Farm & Food File
A syndicated column by Alan Guebert
U.S. History
Cresting the Wave, Looking Into Next Year’s Trough
Posted on November 19, 2021
There’s no good time for bad news. Most farmers and ranchers, however, prefer to hear it sooner than later to factor it into the day or season’s plan.
Maybe that’s why our good friends at farmdocDaily, the online consortium of Land Grant extension specialists hosted by the University of Illinois, released a “Stress Test of 2022 Crop […]
Running with the Big Deere
Posted on November 11, 2021
In an effort to maintain its enviable, 34-year run of labor peace, Deere & Co. and the United Auto Workers recently announced a deal to boost worker pay–by 20 percent over five and six years, Deere said–to keep the iconic green-and-yellow machines rolling off its 11 assembly lines and through its three distribution centers.
The manufacturing […]
Friday Night Lights
Posted on November 5, 2021
Every farm kid who grew up before the change-everything 1970s changed almost everything will recall Friday evenings meant quick chores, a quick supper, and a family night in town.
Back then, nearly every store in nearly every rural community remained open for business until 9 p.m. on Fridays so everyone–but mostly farm families–could shop, stroll the storefronts, or just visit […]
Hey, Genius, Mind Your Own Business
Posted on October 29, 2021
It’s a rare honor to be named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. In fact, in 40 years, only 1,061 Americans have been awarded the title and the no-strings-attached stipend, this year a plush $625,000, commonly referred to as a “genius grant.”
Even more rare are MacArthur Fellows with ties to farming and food. Before this year, only […]
Death Taxes: Only for the One Percenters
Posted on October 11, 2021
Most Americans know there are three, unalterable facts of life: death, taxes, and farmers howling about “death taxes.”
And just between you and me, there’s an-oft whispered, rarely acknowledged fourth fact of life: Nearly every farm leader knows there’s no such thing as a “death tax”–federal taxes due upon death–for 99 percent of all farmers.
That’s not an opinion; […]
The Old Economics of New Agriculture: Drive or Be Driven
Posted on October 11, 2021
A recent, number-laden bulletin posted on the University of Illinois website farmdoc daily caught my attention for two reasons.
First, its data, drawn mostly from several U.S. Census of Agriculture, paints a troubling picture of U.S. agriculture today. More importantly, that picture suggests American ag policy needs to make “strategic” changes to meet new challenges–climate change and new […]
Four Books That Reach for the Heart, Mind, and Immortality
Posted on September 30, 2021
Writers write, according to some poet, to make themselves immortal. True or not, it was true for that writer because that’s an unforgettable, maybe even immortal, line.
Most times, however, writers write out of compulsion; they see a story that needs to be told and they grab some paper and verbs to tell it. Below are […]
Ethanol’s Future is Running Out of Gas
Posted on September 23, 2021
The key ingredients for a looming crack-up in ethanol–the fast rise of electric vehicles, lukewarm politics, and more evidence of catastrophic climate change–are in place and few in U.S. ag policy circles are prepared to face that reality.
In fact, none of those woes are new; they’ve been building for years.
For example, the Trump Administration’s almost carte […]
China Remains Our Biggest Export Market and Biggest Troublemaker
Posted on September 9, 2021
Talk about mixed messaging.
Two homemade campaign signs from last fall’s presidential election remain on the edge of a sprawling, well-kept dairy farm I recently passed. One, large and white against a green backdrop of tasseled corn, touts Donald Trump; the other, smaller and more wordy, declares that if Biden wins, all Americans soon will be “working for […]
Like a SNAP
Posted on August 27, 2021
This year of striking contrasts continues to build: a late winter of pandemic horror, a spring of vaccine relief, a summer of social sunshine, now a Covid reprise this fall.
For agriculture, August delivered its own contrasts. For example, the often market-rattling August Crop Report carried the unlikely news of near-record 2021 corn and soybean crops […]