A Missouri cattle farmer is facing financial ruin after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) froze funding for key conservation programs, despite previously signed contracts with the government.
The freeze, part of the Trump administration’s sweeping federal review of spending programs, has left Skylar Holden, a first-generation farmer, scrambling to save his land.
Holden, who voted for President Donald Trump, had signed a $240,000 contract with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to improve water lines, fencing, and wells on his farm.
It would be cool if there was some tool for non technical folks to see survey results on consensus from professionals in IT on if something is probably bullshit or not. I know plenty of people that would have fallen for scams or misinformation if they didn’t have someone in their life they could ask & be confident their answer wasn’t profit or power motivated.
Any such tool would rely on impartiality on the part of the creator, which doesn’t exist. (Imagine if the thing being presented as such a tool were, say, Grok, and you’ll immediately see the problem.)
Unfortunately, there is no substitute for critical thinking.