Last week's Associated Press article about how corn prices are driving up food prices drew a visceral response from me. So I sent the Harrisburg Patriot a "letter to the editor" to offer a little more perspective. It's sure to provoke a wave of anti-ethanol zealots with half-vast information. Yes, food prices have been and are rising. And yes, rising grain prices – along with rising beef, pork, poultry and wool prices – will impact food and clothing prices even more in the…

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You've no doubt seen those television advertisements touting gold as a get-rich-quick investment. Well, it is a get-rich-quick proposition – for the seller! The gold coin "sales pitchers" say it's worth its weight in gold. Well, yes. In fact, it always has been. But as Cornell Ag Economist William Schulze noted recently at Cornell's Agribusiness Outlook Conference, today's gold prices are trading on fear induced by the global economic recession. Would he buy gold today? "Certainly…

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  Consumers generally see farmers as hard working independent souls – ones they admire. But they are bombarded with negative media images of animal cruelty, food safety crises, stream pollution, as well as the grim specter of “factory farms” and “corporate farms”. That was one of the issues discussed in a visit with Pennsylvania Farm Bureau President Carl Shaffer early this week. As Shaffer pointed out, we in agriculture don’t condone “bad…

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One lesser aspect of human nature is that we too often form opinions based on what we want to believe. We can forgive those who base their sentiments on their own, perhaps bad, experiences. But unfortunately, a mercenary element of America’s society preys on culpability. And some try to legitimize misinformation via the Internet.   How’s that, you ask? Well, here are a few examples.   ·        The most recent is the protest of putting a chicken manure-fired power plant in a central…

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