Farm & Food File
A syndicated column by Alan Guebert
Archives
The Best Way to Start is to Start
Posted on February 24, 2021
Forty years ago, two editors at Successful Farming magazine, Gene Johnston and Dean Houghton, won most major ag journalism awards with a story titled “Who will kill the hogs?”
The piece (not available online) tracked a new, potent shift just beginning to hit the 600,000 hog farmers in the U.S.: Local meatpackers were being squeezed for hogs […]
Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Chains
Posted on June 10, 2020
For over a month now, nearly anyone who can lift a fork has asked what the “new normal” in American agriculture will be after Covid-19 loosens its terrible grip.
Six weeks later, we now have a pretty good idea that ag’s new normal will look like ag’s old normal even if it takes a […]
Whipping the Soy-Boys is No Way to Win Customers
Posted on October 2, 2019
P.T. Barnum, the quintessential American showman, might have found today’s food carnival more interesting and far more profitable than his namesake circus of yore.
For example, slow food is taking note of the fast rise of meatless, or plant-based, burgers this year. Veggie burgers, their previous incarnation, are not new; the lovely Catherine has been […]
Tanning Cowboys’ Hides
Posted on June 14, 2018
Forty years ago Waylon and Willie asked the nation’s mamas not to “let your babies grow up to be cowboys” because “… they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone, even with someone they love.”
That sage advice is even more true after a spring cattle market that’s been too wild to forget and too brutal […]
Fifth Avenue Cowboys
Posted on February 14, 2018
Maybe it’s a sign of our fast-changing times, but paradox and irony seem as common today as lunch and supper. For example, the world’s largest taxi company, Uber, owns no taxis and the world’s second largest air force is the U.S. Navy.
The same is true of the American beef sector. As of mid-January, the owner […]
Big Meat’s Next Fat Hog
Posted on July 2, 2014
Two of the world’s biggest meatpackers, Tyson Foods and JBS SA, are in a bare-knuckled, checkbook throw-down over who will own Hillshire Brands, the Chicago-based maker of branded processed meats and packaged food.
Which ever firm wins this brawl will matter less to Tyson and JBS than to you or me because it will enable one […]
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This is all but unwatchable; such overwrought, under rendered baloney brings a new level of meaninglessness to today’s ag policy challenges. https://t.co/7eUa5rOsos
We’re running out of years and excuses to not clean up BigAg’s failing environmental record. Solid reporting here on just how badly we’re failing. https://t.co/hjwI5ud6Jd
Teriffic piece that shows just how much influence & money BigPig spends to sustain the unsustainable CAFO side of US meat production. Keep in mind, little of this happens w/out USDA compliance, consent and-too often-money. https://t.co/xdquPjIIO8
When are we as a nation going to understand that this export obsession is literally killing people and the world we live in, not just pigs, cattle & poultry. https://t.co/2CYf75LwFG
As Wallace Stegner noted decades ago: While everyone uses water, only Americans use it up. https://t.co/iSucXdhbzj