You know it’s going to be a long, hot summer if, on the day before you assume the political leadership of the United Kingdom — as Boris Johnson did on July 23 — one of the world’s most authoritative newspapers, the New York Times, prints a column that begins with the phrase, “Boris Johnson, to […] Read more
Author Archives
USDA under fire for new attack on domestic food aid program
Mother Nature always bats last
Call it what you will — coincidence, chance or just bad luck — but on the very day that United States President Donald Trump defended his administration’s almost indefensible record on the environment, the Washington, D. C., metro area was deluged by rain not seen since Noah. In fact, so much rain fell so fast […] Read more
U.S. farmers not making any friends
When you’ve been in the ag journalism game for almost 40 years, few things surprise you. Floods, droughts, market crack-ups, political crockery, price fixing: none of it is shocking anymore. Yet on June 21, the Washington Post published a farm-based story that made even this greybeard marvel at how tone deaf and superior-sounding rural politics […] Read more
U.S. ag secretary’s fight to move agencies will cost farmers
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue doesn’t need to hit the road this summer to find more than enough messy problems to keep him busy through harvest. There’s the Chinese trade mess, the NAFTA 2.0 trade mess, the European Union trade mess, and the Japanese trade mess. Also, there’s the mess Mother Nature made of […] Read more
U.S. farm aid must help boost prices
The month of May left as it arrived: riding in a rowboat from flooded farm field to flooded farm field across the Midwest United States. Worse, June is sloshing in with more rain, more mud, and more worry. Complicating matters, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced a broad, new scheme that could pay U.S. […] Read more
Like watching a train wreck happen
No one I know has ever witnessed a train wreck as it happened. As such, when a friend or colleague says or writes that an event “was like watching a train wreck happen,” I’m pretty sure it wasn’t like watching a train wreck happen. Until May 5, that is, when U.S. President Donald J. Twitter […] Read more
U.S. ethanol’s tough spot is tightening
If you want to anger almost any American farmer, write something less than flattering about the declining use of biofuels — especially ethanol. If you want to really anger almost any American farmer, write something unflattering about biofuels — especially ethanol — that includes the sentence, “U.S. farmers, particularly corn belt farmers, have gotten a […] Read more
Farmers struggle with sustainability
Almost everyone and everything from commodity groups to coal companies make some claim that their business incorporates “sustainable” practices or production. Rarely, if ever, is anyone asked to prove it. More to the point, even if someone did ask, how would they know if their answer actually supports their claim? Well, surprise, there is a […] Read more
Don’t tell consumers ‘you’re wrong’
When most of us hear the words, “have I got a great deal for you”, we grab our wallets because experience suggests any forthcoming deal won’t be great. Similarly, when someone says, “here’s the straight talk,” our baloney meters redline because we know the coming talk will be about as straight as a hound’s hind […] Read more
Too late to curb crop input mergers
One of the oldest truisms agriculture offers is the simple, rock-solid advice that the time to close the barn door is before the cows get out. Closing the door afterward, as everyone knows, is pointless because the cows are already long gone. Everyone, except of course, the United States Congress which, in September, hosted a […] Read more
