Carl Anderson

4th generation Farmer and Cattleman in Benton County, Washington. One of the driest wheat growing regions on earth.

[Mike and Jeff show @AgrisAcademy @AgrisAcademy]

My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill.

Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people.
1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside
2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime.
3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal.
4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material
5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours.
6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable.
7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets
8. I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen
9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry.
10. Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings.

This is a short list. In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food. The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products. Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first.

Jeff Kazin
Former head trading Cargill

[Brock Huard @BrockHuard]

CFB Playoff Takeaways:

-Rust > Rest, too much time away not helpful

-A dominate D line beats cute offense

-Coaching matters….so does NIL $$

-More parity in CFB than ever

-Kick FG’s

-The Pac 12 never, ever should have broken up

-Me & CFB miss Mike Leach a lot

[Tony Thompson 👨🏼‍🦲 @theanthonymic]

College football is far more lame without this dude in it.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Correct.

My Tesla and SpaceX shares, which are almost all my “wealth”, only go up in value as a function of how much useful product those companies produce and service.

This means my “wealth” can only increase due to producing more products and services for the public. Moreover, anyone else who is a shareholder in Tesla and SpaceX, which incudes employees, participates in the upside of stock appreciation.

That is because I am a maker, not a taker like the Bernie Sanders type politicians of the world. They take and they’re on the take, because they cannot or will not make.

[Josh Steimle @joshsteimle]

Bernie’s question assumes a false premise: jobs are the source of wealth. They’re not. Production is.

Technology doesn’t eliminate work. It eliminates specific tasks. Every major productivity leap destroyed jobs and created more wealth, lower prices, and new forms of (better) work.

Income is not morally or economically tied to having a job. Jobs exist because human labor is scarce. If AI makes labor abundant, clinging to job based income makes no sense.

If AI replaces labor, costs collapse. Food, housing, energy, transportation, and healthcare all get cheaper with automation. The real problem isn’t no income. It’s artificially high prices caused by regulation, licensing, zoning laws, and state protected monopolies.

The real danger isn’t AI. It’s centralized control and politicians who will respond with policies that harm, rather than help.

Governments respond to automation with dependency programs, higher taxes on productivity, restricted access to AI, and politicized redistribution. That path guarantees stagnation and loss of autonomy.

A freer system adapts.

Ownership replaces wages. People own tools, capital, and platforms. Micro entrepreneurship explodes. Prices fall faster than incomes. Voluntary safety nets outperform bureaucratic ones.

If people can’t feed their families in an automated world, that’s a policy failure, not a market failure. Scarcity would be artificial.

Bottom line: the answer to AI driven abundance is more freedom, not more control.

[John Canzano @johncanzanobft]

Mike Leach died three years ago. He still comes up all the time in conversations.

On that note, did I ever tell you about the time Leach FaceTimed me out of the blue on game day?

Column: https://t.co/YeqzpUW1bC

[Cliff Mass @CliffMass]

The Problem With Wind Energy in the Northwest
https://t.co/mnOlpwGB5f

[Josh Linville @JLinvilleFert]

Urea values have jumped this morning on a pair of factors:

India is going to fall far short of their 2M ton goal.
Europe is buying.

That said, my POV is that we are better supplied today than a year ago yet prices are up significantly. Math isn't mathing today.

[Josh Linville @JLinvilleFert]

In Fert Year 2025, the U.S. imported:

- 5.4M tons of urea...we can produce that here
- 2.2M tons of UAN...we can produce that here
- 2.1M tons of NH3...we can produce that here
- 2.1M tons of DAP/MAP...we can produce that here

Want to help farmers? Start here.

[Carl Anderson @drylandwheat]

@marxiners Wilson is to blame.

[Carl Anderson @drylandwheat]

@MLBNetwork Wilson clearly failed the team. Unbelievable he would go to Barzardo, Lose or win with your best in Munoz. Munoz had only allowed 2 HR all year.

[Carl Anderson @drylandwheat]

@TheMikeSalk Please ask why Munoz was not in the game in the most crucial situation in Mariner history. Lose and win with your best players. Please be our voice Salk.

[Carl Anderson @drylandwheat]

@shannondrayer Wilson is in over his head. Lose with your best picture Munoz. Not fair to put Bazardo in that situation.

[Ben Yetter @BenYetter1]

This!

[Brady @BradyD78]

Hey @SecRollins will you please ask President Trump when he meets with China to at least mention that we also have wheat for sale in addition to our soybeans. He might let them know that it’s really cheap. It’s been on sale for over a year now.

[Manu Raju @mkraju]

Fetterman: “If you really want to change policies, win elections …. More chaos is the last thing our nation needs.”

Dem Sens. Peters and Hassan, both of whom voted for the March stop-gap, not commenting now on their vote.

Hassan: “I’m going to get into committee.”

[U.S. Senator John Fetterman @SenFettermanPA]

It’s a sad day for our nation.

Our government shuts down at midnight.

I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them—but I won’t vote for the chaos of shuttering our government.

My vote was our country over my party.

Together, we must find a better way forward.

[John Canzano @johncanzanobft]

Before Bill Moos hired Mike Leach at WSU the AD was asked in a news conference who was on the hiring committee.

Moos said: “You’re looking at it.”

Then, Moos got on a plane for Key West and came back to campus with Leach.

[Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith]

Slavery was the default position - the West led the charge against it.

Poverty was the default position - the West figured out how to multiply wealth for everyone.

Ignorance was the default position - the West invented the printing press and mass literacy.

[Randy Uhrmacher @Cornfrmr]

We can't ban glyphosate for alternatives that are way worse. Be careful what you wish for.

Now, can we make changes in how we use it to make it even safer.

Yes, let's have those conversations instead.