NCGA board member, Pam Johnson, is a northern Iowa corn and soybean grower. She farms with her husband and sons and is one of the participants in the Truth About Trade & Technology, Global Farmer to Farmer Roundtable. She is not only participating in the roundtable discussions but was also on the panel of this morning’s Biodiversity World Tour town …
Putting Global Farmers Together
The participants in the Truth About Trade and Technology Global Farmer To Farmer Roundtable started their day at the Biodiversity World Tour town hall meeting with Sec. of Agriculture Vilsack. Before we departed for the meeting on the campus of Iowa State University I spoke with Chairman, Dean Kleckner. He says that there are 16 farmers here this year from …
Dead Zones Grow in Non-Farming Areas
Do any other nations contemplate their navels as much as government and business in America? I know of nowhere else on the planet where people will spend precious time and millions of dollars to do studies related to previous studies. If it does exist, I don’t think I want to move there. With that observation aside…on to the latest study …
Keeping Hypoxia Debate About the Facts
Readers have asked for a response to the blog post by Tom Philpott at Grist.org in which he takes me to task for some of my comments made earlier. In the first place, the farmers I know don’t consider themselves “manipulated by government policy and corporate interest.” They love what they do and they are proud of their work. Most …
Corn Yields Rising, Environmental Impact Declining
If you ever get a chance to watch a presentation by Fred Below, University of Illinois, then you should do it. You’ll not only be entertained and informed but come away energized. He is passionate about his work and you will have no doubts about that when he’s done. He says his work mainly consists in figuring out how to …
Corn Farmers Coalition Showcases Facts About Family Farmers
If you haven’t already tuned into the new level of activism in agriculture, especially regarding misinformation on our largest industry, then you won’t find better evidence of this evolving cultural phenomenon than the Corn Farmers Coalition. Speaking to a couple of family farmers recently they expressed their frustration at the misinformation, innuendo and outright fabrications that are being used to …
Ken McCauley Talks Corn, Ethanol in Power Trip
It’s really fun when you have a brush with greatness and it is no more apropos than when you run into a celebrity in Anaheim during Commodity Classic. Well the celebrity I’m referring to is our very own NCGA past president Ken McCauley, who was featured in the book Power Trip. Now Ken is quite modest and didn’t really tell …
Chesapeake Bay a Model for Water Quality Management
If you farm or if you eat you will be affected by a lovely body of water many of us will never see called the Chesapeake Bay. This is because “The Bay” as it is known affectionately is being used as a test case or a template for how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will deal with watersheds across the …
Sustainable Food Myths
Grant Woods’ famous 1930 “American Gothic” painting is an icon of what some people believe sustainable agriculture should be. Ma and Pa Kettle on the little idyllic farmstead making a living on the soil with their bare hands. Notice how miserable they look. With all the talk these days about lifecycle analysis and carbon footprints, modern agriculture methods have increased …
Farmers Work Harder, Solve Problems, But Never Throw in the Towel
While family farmers toil to bring in crops this fall an interesting thing is happening; folks in the organic and alternative Ag community have chosen to use the lousy harvest conditions as their latest reason to do away with our modern commodity-based food system. “To my eyes, the disaster unfolding in the Corn Belt is further evidence of a dangerous …