For those of us who have slid, shovelled, and skated through the wildest up-and-down winter weather in years, here’s a warm thought: planting is well underway in parts of North America, with more to come soon. After that brief pleasantness, however, the outlook gets pretty cold pretty fast. Early February reports from the U.S. Department
Comment: Spring needs to bring thaw in agricultural trade
U.S. farmers and ranchers need their markets back
Comment: Ethanol’s tightening tough spot
Ethanol is facing a shrinking gasoline market
Ethanol is in a tight spot, according to Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois. On April 12, Irwin published an analysis of today’s ethanol market on the university’s farmdocDAILY website under the workmanlike title of “Implications of Recent Trends in U.S. Gasoline Consumption for Ethanol.” In it Irwin calculated that a
Comment: ‘No problem, I’ll just stop eating pork’
Actions that will erode confidence in food safety could prove costly
One tried-and-true tool politicians use to deflect public criticism directed at them is as old as politics itself: beat up the press. Someone in Secretary Sonny Perdue’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) thought it was time to do just that April 8 as the “FSIS Office of Congressional and Public Affairs” — USDA’s Food Safety
Comment: Costco and Walmart want you in their ‘chain’
Two recent moves into Big Ag by Big Retail bear close watching. In mid-2018 Walmart began bottling milk in a newly built facility near Ft. Wayne, Ind., for 500 of its stores. In doing so, this newcomer shoved an industry veteran, Dean Foods, its former bottler, out the door and with Dean went 100 or
Comment: If you want to see the future, you need to look ahead
Everyone wants to be seen as sustainable but what does that buzzword even mean?
To most farmers and ranchers, “sustainable” is a word that, like exercise or vacation, has a dictionary definition and a personal definition. The difference between the two, however, often is the difference between the local fair and the World’s Fair. These folks aren’t alone. Almost everyone and everything from commodity groups to coal companies make
Comment: Knives, forks, and farmers favour U.S. immigration reform
When U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers returned to their jobs Jan. 28 after the recent, 35-day government shutdown, an estimated five million pieces of unopened mail awaited. Equally daunting, the shutdown coincided with the IRS’s hiring of its annual army of temporary workers to process the impending tax season’s mail. The delay now leaves
Comment: Let us pray
Political turmoil and gridlock in the U.S. is just one symptom of a world in gridlock that can’t solve problems
Man, that ended badly. December limped to an ugly conclusion as nearly everyone from Wall Street to Main Street took a year-end pounding not seen in three generations. Pick an investment sector (stocks, bonds, commodities); a nation state (the U.S., China, or the European Union); or a political system (a democratic republic, parliamentary, or single-party
Comment: Another war to end all wars
No one knows when — or even if — the ongoing and looming trade wars will end
This year marked 100 years since the end of the First World War, which U.S. President Woodrow Wilson called “the war to end all wars.” Wilson saw himself as a historic peacemaker; instead he became an ironic phrasemaker. The Great War never brought an end to war, or even an end to that war. The
Comment: Reading the facts at hand — or in your palm
If you ignore bad news because you don’t want to hear it, it’s at your peril
Years ago, an enterprising neighbour operated a palm reading business from her home with just a secretary, fax machine, and telephone. Her business model was simple: After clients faxed their photocopied handprint and sent some form of payment (rumour had it, it was $20), our neighbour telephoned them with the results of the “reading.” While
Comment: Brother, can you spare a cup of water?
Agriculture is a very thirsty industry and that could spell trouble
Humanity depends on three critical threes: Without oxygen, most humans will die within three minutes; without water, life expectancy is three days; without food, we’ve got three weeks. Few here give three seconds of thought of any of these life-ensuring elements because, here, food is safe and plentiful, air quality laws are in place and
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
