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
Worker Wages are Not the Cause of Higher Food Prices
Posted on July 7, 2021
After my first year at the Big U, I returned to the southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth for a summer of work. The first task, however, was to ask my father to double my hourly pay from 50-cents an hour, the amount I’d been paid through high school, to $1 per hour.
“Well,” Dad […]
Truth in Labeling is the Opposite of Branding
Posted on July 7, 2021
If up is up and down is down, it makes sense then that organic food—especially food that carries the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s treasured “USDA Organic” label—is organic, right?
Not all the time, maintains Francis Thicke, an Iowa organic dairy farmer introduced here last month. In fact, Thicke and hundreds of other long-time organic farmers maintain […]
Adventures in Ag Journalism: A Million Words Later, We’re Still Here
Posted on June 11, 2021
This week marks the 28th anniversary of this editorial effort. In round numbers that’s more than 1,430 columns, a million words, and who knows how many cold beverages.
Its start came about like many efforts in journalism: I got fired. It’s a long story, so you might want to get comfortable—and even grab a cold beverage.
[…]
Beware of Philosopher Kings and ‘Synthetic Alternatives’
Posted on June 11, 2021
Shortly after America’s largest private farmland owners, Microsoft billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates, acknowledged their pending divorce, some wag on Twitter wondered what might be the appropriate time to wait before he approached the soon-to-be-former missus to ask about renting some of her farmland.
While he was joking, it’s no joke that the about-to-split pair […]
Ag Groups Make a United, Hollow Call on Meatpackers to Play Nice
Posted on June 11, 2021
On May 17, six farm groups joined voices to call on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Congress, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to ensure a “more financially sustainable situation for cattle feeders and cow-calf producers.”
That’s make-nice farm talk for “Meatpackers are skinning U.S. cattlemen so badly now that we six, not-usually-friendly groups ask the federal government—swamp […]
Follow Alan on Twitter
A clear-eyed view of American agriculture from an informed outsider. Tough, true, and telling courtesy of @herdyshepherd1 and @CivilEats. https://t.co/jA5rnIh9U3
Thread. At its core, this is why US ag faces an ever-tightening spiral of industrialization: most in academy continue to search for reasons not to change rather than reasons why change is the great imperative. https://t.co/cFap0zjLxp
‘The plan would also increase income taxes for people making over $400,000 in taxable income annually from 37% to 39.6%.’ Oh, those poor Deeres, er, dears… https://t.co/oRRswMOhC8
American farms continue to be fertile fields for hucksters, shysters, and cheats. Unreal. https://t.co/1dLfFGUWYS
Terrific piece that captures Big Ag’s slow-&-dough strategy w/ environmental regs: Unless gov’t pays us to the right thing, we’ll continue to do the wrong thing. Hey, your choice! https://t.co/aeTvAEVEU0
And now, 25 years later, we’re back where we started. Big surprise. https://t.co/J3ZZm2c76Y