American farmers and global food makers have had more than a decade to get comfortable with wild, year-to-year swings in crop acres brought by decoupled, “freedom to farm” ag policies, an 800 percent boom in biofuel production and an increasingly hungry export market for American meat and grain.
A punch
Still, the 2009 Prospective Planting Report, […]
Only Wall Street bankers and Capitol Hill lawmakers can sport such a sorry record and still keep their jobs.
More than 40 years ago, my father and his good friend, C. John, had a three-letter code they often tossed back and forth when enjoying their shared passions of fishing, camping and winning nickels playing euchre.
“AIG,” one would say whereupon the other would reply immediately, “You better believe it; AIG.”
Old meaning
AIG meant “Ain’t […]
A sudden surge of spring-like warmth put a hint of green in my backyard just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Whether the lovely weather lasts or if it’s just the luck of the Irish matters little because, clearly, winter is doomed.
So, too, seem the hog-growing farmers of Meadowbrook Farms, the Rantoul, Ill., pork […]
Of the many talents Americans — and especially American politicians — have acquired in the last 25 years, coupling fact with fiction to create baloney might be the most creative.
For example, in 1996 the Republican-led Congress created Freedom to Farm, that year’s farm bill, to decouple farm programs from set-asides, a grain reserve, taxpayer […]
If it’s even partly true that you’re known by the company you keep, then the farmer-loved ethanol business got a lot less lovable Feb. 8 when Valero Energy Corp., the largest crude oil refiner in North America, announced its intent to purchase five of the choicest plants owned by mega-biofuel maker, mega-bankrupt VeraSun Energy.
Should […]
It’s been eight long, commentary-filled months since readers who’ve dropped letters, e-mails and napalm on me have had their say.
Sorry, but time screams by when you read, write and nap as much as I do. The market crash, bank bailout, election and my views on each brought torrents of mail.
For example, Dan H. […]
Despite over-promised and underpaid by millions of dollars, the 100 or so producer-members of Meadowbrook Farms Cooperative said little during a recent public meeting the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grain, Inspection, Packers and Stockyard Administration held to discuss the Feb. 4 closure of the coop’s Rantoul, Ill., hog slaughtering plant.
Startling remarks
The few farmers who […]
One the biggest drawbacks of living in rural America is the high cost and low quality of connectivity: antiquated dial-up Internet speeds, costly satellite television and cellular phone service that cackles more than Grandma’s hens.
Congress hopes to address these needs in the Obama stimulus package.
Presently, the House-passed version of the plan holds $6 […]
Although Barack Obama has been president but a few days we can already say with certainty — unlike before his inauguration — he cannot fly, leap tall buildings or walk on water.
Those feats, however, are chopped liver compared to cracking the good old boy cabal at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Buckling
So far, say […]
