(LifeSiteNews) — Joseph Simcox is a devout Catholic who in years past has attended LifeSite’s Rome Life Forum. A botanical explorer who has spent much of his life studying plants and food security, he has visited over 140 countries to promote small-scale, healthy cultivation techniques that do not use dangerous chemicals.
Simcox is one of many individuals who may be tapped to fill a pivotal role in the Department of Agriculture for the Trump administration under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as he seeks to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Simcox has a profile on the Kennedy campaign’s website here. It details his past accomplishments and shares his areas of expertise, including his plan to make a safe, healthy food system. You can “vote” for him by visiting his profile. Doing so will encourage Kennedy to consider him for a position if the Senate confirms him as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.
A staunch advocate for faith, family, and farmers, Simcox will act as a much-needed voice in an agency where corporate lobbyists who serve the interests of Big Food and Big Ag wield much power. I sent him questions via email this week. Here are his responses:
LifeSiteNews: Can you tell our readers what it is you hope to accomplish if you are asked to join the Trump administration?
Joseph Simcox: We take for granted that America is a food secure nation. One of my long-standing national security concerns is autonomous food security. The vast percentage of Americans are incapable of feeding themselves if there ever was a grave disruption of the national food delivery networks — this means that food security is real and is a troubling issue in the richest country of the world. It seems prudent to prepare Americans to be food resilient in the face of a national crisis; this is an area I’m particularly devoted to.
In the not-so-distant past (say, 60-80 years ago), over half of American homes produced or processed up to 50% of their own foodstuffs. Home food production has declined precipitously for decades since then. America is ripe for a fundamental revision of how residents tend their plots — I say plots because America is truly a land of them.
It has been reported that there are 60 million suburban homes in this country. Most of those lots look like something out of the movie Edward Scissorhands, with nothing more than a lone bush or two. My idea is to inspire and incentivize people to transform their lawns into productive food gardens.
It may seem silly, but small plot agriculture is practiced around the world and by my own observations it is a very real source of human sustenance. In the country of Georgia (part of the ex-Soviet Union), I marveled as people planted small yards full of fruit bushes, fruit trees, and vegetables with seasonal harvests that allowed them to stock their homes with a cornucopia of canned and preserved delights that sustained them through the winter months. This backyard model can easily be replicated in North America with great success. Producing at least some of your food if you have some land should be the norm, not the exception.
Starting in the 1960s until the 1990s, America saw the mass commercialization of its food system. Large corporate farms overtook family farms, resulting in “homogenization” and a conformity of products. Wherever you go across this nation today you’ll find the same produce on the store shelves. My lament is that the “pickings” should be so much more exciting. A hundred years ago, it is believed that there were over 9,000 differently named apple cultivars grown in the U.S. Now, estimates say it is closer to a 10th of that. I want to bring all that fun and variety back to our tables and plates.
LSN: How does your faith impact your mission?
Simcox: In the beginning God gave us paradise, and then, through our own demise, we lost it. No longer would paradise be free of toil and sweat. To even approach it man would need to work and suffer.
But in his infinite mercy, God gave us the tools required to recoup a facsimile of paradise. The plants he has given us to sustain ourselves are treasures of His generosity. Modern man generally fails to reflect on this essential wonder.
With each day I have an ever-greater gratitude for God’s infinite generosity. This compels me to realize that all the trials we face regarding our survival have their solution in the infinite wisdom and generosity of God.
When I was younger, I was stressed out due to the anxiety of never doing enough to better the world. Now, I look back and realize I did not understand providence and I am more trustful that all things happen on God’s good time.
Man cannot just live contented, however. To truly exist, he needs purpose and inspiration. Our tasks and trials to rebuild paradise are part of God’s great wisdom for us. It is essential for us Catholics to denounce modern, atheistic, scientific ideological arrogance and reverberate in our hearts, minds, and voices the great debt we owe to the infinite mercy and generosity of God.
LSN: The New York Times is pushing back against RFK Jr. by claiming seed oils are good for us. Why are they wrong and what else do you predict the media will do to undermine his plan to Make America Healthy again?
Simcox: It should be clear that much of the establishment (scientific, academic, professional, and industrial) is compromised and is committed to their commercial and economic interests over the real health of the people. They are simply devious and unscrupulous liars.
This conflict often runs counter to common sense; yet, in the myriads of daily life, propaganda, presentation, and habit usually overtake even our own common sense.
Basic food ignorance (is there even such a thing as a nutritional curriculum in public education these days?) means that people have no basis for understanding or reasoning about food safety. Most people simply depend on the media and its propaganda for their knowledge base — this is the crux of the problem.
If these products caused immediately discernible illnesses, there would not be a debate, but because their negative health effects are extended over time their cause and effects are muddled, hence the obfuscation opportunity for commercial interests.
A reasonable study of refined seed oils reveals — as Dr. Cate Shanahan concludes in her book “Dark Calories” — a myriad of extremely troubling problems associated with their excess consumption. I believe Americans consume nearly 1/3 of a pound of these oils each week on average. This reveals the commercial importance of maintaining the status quo.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be the target of incessant attacks as he exposes the malfeasance of a food and medical system that has worked overtime for years to confuse people about food and drug safety.
LSN: Catholic theology holds that the human body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you think Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, etc. view it the same way? What would our healthcare system look like if they did? Vitamins and minerals instead of pharmaceutical drugs?
Simcox: Clearly, we are living in the era of the rational idiot. I often para-quote Einstein: “It takes an educated idiot to make things complicated and a genius to make it simple.”
In this day in age when the interests of the few affect the interests of so many, it is really important to sort through the cacophony and search for the lowest common denominator.
You mention that Catholic theology holds the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. This dogmatic precept is completely antithetical to a world that has tossed out the spiritual cause of life. Without belief in God and the gratitude to God for our life, human life is easily reduced to a physical-chemical phenomena. This fallacy, so extolled in the halls of ideological atheists, has permeated every element of society.
It is no surprise to me that the anti-life cause reverberates so strongly among those who are ideologically indoctrinated. The brash arrogance that stirs among them makes them truly “educated idiots” who are unable to understand the silliness of their deceptions.
Many experts exist to simply prevent the simplest solution from being accepted. Think of that! The beast (i.e. the “establishment,” as I generally have referred to it) cannot allow “simple” solutions because that imperils their purpose and existence. Simply taking good care of yourself and eating a wide variety of nutritious and simple whole foods is the antidote to much of Big Farm and Big Pharma’s nonsense.
One aspect of Catholic theology dwells on the autonomy of each mind and body, meaning that individually we should put great stock in seeking wisdom and prudence from God about “maintaining” healthy habits rather than putting blind trust in deceivers who profit from our demise.
There is an array of technological innovations that have greatly advanced medical treatment, especially for emergencies, but emergencies are not our biggest medical problems — chronic disease and poor health are.
If there really was an emphasis on being healthy as opposed to being treated, we would see a very stingy medical establishment stop handing out pharmaceuticals like candy and instead tell people to go home and get fit. Imagine that!
LSN: Countries in Europe such as Italy have banned lab-grown meats and other synthetic foods. Do you believe the U.S. should do the same? What are some steps we as a country should be taking with regard to our food system so it is more aligned with God’s plan for food that respects nature and animals?
Simcox: It’s really curious that you ask me this question. In 2014, I was invited to speak at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture in Abu Dhabi. Among the keynote speakers was Mark Post of Maastricht University. His presentation covered the implication of tissue cultured artificial meat. Of course, the avant garde of that audience were thrilled with the climate change significance which Mark avidly pointed out — but I was repulsed.
This foolish passion is another ideologically unsound result of an atheistic mechanistic philosophy. It categorically reduces the functions of life to mechanistic processes. I call its adherents “techno-tinkerers” as they don’t have any philosophy other than base pragmatism. They have also practically abandoned any sentiment of awe and respect for creation.
It is clear to me that this is a furthering of the food fetishes so iconically portrayed by Andy Warhol, who some say mocked the industrialization of food in such works as his “Campbell Soup Cans” by reducing food to just another commodity.
Whatever the case of Warhol’s intention was, it is clear that food varies considerably in emotional value. It’s very bizarre to see where men focus their interests.
One of my heroes is Joel Salatin, a modern farmer of old who gives reverence to the creator and to the beauty of life. On his farms, animals are creatures — gifts from God for man. We need to return to simpler times and reignite the intimacy of giving thanks to God for our sustenance! If industrial systems could do that, maybe we would see a different and more humble, healthy world.
LSN: It seems that we are being pumped full of hormones, pesticides, etc. especially via fast food (which I believe Catholics should not be eating) that are causing us to be obese and sick, and that this in turn ensures the “healthcare” industry has nonstop customers. Is this your understanding of things?
Simcox: Exactly! And it’s so nefarious that it seems to be by design.
The great and devious minds of business — when unrestrained by moral tenets — are apt to use any means for profit, and their only restraint is the immediate danger of culpability caused by acute reactions.
But when long-term harm accumulates, they become cloudy issues that free their promoters from culpability.
This is the shocking reality of food system depravity. The effects that are permitted only get to you over time. In other words: “prove it that we caused your suffering!” It’s depraved and inhumane, but very true.
LSN: Recently, Bill Gates was criticized on social media for arguing that we should vaccinate cows, put drugs in their food, and do other things that change their microbiome to prevent them from farting because, as he claims, their emissions contribute to climate change. What is your reaction to that?
Simcox: My rebuke is simple: what utter comical nonsense. Farting cows! Lord Have Mercy on these poor fools.
Bill Gates is another example of what I call the “techno-tinkerer.” Again, the basis of philosophy for these characters is mechanistic pragmatism.
It would shock me to hear that Bill Gates believes in God or gives reverence to His creation. Bill Gates today seems to be the same Bill Gates who was sued for antitrust violations back around 2000; he is a ruthless businessman using every means to advance his economic interests.
Today, Bill has reinvented himself like John D. Rockefeller did: by becoming a world-renowned philanthropist.
Still, the unscrupulous businessman is busy at work scheming up new ways to turn a profit. The modus operandus of these guys is always rehearsed.
Bill happens to love climate change, bad diseases, and hunger as his pet projects, thus qualifying his technique to promote his agenda
LSN: Do you have anything else you’d like to add?
Simcox: I will close by reiterating a thought: God has given us an extraordinary beautiful and fruitful earth. Simply by cooperating and tending nature by the work of our hands and the sweat of our brows we are able to redesign it as a similitude paradise.
The greatest ecological issues of the day do not for the most part require expensive technological solutions (that is a contrivance of the aforementioned establishment and unscrupulous business sector). Rather, simple, basic solutions will bring astounding results and fruitfulness. In other words, you don’t need a Ph.D. to regenerate the earth — just some passion and common sense and compost! We can make America beautiful and healthy, but we need to exult God and his creation with fervor.
Simcox’s profile on RFK’s website is listed here. You can “vote” for him by visiting his profile to encourage Kennedy to consider him for a position if he is confirmed as the next Health and Human Services Secretary.
