Biden's 30 by 30 Plan

On January 27, 2021, Joe Biden signed an executive order that has caused concern among landowners from sea to sea; especially those on whom we rely for the food we eat. This order is known as Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. One of its primary goals is to conserve “at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030.”

Currently, 12 percent (287 million acres) of US lands and waters are permanently protected. This would need to be increased by 18 percent (440 million acres, which is twice the size of Texas) in nine years.

Many of the 900 million agricultural acres in the US are under conservation contracts with the government. But as is usually the case with far-reaching executive orders, it is excessively vague. There seems to be no clear line differentiating ‘protected lands’ from ‘conserved lands,’ and it is unclear what lands already under conservation contracts will be included in the ‘30 by 30’ list.

The federal government already owns 50 percent of each of five states. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas said the federal government owns three of every 10 acres. He continued by explaining that thus far, they have preserved less than 1 percent of endangered species and instead have harmed individuals whose livelihoods depend on land ownership.

The Bureau of Land management owns 248 million acres; that is more than 2.5 times the size of California. According to Property and Environment Research Center, federal management results in a net loss of revenue of $4.38, but state management produces a net gain of $34.60. In other words, the federal government seems to believe itself the protector of the land, the main provider for your home, and the only one who can protect you from your own ignorance and selfish desire for gain at the expense of the all-important environment.

Is this what our Founders envisioned? Could they know that the government created to protect our rights could become the most dangerous enemy to our rights? Yes, they did. They foresaw this all too clearly, and provided for it. They placed an escape valve into Article V of the Constitution that gives states the opportunity to rein-in the federal overreach such as the Order signed by the Acting Secretary of the Interior on February 11, 2021.

This Order removed the requirement for approval by the state and local governments before private land could be purchased with funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. According to the Order, if local governments have a voice in this process, it will “undermine” the acquisition program. The real undermining in this equation is of the protective buffer of local government to protect the individual’s right of private ownership from confiscation by a central power.

The states’ governments must step up and hold the line against federal encroachment. Article V of the US Constitution explains the way to do this legally, and with the assistance of the citizens of the whole country: call a Convention of States. This Convention can then propose amendments to the Constitution just like the Congress. If and when they are approved by the individual states, the country as a whole can tell the feds where to get off.

In cahoots with the Green New Deal, the 30 by 30 plan has used language like “eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector” and “investing in sustainable farming and land use practices that increase soil health” while utilizing “family farming”. Since when were such goals better accomplished by a central power than by individual decision?

But the powers-that-be don’t seem to believe that we are capable of protecting the land that feeds us and pays the farmer’s bills. “Real conservation doesn’t have room for commercial logging and grazing,” said Andy Kerr, an Oregon-based conservationist.

It is an interesting fact that every time a centralized government takes control of ‘equitable and equal’ division of wealth, property, or private ownership of anything, famine is usually the result. Take, for instance, the Chinese Communist Party’s control of agriculture in the 1950’s and ‘60s and the fatalistic results. Thousands died in the famines that swept China; basic commodities such as rice and sugar were being rationed eight years into the disastrous regime; and farmers were incentivized to eat everything they had as quickly as possible before it was stolen by the cadres (citizen police).

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said “30 percent isn’t the end. 30 percent is the beginning.” In other words, once they have swallowed 30 percent of American lands by renaming, claiming eminent domain, and “protecting endangered species”, they will be after our homes. (They’re already after our bodies.)

This is more than encroachment; it is a blatant trampling, stamping and annihilation of our rights as human beings to private property and the pursuit of happiness, all in the name of environmentalism.

Convention of States is the best political tool in our box. Join the 15 states that have already signed up for a Convention and help save American land for the private individuals who already own it.