Farm & Food File
A syndicated column by Alan Guebert
Rural America
It Takes a Carpenter
Posted on October 16, 2019
In the early morning fog the other day, I heard a claw hammer’s tap, tap, bam, bam, bam, boom drive a nail into its place for who knows how many years. A moment later, another six, clear, sharp notes cut through the fog and another nail was set for, maybe, a century or more.
[…]
The Plan is No Plan
Posted on October 16, 2019
You know you’re deep in the rabbit hole when bad news—say, a government report that shows steep cuts in anticipated 2019 crop yields—is good news because it will hopefully boost prices. Conversely, when good news arrives, like an unexpected week of perfect September weather, it’s actually bad news because it just drags already low […]
The Enemy of My Enemy Remains an Enemy
Posted on September 26, 2019
Most rural Americans are old enough to remember when their president noted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
That was, after all, several tariff hikes, dozens of trade meetings, and more than 15,000 presidential tweets ago. It may seem like a lifetime but it was just 19 months ago, on March 2, […]
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 […]
Doing Your Civic Duty. Or not.
Posted on July 31, 2019
Look out, rural America, Congress is headed your way during its annual month-long break in August and its members want to talk trade, trade, and trade.
They don’t, however, want to talk about America’s flagging 2019 ag exports or the still-in-place, retaliatory tariffs that are clipping U.S. exports.
No, rural America’s almost entirely Republican […]
“Mother Nature Always Bats Last”
Posted on July 24, 2019
Call it what you will—coincidence, chance or just bad luck—but on the very day that President Donald J. Trump defended his Administration’s almost indefensible record on the environment, the Washington, D. C. metro area was deluged by rainfall not seen since Noah.
In fact, so much rain fell so fast on the nation’s capital […]
Ag Has Bigger Problems Than Weather, Trade, Bailouts…
Posted on July 10, 2019
When you’ve been in the ag journalism game for almost 40 years, few things surprise you. Floods, droughts, market crack-ups, political crockery, price fixing: none of it is shocking anymore.
And, yet, on June 21, the Washington Post published a farm-based story that made even this graybeard marvel at how tone deaf and superior-sounding rural politics has […]
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This thread for acid-dripping Brexit update and, unknowingly, holding up a mirror on US politics. Solid analysis on both. https://t.co/iCIudasoHg
According to farm leaders, EPA is openly defying the Prez that every Repub & gov’t agency head deeply fears because it, what, believes Trump wouldn’t notice? Who do they think is in charge of ethanol policy-Rudy? Sorry, he’s foreign policy. https://t.co/81LnlFKap8
Wait a minute: The White House’s top trade advisor on China, Mr. Tariffs himself, has been quoting an alter ego as a legit source for years? Why any farmer or rancher still trusts anyone in this collection of clowns, liars & jerks is beyond explanation. https://t.co/Jl3KcfLvd6
Terrific, spot on reporting by Politico. Great read, great information. https://t.co/y3sB8p0uCa
You mean two years and $28 billion US taxpayer dollars ago, right? No US/China ad trade deal-be it $10B /yr or baloney-filled $50B/yr-should be talked without including these lost billions. https://t.co/BZfpp6LRRp
Quick thread tied reality, not White House bluster. Its advice to US farmers: keep your head in the game, not in the clouds. If $50B sounds preposterous, it’s only because it is. https://t.co/saeprqE64v