Farm & Food File
A syndicated column by Alan Guebert
About Alan
Alan Guebert is an award-winning agricultural journalist and expert who was raised on an 720-acre, 100-cow southern Illinois dairy farm. After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1980, he worked as a writer and senior editor at Professional Farmers of America and Successful Farming magazine. In 1984, Guebert returned to Illinois to establish his freelance writing business and to serve as a contributing editor to Farm Journal magazine.
He began the syndicated agriculture column “The Farm and Food File” in 1993 and it now appears weekly in more than 60 newspapers throughout the United States and Canada.
Guebert previously wrote ”Letter from America,” a monthly perspective on U.S. farm and food policy for European and Asian publications. “Letter from America” ran from 1995 through 2007.
Throughout his career, Guebert has won numerous awards and accolades for his magazine and newspaper work. In 1997, the American Agricultural Editors’ Association honored him with its highest awards, Writer of the Year and Master Writer.
Alan and his daughter Mary Grace Foxwell collaborated and co-wrote The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My Youth. Their book was published in May 2015 by the University of Illinois Press and the pair held 75 book events with farmers, foodies, and friends across the country. Their book is available for purchase online and at bookstores nationwide.
Latest from Alan
We Have to Start Somewhere
Posted on May 27, 2020
Before we take the next unsteady step into a very different future, let’s make sure it’s a step up the ladder and not a step off the plank.
How? We can start with disciplined decision making: Use proven facts, lean on practical experience, and focus like a laser on what is safe and smart.
[…]
Laughter Is No Longer the Best Medicine
Posted on May 13, 2020
One reason—there were others—for my departure from farm magazine writing was laughter. Let me explain.
In the early-1980s, the world, like now, was headed to hell in a hurry and agriculture was leading the parade. U.S. interest rates were a crushing 14 percent, farmland prices were on their way to plunging 40 percent in just five […]
Hey, Didn’t Rural America Invent ‘Social Distancing’?
Posted on April 30, 2020
There’s a brittle beauty to this year’s spring. Amid the swaying daffodils, cotton clouds, and already roaring tractors and dust-shaking planters hides a deadly virus with a special fondness for those of us in rural America.
In fact, rural America is perfectly primed for Covid-19, according to any epidemiologist worth their student loans. The virus […]
The World is Changing, Why Haven’t We?
Posted on April 30, 2020
Coronavirus, a farmer in a recent news story noted, “is the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
It may feel that way now but, honestly, that back-breaking straw hit the camel decades ago when the nation’s top agricultural, academic, and political leaders embraced dollar-driven efficiency over safety-centered resiliency as the overarching goal of American farm policy.
We […]
Prepare for the Worst, Pray for the Best
Posted on April 17, 2020
Despite overwhelming evidence from literally every corner of the world, a farmer friend recently related to me that three—not one, not two, but three—rural acquaintances had assured him that “this whole virus thing is just a big hoax to bring down Trump.”
If so, worldwide there’s more than 25,000 graves, over a half million […]
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So even a relatively strong-say, 15%-recovery in US farm prices brings most back to barely profitable, pre-coronavirus levels. In last 3 yrs, total US farm program cost (Farm Bill+Trump Bucks) is ~$100B w/ no market impact. This is what an ag policy collapse looks like. https://t.co/oYqUfbPouv
Powerful, straight-up truth from one of the best. Please read. https://t.co/2PgvNr74Su
Why would a public Land Grant tweet a discredited WH report by an in-the-tank reporter to wrongly undermine already weak US/China ag trade deal WH once loved? Pro tip @FarmPolicy, you do policy & let the politicians do the politics. https://t.co/E2wpOp8bZx
Solid reporting that could be introductory chapter of Congress’s Covid Commission report 5 years from now. Fact-filled, devastating timeline of US incompetence & hubris that promises even more failure & death this summer. https://t.co/M3d7GnpIRQ
Much here to praise @TimothyAWise @IATP. White House *food czar* is stretch but USDA reorg that emphasizes farms and food equally must be priority before rewrite of today’s failing, costly Farm Bill. https://t.co/jIvhsOIKWr
Great piece with good info and solid ideas. Well done Civil Eats. https://t.co/c8V59Es7qu