Oct. 2—October 2 marked the 174th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC). Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator, opened the proceedings by warning of new developments, including the potential dangers of the military use of artificial intelligence (AI). U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is promoting the development of autonomous weapons systems, with no discussion of human control over these systems. She referenced the “absolutely exploding situation in the Mideast,” where the blockage of both major maritime chokepoints threatens a global depression. On the other hand, a bright spot is the IRGC’s open letter to the American public, which gives Americans access to Iran’s side of the story for the first time. She also cited the Oct. 1, 2026, remarks at the 23rd annual forum of the Valdai International Discussion Club by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who described how Russia had sought to integrate itself with Europe and had been rebuffed. She recalled as well the case of Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who, after determining that an early-warning radar was giving a false reading of incoming U.S. ICBMs, overruled the automatic retaliation mechanism in Soviet doctrine and prevented nuclear war on Sept. 26, 1983. 

Agriculture in Crisis

Marcia Merry Baker, EIR intelligence director for economics, described today’s economic crisis situation as a “breakdown phase,” following economic shocks last Spring. She began with the projected decline in total cereal grains production worldwide in the 2026-2027 crop year by 2.5%, which, she said, “might not sound like much, but it’s going to get bigger and faster as the planting and harvesting cycles go ahead, unless we intervene to stop it”—this in a world already facing hunger and shortages of food. She noted that exports of fertilizers globally have declined by 20 to 30 percent since the February start of the war on Iran. The shutdown of shipping by the Persian Gulf oil states through the Strait of Hormuz has doubled the price of key industrial chemicals like sulfur. This is compounded by price increases in gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil, and especially by shortages of diesel fuel. She described how Europe is moving to cut agricultural subsidies in order to redirect funds into rearmament. On the positive side, Merry Baker cited Russian agreements to supply India with fertilizer, and until recently, Chinese agreements to export fuel to Southeast Asian nations. At the meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin spoke of resuming Russia’s global energy exports, provided that the economic sanctions are lifted.

Mike Callicrate is a Kansas cattle rancher, farm policy leader, and founder and owner of Ranch Foods Direct in Colorado. He catalogued the rapid decline of ranching, due to bad policy, saying that “we are losing our ability to feed ourselves.”

Jesus Holguin Cazares, Kansas Cattlemenʼs Association president, reported on the sudden raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week in several communities with big meat-packing plants in southwestern Kansas. ICE gave no advance notice to anyone, including local law authorities. For several days, processing accounting for 20% of the U.S. beef supply stopped. Ranchers had thousands of head of cattle with nowhere to go. The ICE raids have created a climate of fear in which even well-documented U.S. citizens of Hispanic origin are reluctant to show up for work.

In response, Zepp-LaRouche referenced Pope Leo XIV’s remarks on the migrant controversy. “You do not solve the migrant question by expelling people,” she said; the answer is to stop wrecking the economies of other nations, which is what provokes waves of refugees. Mike Callicrate charged that meat packers “love disruption, they love chaos,” because it drives down the price that ranchers can ask for their cattle. Merry Baker agreed that ICE raids have disrupted the meat packing in southwest Kansas, contributing to a global crisis. Zepp-LaRouche urged everyone to step back from local controversies and view them from the perspective of a global shift away from the colonial system.

If You Want Peace, Work for Justice

Fr. John Heagle, director of Priests Against Genocide (U.S.A.) and a member of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, reminded the session that Pope Paul VI had said, “If you want peace, work for justice.” He compared this to Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s call for a paradigm shift, and cited various Catholic Church leaders who called upon the church to engage with humanity as a whole. Paul VI called upon world leaders to recognize that “development is the new name for peace,” but he may have been naïve, because secular governments have disregarded his words, a situation which Fr. Heagle described as “the total failure of our democracy today.” Priests Against Genocide is working around the world where people are being slaughtered because of who they are. He described the role of the Church as a “field hospital” for the multitudes of victims. He ended by reciting a powerful poem by Palestinian American activist Zeina Azzam, titled “Write My Name.” Written from a child’s perspective, the poem describes the now-common practice among parents in Gaza of writing their children’s names on their legs for identification in the event of their death.

E. Martin Schotz, MD, is the coordinator for the JFK Peace Speech Committee and a leader of Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA). He is the author of History Will Not Absolve Us: Orwellian Control, Public Denial, and the Murder of President Kennedy. Dr. Schotz described the philosophical shift that President John F. Kennedy underwent near the end of his life, toward a rejection of both Pax Americana and the deployment of war as an instrument of policy.

Zepp-LaRouche praised Fr. Heagle as an exemplar of authentic Catholicism, as opposed to those who twist the “just war” doctrine of Saint Augustine in order to excuse wars that are anything but just.

Co-moderator Dennis Speed introduced Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). Speed summarized the content of the meeting thus far for Johnson, who was just arriving in the session. Johnson related that he had just returned from Russia, where he had met with numerous military leaders, including one who had already concluded from the pronouncements of NATO leaders that Russia would soon be at war with Europe. He warned of the seriousness of the supply shortages that have ensued in the wake of the Iran War: “Diesel is to the global economy what blood is to the human body.” He said that U.S. President Donald Trump suffers from a form of mental illness and “has lost any social filter.” Referring to Trump’s UN speech, in which he spoke of “annihilating” Iran, he warned, “when Trump’s rhetoric exceeds that of Adolf Hitler, we’re in a very dangerous position.” 

Jacques Cheminade, head of the Solidarity and Progress (S&P) party of France, described the impact of Pope Leo’s visit to Paris, with an estimated 800,000 people gathering for an open-air mass at the Place de la Concorde on September 26 to hear the Pope’s message of peace. Cheminade described the intervention of his organization into the events of the Pope’s visit, and the distribution of 12,000 leaflets of the open letter by Peter Kuznik, on which the IPC is collaborating.

Discussion

In response to questions from Germany, Africa, and Mexico, Marcia Merry Baker reported that there is an initiative in the world that is very precious, that promotes cooperation among farm leaders of the United States and Mexico, and could be expanded to include farm leaders from other nations as well. Co-moderator Dennis Small, EIRʼs Ibero-American intelligence director, observed that the destruction of agriculture in both the United States and Mexico is the driving force behind the waves of migrants entering the U.S. To appease the banks, Mexico and other nations around the world are forced to abandon food self-sufficiency in favor of cash crops for export, in order to pay debt service. According to polls, 75% of Americans oppose the very policies which cause immigration; their anger, said Small, should be directed at those policies rather than at the migrants. Mike Callicrate called for a return to an agriculture whose fundamental purpose is to feed people, as opposed to being a playground for speculators.

In concluding remarks, Fr. Heagle echoed Zepp-LaRouche’s indictment of those who misuse Augustine’s just war doctrine to excuse wars of aggression, and emphasized the importance of the open letter to Pope Leo. Zepp-LaRouche returned to President Putin’s warnings in Valdai, that the crisis of a new world war could erupt much faster than people think. We are very close to extinction, but we are also very close to the new paradigm that we desire.