Transcript
Department of Agriculture Press Conference – July 8, 2025
DR. NAVARRO: What a beautiful day to be out here and it's – it's difficult, I think, for a lot of Americans to wrap their head around what we're talking about today. We're such a good and kind nation that has done so much for the rest of the world over so many decades, including fighting two world wars on behalf of the rest of the world. But this is – this is so serious an issue.
The Art of War, a book, Sun Tzu, centuries old, says that the acme of warfare is to win without firing a shot. You fast forward to a book that was written by two high-ranking military officials in China, called Unrestricted Warfare. And you understand that we are indeed in a new world where kinetic warfare is not the first choice of our rivals anymore. Rather, it is things like sending us seeds or trying to steal our seeds or trying to change the seeds. It is acquiring our supply chain in agriculture. It's setting up spy shops on land next to military bases. Do you remember – remember when that, that balloon – ‘Oh, it was just a weather station’? We seem so naive about so much of this, when in fact we have nations and bad actors trying to do bad things using our supply chains now as weapons.
The world changed yet again on April 2nd, when the Chinese embargoed critical minerals. Not just on us but for the rest of the world. The Russians now embargo things like neon and helium and uranium, as a tool. So we must be clear-eyed about the threats, and I just have to congratulate Secretary Rollins for taking leadership on an issue which has been troublesome for years. And we have governors here like Kristi Noem in South Dakota – just leadership on that. She was doing that before anybody was paying attention. We're going to hear from Governor Huckabee. Arkansas has led the way on this issue at the state level, even as the federal government has been silent about it up to this point.
The last thing is big things like Smithfield Foods. I don't know if you know this, but this one really troubled me when it happened, but the Chinese bought Smithfield Foods and basically control about an eighth of the world's pork supply now. And we worry, and we've had food inflation. We worry when things happen that that can be part of that. And then the other key purchase which we allowed them to do is Syngenta. Well, what is that? It's a seed company. And in a world of ever-changing pests and things like that and climate differences about where water is and things like that, seeds really can be the revolution that keeps the world fed, and China now owns a key part of that.
So what Secretary Rollins is doing today, it's a historic day. She's putting down the marker that the United States is no longer going to tolerate the attacks on our agricultural system - not just the land, but the supply chain as well. She deserves more than a hand. She deserves a helping hand here, and that's why the other aspects of our government are behind us as well. So, I appreciate being here on this absolutely gorgeous day, and again I commend the leadership of the people behind me. Thank you.
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