kip Tom it's such a pleasure to have had you on it's an honor to be with you today thank you thank you all for joining Kip Tom and me on this episode of American thought leaders I'm your host Yan Kell [Music]