Farm & Food File
A syndicated column by Alan Guebert
From the Column
‘And The Lord Said to Peter…’
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, February 25, 2024
While my father milked cows and farmed for almost 50 years, I never heard him say he loved–or, for that matter, even liked–either cows or farming.
I did know he loved to fish and it may have been that great passion that gave him the […]
From Ink to Electrons: The Retirement of Print Journalism
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, February 18, 2024
Recently, a retired friend asked if I planned to retire anytime soon. It was the right question. While I have considered retirement, I explained, I have no real plans–soon or otherwise–to do so.
But, I added, “The choice may not be up to me because […]
At What Level of ‘Do Something’ Should Agriculture Begin to Clean Up Nitrates?
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, February 11, 2024
For at least the past decade, reported The New Lede (TNL) last September, “a growing number of peer-reviewed medical studies have linked exposure to nitrates in drinking water to elevated incidences of cancer.”
As the environmental news service clearly states, this news isn’t exactly news.
For […]
U.S. Ag’s Love/Hate Relationship with Our Biggest Trading Partner
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, February 4, 2024
There’s a joke about my fellow Baby Boomers making the rounds that goes something like this: In the 1960s, Boomers didn’t trust anyone over 30 but as soon as they reached their 60s, they didn’t trust anyone under 30.
American farmers and ranchers have nearly […]
New Year, Not-So-New Start
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, January 28, 2024
While January left the old year behind, it didn’t leave behind any of the baggage 2023 saddled American farmers and ranchers with.
The chief worry carried forward was last year’s slumping grain markets, especially soybeans. August 2024 soybean futures skidded from near $14 per bushel […]
Elect Me Because I’ll Send You More Federal Money Than the Other Guy
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, January 21, 2024
Like some character in Alice in Wonderland, we’re well beyond the looking glass when the presumptive presidential candidate of the political party that prides itself as being fiscally conservative asks farmers, “Look, did I get you $28 billion… ?”
Yes, that was Donald Trump on […]
New Year, New Deal? Only the Knucklehead Caucus Knows
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, January 14, 2024
The pain I felt late Sunday, Jan. 7, was hard to pinpoint until I realized exactly when it struck: just moments after news of a tentative, 2024 budget deal between Senate and House negotiators had been announced. As such, it soon became apparent the […]
How Much Food Assistance is Too Much?
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, January 7, 2024
At the height of the Christmas giving season, the governors of Iowa and Nebraska, two largely rural, heavily agricultural states, chose to play Grinch by turning down tens of millions of federal food assistance dollars “to help feed children who might otherwise go hungry […]
Ag’s New Normal Includes Trade Deficits, Not Surpluses
Posted on April 10, 2023
Nearly drowned out in all the farm group cheering that U.S. ag exports hit a record high $196 billion last year was the inarguable fact that U.S. ag imports also hit a record-high, $199 billion, or $3 billion more than ag exports.
That’s right, sports fans: during its biggest ag export year ever–when the value of […]
‘Right to Repair’ Fight Between Farmers and Machinery Giants is Just Getting Started
Posted on April 10, 2023
Before a January “memorandum of understanding,” or MOU, on a farmer’s “right to repair” his farm machinery, U.S. equipment makers and their farm and ranch customers were locked in a legal and legislative fight over who could fix today’s complex ag machinery–the customer who owned or leased it, or the maker that designed, built, and […]