One theme we’ve harped on this year has been the reignition of global food prices, which show little sign of abating as the new year quickly approaches. Among the most impressive rallies has been in the cocoa market, outpacing all major commodities in 2024 amid tightening global supplies. Prices for orange juice and coffee have also surged, highlighting sticky food price inflation.
The dire situation in West Africa — home to the world’s largest cocoa farms — has pressured bean prices to record highs as crop disease and adverse weather conditions sparked a global supply crunch.
Last week, Goldman analysts told clients to go long cocoa (more about the trade here) for “another rally” driven by “structural supply deficits, under-hedged consumers, and historically low warehouse stocks.”
Supply concerns pushed cocoa futures in New York to nearly $13,000 per ton last week. This surge has driven prices by almost 200% this year, making cocoa a top commodity performer.
Next is orange juice; futures in New York soared 73% on the year amid imploding citrus production in Florida. […]
— Read More: www.zerohedge.com
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
