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 resides with his wife, Catherine, a social worker, in rural central Illinois. Their son Paul, an attorney and lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves, lives in the Chicago area with his wife, Anamaria, and their two children. Alan’s daughter/editor Mary Grace and her husband Andrew Foxwell co-direct the social media advisory firm Foxwell Digital in Madison, Wisconsin, where they advise companies and non-profits on digital marketing strategy.
Alan and Mary Grace collaborated and co-wrote The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My Youth. Published in May 2015 by the University of Illinois Press, it is available for purchase online and at bookstores nationwide. Alan and Mary Grace held over 75 book events with farmers, foodies, and friends across the country.
Latest from Alan
Before Silage Season, The Hand-Me-Down Season
Posted on September 12, 2019
Sometime in mid-August, well after fair season and just before corn silage season, my brothers and I endured the hand-me-down season on the southern Illinois dairy farm of our youth.
It was just as you suspect. One morning some weeks before school began, my mother watched as we tried on our next older brother’s clothes to […]
Summer Fun with August Numbers
Posted on September 5, 2019
Ag Twitter had a big sandbox to play in after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) clobbered the agricultural futures markets Aug. 12 with its number-filled Crop Report and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, or WASDE.
The updated numbers—planted acreage, estimated production, and projected usage—hit the market like a hailstorm. Corn futures snapped […]
Down the Primrose Path
Posted on August 29, 2019
The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the yellow roses along the primrose path are dazzling distractions from what, in a matter of days, has already been a long month for farmers and ranchers.
Worse, a long harvest and bitter winter also loom as President Donald J. Trump threatens even tougher trade sanctions […]
Dog Days Mean Letting it Lie
Posted on August 29, 2019
On the farms of our youths, the dog days of August featured actual dogs and not a whole lot of anything else.
Given the unsettled state of today’s growing season, commodity markets, and politics, maybe the best way to get through this August is to slide back to that era and just not say […]
You Know It’s Going to Be a Long, Hot Summer if…
Posted on August 15, 2019
You know it’s going to be a long, hot summer if, on the day before you assume the political leadership of the United Kingdom—as Boris Johnson did on July 23—one of the world’s most authoritative newspapers, the New York Times, prints a column that begins with the phrase, “Boris Johnson, to whom lying comes as […]
Follow Alan on Twitter
Hey, rural Dems have re-election dreams, too, and the best way to make em come true in red, rural America is to spend taxpayer money to buy votes like Repubs. Not a reversal so much as a total retreat; like the Big Ag 2018 Farm Bill. https://t.co/zvOaw1xOQt
And we thought the US amb. to China was repping US ag goods to Chinese buyers; instead he’s fixing political potholes in Iowa. Is anyone in Trump Adm. actually doing the job they were hired to do or are all just presidential bellboys? https://t.co/9A4EcwwoHZ
Important thread on ethanol’s future. Hint: Trump’s waivers didn’t start ethanol downhill, but will add to its quick slide. https://t.co/Lx0QaN3YX8
Hey, @FarmJournal, the Growmark press release glosses over the fact that its new partner, Solinftec, is a Brazilian high tech firm that-@ least it appears-will now have access to US crop data. Is this a case of *if you can’t beat, join em*? https://t.co/gcDE4LUZk4
Where would 2019 rank @New10_AgEcon if there was no tariff war and, as such, no MFP? Also, aren’t some of those payments coming in 2020? https://t.co/Mzi9zb441b
The *roles* you note already filled by outside, well-paid pros. This project likely is search for cheaper alternatives. Also, in ag econ, *modern* often means capital (bots etc) replaces people, production balloons, prices drop, taxpayer costs soar. https://t.co/wRBtQSRmAh