Don’t complain with your mouth full
The last time the hefty price of wheat was a dinner conversation topic the then-secretary of agriculture, Earl Butz, hit the road to deflect...
A sap shouting into the hurricane
Today’s barely functioning cash grain and livestock markets will soon be getting their price signals from the world’s largest single, for-profit, around-the-clock money, grain, meat and metals futures trading operation.
A sap shouting into the hurricane
One fine spring evening 35 or so years ago, I rang the doorbell of the home of the young lady I intended to ask...
Government playing the patsy again
If either you or I get in a high-stakes poker game and we lose our shirts, an absolute certain bet is that the government will not bail us out.
Food inspection a big, germy joke
When a former National Football League player known for his dirty play was asked if he ever “threw” a game — purposely helped the opposing team win — the player replied by stating the obvious.
Farm and Food File: I must confess: I don’t have a clue
A furrowed brow and clenched teeth usually accompany the phrases “Officer, you’re right,” and “I don’t know.”
The former hasn’t split my lips since,...
Farm and Food File: Time is money and money corrupts
History doesn’t record who first uttered the ageless business maxim that “Time is money,” but a good bet might be a meatpacker because minutes...
Farm bill discussions are ‘ridiculous’
Be it bird hunting in Minnesota or vote hunting on Capitol Hill, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson is seen as a straight shooter of both pheasants and fools.
Bull and bear get piggish competition
An unwritten motto of a former employer, market adviser Professional Farmers of America, was that it's easier to turn journalists into economists than economists into journalists.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
One of the oldest truisms in agriculture noted that "when farmers make money, everybody in town makes money.
