Yup, fact is stranger than fiction
Herman Melville was a pretty good fiction writer, but his 1851 whale of a tale -- something about a big fish and a peg-legged man named Ahab -- was, in fact, based on the true story of the American whaling ship Essex that, in 1820, was attacked and sunk by a huge whale in the South Pacific.
While Congress is on recess, there is much we can still learn
Congress left a lot undone, before going on summer recess.
High prices: What’s a carnivore to do?
If most Americans followed commodity prices as blindly as they follow the Kardashians, the national dinner menu might well feature bushels of cheaper-by-the-day grains and teaspoons of record-priced pork, beef, poultry and fish.
‘Missouri Farmers Care’ falls short in some major areas
You'd think that a state constitution eight times longer than the U.S. Constitution might cover every right, act or idea any of its citizens might need, do or ponder.
Silly season, again, in Washington
The Washington Nationals are the real show in our nation's Capital.
Checkoffs: More and more of the same
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there now are federal commodity checkoffs for beef, blueberries, Christmas trees, cotton, dairy products, eggs, fluid milk, Hass avocados, “Honey Packers and Importers,” lamb, mango, mushrooms, paper and paper-based packaging, peanuts, popcorn, pork, potatoes, processed raspberries, softwood lumber, sorghum, soybeans and watermelons.
Readers respond to farm and food column
Columnist reviews his feeback — the compliments and the criticism.
Betting against climate change
According to 2013 data compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, you and I owe our very existence to water. After all, 92 percent...
Who will be big meat’s next fat hog?
Two of the world’s biggest meatpackers, Tyson Foods and JBS SA, are in a bare-knuckled, checkbook throw-down over who will own Hillshire Brands, the...
Rainy days had their charm
On the big southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth, a rainy June day was a treat almost as great as homemade ice cream.
