It’s Thanksgiving week recently here in the U.S., so let’s be generous: The White House trade policy, marked by its heavy use of import tariffs and presidential tweets, continues to confound economists and trading partners alike. A more accurate, less generous view of President Donald J. Trump’s trade policy would declare it an unhinged mess
Comment: Sonny warned ’em — twice, in fact
Trump can’t claim he wasn’t forewarned about agriculture trade calamity
Comment: House GOP could claim Farm Bill victory despite electoral defeat
Outgoing congressional representatives may deliver President Trump with a legislative victory before they head for the door
A week before American voters decided whether the midterm elections would deliver a red wave or a blue wave, OpenSecrets.org, the non-partisan group that tracks money in politics, made a spot-on prediction: the biggest wave on Nov. 6 would be green. Think greenbacks, that is, because this year’s political candidates, OpenSecrets estimated, would spend US$5.2
Comment: The road to perdition always leads south
U.S. farmers are stuck between a rock and a hard place due to Trump’s trade wars
If war is hell, then trade wars must be a purgatorial stop along the way. For proof, just look where Election Day 2018 finds American farmers. Faced with ample production, stale commodity prices, and the lowest forecasted national farm income since 2002, U.S. farmers are now waiting for a winter of government “tariff mitigation” payments
Comment: Our garden’s last stand
There was no food waste on the rural farm of my youth
In the unseasonable heat of mid-September, the yard’s many black walnut trees began shedding their heavy fruit. Now, a month on, the stately trees are bare of nuts and most of their leaves weeks earlier than any year I can remember. Does that suggest an early winter? A long one? Time will tell. All I
Comment: Tell me if you’ve heard this before
Because agriculture policy-makers can’t remember history, farmers may be doomed to repeat it
Truisms don’t need to be completely true to be a truism. For example, “If you live long enough, you’ll see everything” doesn’t mean you will see everything if you live a long life. You may see a great deal, but it’s highly unlikely you’ll see “everything.” Simone de Beauvoir, a French novelist and existentialist, turned
Comment: September slips away — and so do political solutions
The clock is ticking on several U.S. policy decisions that could have global implications
There are never enough days in September for farmers, ranchers, and pennant-chasing baseball teams. Every day, whether spent in a combine, pasture or batter’s box, brings change to what’s real today and what’s possible tomorrow. And it happens fast; September days don’t pass, they evaporate. The U.S. Congress, however, seems not to notice days, months
The carrot, the stick, and U.S. farmers
Trade turmoil has the White House picking winners and losers in the U.S. farm sector
The Trump administration’s good cop/bad cop approach to U.S. trade policy was on full display Aug. 27 when President Donald J. Trump, the bad cop that day, announced a very incomplete NAFTA trade deal — fuelled by his heavy use of tariffs — that pointedly excluded Canada. That day’s good cop was U.S. Secretary of
Meet your new boss, same as the old boss
Your key customers are reacting to the shifting demands of their key customers
The only Washington, D.C.-area team having a worse year than the Baltimore Orioles is big food’s biggest, richest lobbying arm, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, or the GMA. Most American farmers and ranchers don’t know GMA by its acronym; they do, however, know its work: it was the organizer and chequebook behind the defeat of several
Readers can write, too
Reader feedback is always interesting for a column writer
There’s an art and elegance to letter writing that electronic communication — email, texting, direct messaging, Twitter, and other ethereal forms — simply can’t capture. The biggest difference is also its most ironic: paperless communication encourages brevity and emphasizes urgency. Why, I wonder, is there a weight restriction on email? NNTR. (No need to reply.)
Opinion: On the road – Ireland’s farms, food and future
Dublin, even in summer sunshine, can’t entirely shake its smoky, troubled past. Bullet holes the size of grapes still pockmark the pillars and walls of the General Post Office. Still, Dublin’s streets are packed. The lovely Catherine and I are there, too, walking along its central artery, the River Liffey. We’re in Ireland to visit
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
