Cooperatives keep farmers competitive
The weekly hometown newspaper recently brought news of a family friend’s death. The friend, a dairy farmer, had lived a long, good life and...
Big Ag, big data and big money
Big Ag — John Deere, Dow, Monsanto, Pioneer, and Syngenta — are “on the verge of going ‘all in’" on big data collection, analysis and operational planning.
Fifty years of never forgetting
Like most Americans of 1955 or so vintage, the lovely Catherine and I will spend time this week recalling our personal whos, whats, whens...
Is Big Ag acting overly confident?
What is it about American agriculture that inspires farm and ranch groups to not trust American consumers? What do we fear?
The federal government shutdown: Just plain irresponsible and stupid
In a recent television interview, famed Wall Street investor Warren Buffett characterized the October federal government shut-down as “totally irresponsible” and said the failure...
Could Congress learn a lesson from its history?
Some things never change: In 1981, the White House and Congress were locked in a farm bill fight the likes of which no one...
On the road: California, a land all of its own
From the baking but breezy rest stop in the middle of California’s Mojave Desert, Interstate 15 disappears into the low mountains southwest toward Los...
Fields of gold fill the midwest in fall
On a sparkling fall day a week before the first FarmAid concert at the University of Illinois, I drove the back roads to Champaign...
Cartel capers: Belarus and Russia
There are two reasons to keep up-to-speed on the fast pace of events in what would seem to be the very dull world of...
Charging into fixed bayonets
So just what was Congress, and especially the U.S. House of Representatives, doing when it entered the final week of its high-speed game of...
