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
Finding New Ground
Posted on July 6, 2020
Some observers see the Black Lives Matter movement as a tidal wave washing away America’s original sin, slavery, and the systemic racism it fostered for more than 400 years.
Maybe, but as the last 75 years of the American civil rights movement has proven time and again—and often in blood—rooting out hatred requires more […]
Red, White, Blue, and Black
Posted on July 6, 2020
The first African American I really interacted with was not an American but was, in fact, an African. He was a Nigerian graduate student who served as a teaching assistant to the “discussion session” of a political science class I took at the Big U in 1973.
That I was nearly 20 years old […]
This Bloody Business
Posted on July 6, 2020
If you’ve ever butchered anything from a rabbit to a hog—and butchered is the right word, not the bleached “harvested”—you know there will be blood. Butchering, after all, is a bloody business.
While 95 percent of Americans are carnivores, it’s a safe bet that nearly 99.9 percent of them haven’t thought much about where […]
Memorial Day 2020
Posted on June 19, 2020
Every Memorial Day, my long-time friend David would honor both his family and fellow Vietnam War veterans with a visit to his hometown cemetery, an hour’s drive west of St. Louis.
Once there, and with the help of his siblings and cousins, David would mow the grass in the family plot, scrub its granite and […]
Now is Not the Time to Make Old Friends Into New Enemies
Posted on June 10, 2020
As if 20 percent unemployment, wretchedly weak commodity markets, shuttered ethanol and meatpacking plants, and a coronavirus pandemic aren’t bad enough, the White House chose mid-May to, literally, go viral with China, one of American agriculture’s best cash-and-carry customers.
This fight, however, isn’t over steel, aluminum or soybeans. It’s about spilled milk: How much responsibility […]
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Another useful comparison @nprDanCharles: What state’s acres equal the 13+% or so of the production to be *carried over*-go unused-acc’ding to USDA while subsidized by taxpayers? Back-of-the-envelope guess? Indiana, or 23M acres. https://t.co/XvbVoLH4fG
Quick observation: Did you ever notice GOP officials are all for *local control* or *smaller governmrnt* until they aren’t? https://t.co/CbIs6Cap57
100% White House baloney. Little wonder farmers continue to buy what WH sells: nonsense like this is called business *news* in rural America. https://t.co/DZYyBqGN36
Almost by definition, cheap food requires cheap labor. Because food is so cheap, we show zero concern in wasting 30% or more of it. What a foolish, exploitive food policy. If more pay makes food more valuable so less is wasted, I say *pay up.* https://t.co/YVgq9TxvFP
I have one named Roundup. It’s been off patent since around 400 B.C., maybe earlier. https://t.co/EWk1mG4if7
We can fix this, @NFUDC; let’s stop buying beef, pork & poultry from secretive giants. No one should buy an over-juiced, over-priced piece of assembly line protein from a corporate butcher with the motto ‘Shut up and eat.’ https://t.co/QAHKNYtgG4