Tom Pappert, lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, joined Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss his recent article on the Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner’s omission on a letter concerning Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies being pushed on American farmers.
On Tuesday, Pappert reported that Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Dr. Charlie Hatcher did not sign a letter sent by 12 states to the heads of six elite banks warning that their “Net-Zero Banking Alliance” (NZBA) will force ESG policies that would have a “catastrophic impact” on farmers.
Pappert said when he reached out to Hatcher for comment, the commissioner’s office did not offer any additional details and instead inquired about Pappert’s article publishing and comment deadline.
“They did not provide any additional comments or clarifications…They inquired about why I said my deadline was 11:30,” Pappert said. “That was basically all they said, inquiring about when we were publishing and when the deadline was.”
Pivoting to the ESG policies forced by big banks, Pappert agreed with Leahy when he said such plan “sounds like another barrier to entry that the large corporations are trying to use to put the small farmer out of business.”
“I do think that is a massive part of it. You’re seeing this sort of regulatory capture, but again, except not even through the government, through the banks because the likes of Bill Gates, who I’ve heard is now a massive owner of farmland, they can afford to buy these electronic farming equipment farm instruments but other family farms may be using grandpa’s old equipment,” Pappert said.
“I mean, that is just the reality when it’s a family-owned business and there’s nothing wrong with that, I would add. This seems to be a global phenomenon where we’ve seen in France and in Germany farmers having their governments attempt to force them to adopt green policies, raise less cattle, raise less crops because it’s destructive to the environment somehow, and it’s resulted in massive civil disobedience, people protesting in the streets, blocking adopting the tactics of the left, essentially,” he added. “And it seems like here in the United States, rather than make this a top down government approach, like you said, Mike, they’re trying to go through the banks to protect the large corporations.”
Pappert detailed how much farmers’ lives are regulated by the government and the role big banks play for the typical American farmer.
“People don’t understand…exactly how regulated your life is on a farm,” Pappert explained. “The government tells you essentially what to grow, when to grow it, when to harvest, how much to harvest… When a massive capital investment has to come along, like new farm equipment, you’re talking about something that they’re going to be paying for potentially a generation. And so now this new potential move to say everybody has to throw out their perfectly good diesel equipment and get all electric equipment, this is going to put many farms under, is my prediction. It just won’t be economically viable, and their farmland will be sold to one of these megacorporations that may not even be based in America, and certainly may not have our country’s best interests at heart.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
