Secretary Rollins Shuts Down U.S. Southern Border Ports To Livestock Trade

Due to spread of New World Screwworm through Mexico.

(Washington, D.C., July 9, 2025)- Yesterday, Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety, and Quality (SENASICA) reported a new case of New World Screwworm (NWS) in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz in Mexico, which is approximately 160 miles northward of the current sterile fly dispersal grid, on the eastern side of the country and 370 miles south of the U.S./Mexico border. This new northward detection comes approximately two months after northern detections were reported in Oaxaca and Veracruz, less than 700 miles away from the U.S. border, which triggered the closure of our ports to Mexican cattle, bison, and horses on May 11, 2025.
While USDA announced a risk-based phased port re-opening strategy for cattle, bison, and equine from Mexico beginning as early as July 7, 2025, this newly reported NWS case raises significant concern about the previously reported information shared by Mexican officials and severely compromises the outlined port reopening schedule of five ports from July 7-September 15. Therefore, in order to protect American livestock and our nation’s food supply, Secretary Rollins has ordered the closure of livestock trade through southern ports of entry effective immediately.

In June, Secretary Rollins launched a Bold Plan to combat New World Screwworm by protecting our border at all costs, increasing eradication efforts in Mexico, and increasing readiness. USDA also announced the groundbreaking of a sterile fly dispersal facility in South Texas. This facility will provide a critical contingency capability to disperse sterile flies should a NWS detection be made in the southern United States. Simultaneously, USDA is moving forward with the design process to build a domestic sterile fly production facility to ensure it has the resources to push NWS back to the Darien Gap. USDA is working on these efforts in lockstep with border states – Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas – as it will take a coordinated approach with federal, state, and local partners to keep this pest at bay and out of the U.S.
USDA will continue to have personnel perform site visits throughout Mexico to ensure the Mexican government has adequate protocols and surveillance in place to combat this pest effectively and efficiently.

https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/07/09/secretary-rollins-takes-decisive-action-and-shuts-down-us-southern-border-ports-livestock-trade-due

USDA Employee And Five Others Busted

In one of the largest Food Stamp frauds in American history.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Thursday that a longtime USDA employee and five others were busted in one of the largest food stamp frauds in U.S. history.
A short time ago, Perry Carbone, Attorney for the United States, Charmeka Parker, the Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General and Christopher G. Raia, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI revealed a superseding indictment was unsealed charging six people in connection with a $66 million-plus fraud and bribery scheme under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aka food stamp program.
Michael Kehoe, Mohamad Nawafleh, Omar Alrawashdeh, Gamal Obaid, Emad Alrawashdeh, and Arlasa Davis have been hit with multiple charges, including conspiracy to steal government funds and to misappropriate USDA benefits. Davis, a USDA employee who worked as a program specialist, was employed in the division of the agency responsible for identifying SNAP fraud.
As the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York explains/a>, Kehoe started a network in 2019 that handed over roughly 160 illegal EBT terminals to stores across the New York area to steal more than $30 million in EBT transactions. With the help of his co-conspirators, Nawafleh, Omar Alrawashdeh, Obaid, and Emad Alrawashdeh, Kehoe submitted approximately 200 fraudulent USDA applications, misappropriated USDA license numbers, and even forged application documents to acquire EBT terminals for unauthorized stores.
The stores included smoke shops and other businesses not eligible for USDA funds.
Davis was critical to the scheme. The Southern District of New York Attorney’s office notes that she took advantage of her position to sell hundreds of EBT license numbers.  
The six culprits have each charged with one count of conspiracy to steal government funds and misappropriate USDA benefits, which can result in a maximum five year prison sentence prison, one count of theft of government funds, which could mean 10 years behind bars, and one count of misappropriation of USDA benefits, which carries a potential 20 year prison sentence.
The 56-year-old Davis has also been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count of bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. If she were convicted on all charges, she could face a lifetime behind bars.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/05/new-usda-employee-five-others-busted-one-largest/

Another Devastating Invasion From Our Southern Border Looming

It’s been decades since the New World Screwworm was a problem in the U.S., but the flies are now advancing northward from Panama. They could disrupt American agriculture if they gain a foothold here again. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently suspended imports of cattle from Mexico, after new reports showed that a destructive pest called the New World Screwworm had moved north to the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.
The New World Screwworm, which is actually a fly, was a huge problem for U.S. livestock and wildlife until it was eradicated in the 1960s. The USDA estimates that livestock producers in the southwestern U.S. lost between $50 million and $100 million annually due to NWS in the 1950s and 1960s until it was successfully eradicated.
While the USDA eradicated NWS in the US 1966, there was an outbreak contained within the Florida Keys in 2016. It affected only in the endangered deer population and was eradicated by March 2017, per APHIS.
Their screw-shaped larvae burrow into mammals’ wounds and other sensitive spots of mammals, like an umbilical cord, causing disease, infection and death.
“This is a critter that we don't want back in the U.S.,” said David Anderson, a livestock professor and extension economist with Texas A&M University. “If you have livestock, you're going to be out there all the time checking your animals for any wound. … I think it would be a pretty devastating thing if we were to get it back.”
The NWS is a fly that is endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and some South American countries, according to the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
In rare cases, the larvae can feed on people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states. "People who travel to these areas, spend time among livestock animals, sleep outdoors and have an open wound are at greater risk of becoming infested with NWS," says the CDC. 

Former USDA Program Director, Kirk Perry, Pleads Guilty In $400,000 Kickback Scheme

WASHINGTON – Kirk Perry, 60, a former United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) program director, pleaded guilty today in connection with a kickback scheme in which he and his nephew, Jamarea Grant, 31, of Cleveland, Ohio, conspired to bill the government nearly $400,000 for work that Grant did not actually perform. 
The plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. and Special Agent in Charge Jeldrys Lowry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.
Perry, of Lorain, Ohio, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to conspiracy to commit money, property, and honest services wire fraud. Grant previously pleaded guilty on Nov. 27, 2024, to the same charge. Judge Kollar-Kotelly will determine any sentences for Perry and Grant after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Perry is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 4, 2025. Grant’s sentencing is pending.
In pleading guilty, Perry and Grant admitted that, from August 2015 through November 2022, Perry, who at the time was serving as a USDA Program Director, arranged for Grant to be hired by two companies under contract with the USDA Office of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. Grant reported directly to Perry, who also approved the invoices billing for Grant’s time, and the two of them conspired to bill the government for work that Grant did not perform.
Grant received nearly $400,000 for work he did not do. Perry also had access to Grant’s bank account. As part of the criminal scheme Perry transferred approximately $125,000 of the USDA payments from Grant’s account to his own account.
This case was investigated by the USDA Office of Inspector General Sensitive Investigations Office. The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian P. Kelly and Maeghan Mikorski.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/former-usda-program-director-pleads-guilty-400000-kickback-scheme

 The USDA Chart Has Always Been Ridiculously Unrealistic

 

 GET THE MILK. THE WHOLE MILK. NOTHING BUT THE MILK.

For some reason, milk has been under attack. Some critics are saying don’t drink milk, it’s unneeded, unnatural, and bad for you. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Thousands of scientific studies have documented the benefits of drinking milk. Don’t be misled by alarming headlines or passionate critics. Get the full story about milk. Nutrition is a science, not a point of view. See what the real experts are saying about milk, one of the most naturally nutrient-rich beverages you can find.
Some are avoiding dairy milk or replacing it with an alternative. But it’s tough to make up for the nutrients that real milk provides, which is particularly troubling for growing kids, who will likely suffer the most.
Learn the facts.

THIS IS HERESY
No cow needed: Oat and soy can be called milk, FDA proposes.
Soy, oat, almond and other drinks that bill themselves as “milk” can keep using the name, according to draft federal rules released Wednesday.
Food and Drug Administration officials issued guidance that says plant-based beverages don’t pretend to be from dairy animals, and that U.S. consumers aren’t confused by the difference.
Dairy producers for years have called for the FDA to crack down on plant-based drinks and other products that they say masquerade as animal-based foods and cloud the real meaning of “milk.”
Under the draft rules, the agency recommends that beverage makers label their products clearly by the plant source of the food, such as “soy ‘milk’” or “cashew ‘milk.’”
The rules also call for voluntary extra nutrition labels that note when the drinks have lower levels of nutrients than dairy milk, such as calcium, magnesium or vitamin D. They would continue to allow labels that note when plant-based drinks have higher levels. Fortified soy ‘milk’ is the only plant-based food included in the dairy category of U.S. dietary guidelines because of its nutrient levels.
The new guidelines are aimed at providing consumers clear nutrition information, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a statement. The draft rules do not apply to nondairy products other than beverages, such as yogurt.
The National Milk Producers Federation, an industry trade group, applauded the call for extra nutrition information on drink labels, but said they rejected the FDA’s conclusion that plant-based drinks can be called milk because it’s a “common and usual name.”
The Good Food Institute, a group that advocates for plant-based products, objected to the extra labeling in a statement, saying “the guidance misguidedly admonishes companies to make a direct comparison” with cow’s milk, even though key nutrients are already required to be listed.
In recent years, the number of plant-based drinks has exploded to include dozens of varieties, including cashew, coconut, hemp and quinoa-based beverages. Although the drinks are made from the liquid extracts of plant materials, they are frequently labeled, and described, as “milks.”
In the U.S., almond ‘milk’ is the most popular variety, but oat ‘milk’ has been seeing the fastest growth. Still, nondairy sales are dwarfed by traditional milk. Sales of refrigerated cow’s milk grew to $12.3 billion in the 52 weeks ending Jan. 28, compared to $2.5 billion for nondairy ‘milk,’ according to NielsenIQ.
In the past, lawmakers in dairy states have tried to get bills passed that would require the FDA to enforce a federal standard that defines “milk” as the product of “milking one or more healthy cows.”

https://apnews.com/article/us-food-and-drug-administration-business-health-nutrition-ed2acef14a014eef30a0fd24f98be07b