-Farm News photo by Karen Schwaller
Trent Loos, a sixth-generation farmer and storyteller from Nebraska, speaks with one of the attendees at the 40th annual Northwest Iowa Ag Outlook in Spencer recently.

SPENCER — Trent Loos took the stage at the 40th annual Northwest Iowa Ag Outlook in Spencer to challenge farmers to get involved in the process behind agricultural policy, and to work harder to tell people the real story of agriculture.

Loos, a sixth-generation farmer and storyteller from Nebraska, shares the positive story of production agriculture through his radio broadcasts, which air on 100 radio stations in 21 states, with listeners worldwide. “Trent on the Loos” is broadcast daily on BEK.TV in North Dakota and is available online at BEK.news. He hosts “Across the Pond” mornings in BEK-TV media platforms, Rumble and Twitter, with guests from around the world. He also spearheads several other broadcasts.

Loos travels around the world to find stories about the various facets of production agriculture, and to ignite a passion for how food is grown and for those who grow it. He has shared his message in 48 states, Japan, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Canada.

He is often touted as an agricultural activist.

Loos said 1 to 2 percent of the U.S. population farms, with USDA’s corresponding number coming in at 2.1 million. He disagrees with that number, saying he thinks it’s lower than that.

-Farm News photo by Karen Schwaller
Trent Loos speaks about the positive role of agriculture during the 40th annual Northwest Iowa Ag Outlook in Spencer earlier this month.

He said Farm Foundations conducted a study to show there were 180,000 farm families producing 80 percent of the food for the 330 million people in the United States.

“What’s the moral of that story?” he asked. “Not many people know where their food comes from.”

Loos said fuel has become a main topic in the last 15 years. He said one gallon of diesel fuel replaces 500 hours of food labor production.

“That means you don’t have to hoe the row like you used to — you can put the diesel in the tractor and get the job done,” he said.

In 1900, he said it took 10 acres of land to feed one person; five of those acres went to feed the horses and mules it took to get the work done. Today, he said, it takes one-third of an acre to produce enough food for one person.

Loos said diesel fuel has been the biggest factor in moving agriculture ahead and reducing the amount of land it takes to feed one person. Other factors, he said, include machinery, auto steering and electricity.

Loos said he often hears that farmers are destroying the planet, pointing to cows that produce methane, and ethanol plants emitting CO2. He said capturing and compressing CO2 to send away to be buried is “the stupidest thing mankind ever came up with.”

He said popular belief is that greenhouse gases are destroying the planet, which include CO2, methane, nitric oxide and sulfur oxide — all of which he said enhance plant growth as a form of natural fertilizer.

“We’ve eliminated plant food at every turn — methane, CO2, nitric oxide, sulfur oxide — and this is how foolish we are,” Loos said. “Those gases are greenhouse gases — it’s why we grow plants in a greenhouse — and yet everyone has fallen prey to ‘greenhouse gasses are bad.’ We’ve blatantly been lied to.”

Loos also expressed frustration over the way the bird flu has been handled, saying sick birds need to be segregated instead of euthanizing entire flocks. That way, natural immunity can be obtained.

He said 150 million birds have been euthanized since 2022, with two-thirds being broilers and the other one-third being layers. He said he could not explain why poultry meat prices have remained steady over the last few months, while egg prices have skyrocketed.

“Ten states in the last two years have mandated cage-free, egg-laying facilities,” he said, adding that chickens are put in cages to protect them, while the mortality rates for free-range chickens have tripled due to chickens fighting with each other.

Still, he said the real mystery remains as to why chickens in barns are getting sick from H5N1, while migratory birds are surviving.

Moving on to the power grid, Loos said the U.S. is “this close” to “going dark” because it has a precariously inadequate electrical supply to meet the demand.

“… and nobody’s talking about it,” he said, adding that subsidies for wind and solar power will ultimately shut down coal and natural gas, which he said are the most reliable and affordable forms of electricity. He said coal and natural gas are also in plentiful supply.

“Now we’re just sitting by and letting it go down,” said Loos.

He said the nation once used coal for 60 percent of its electricity, and now uses it for 22 percent. He said China is permitting two coal-fired power plants each week and that India is trying to keep pace. He said that means the U.S. is exporting coal to those countries. He said foreign countries have figured out that they want to control the energy business in the U.S., so they’re luring the ethanol plants into things “they can’t afford to be part of.”

“There’s no logic behind any of this,” he said, adding that artificial intelligence (AI) is very energy-intense — so much so that China banned AI centers and bitcoin mining there in 2001 because of it.

“We’re crippling our reliable and affordable supply of electricity and at the same time we’re racing to incentivize AI, bitcoin and crypto money,” said Loos.

He explained that some of this thinking stems from the “30×30 Theory,” which says that by 2030 the U.S. will return 30 percent of its land mass and water back to its natural state.

“That means no more dams or irrigation. It would look like an American Serengeti,” he said.

Loos said government subsidies should stop because they mostly contribute to inflation and steep federal deficits.

He also shared his views on paying property taxes.

“I believe property tax is a means of eliminating our ability to own land, so only the wealthy will be able to afford it, and if we don’t get a handle on it, we won’t own the land,” he said, saying inflation complicates that process.

“All of our inputs have gone from low to high, with (commodity) prices unchanged since the mid-1980s,” he said. “How do we fix that? I don’t know.”

Loos closed by saying Iowa farmers need to get involved in what’s happening in Des Moines, at their courthouses, and at their local schools — which have the power to raise taxes.

“Nothing impacts your ability to pass your land on to the younger generation more than what’s happening at your local school board meeting, or that county commissioner meeting,” said Loos. “There are seven generations here today; ultimately, we want to inspire young people to follow in our footsteps. Do we do enough to encourage new people to get into the business? If it is to be, it’s up to me.”