Used to be, you needed a printing press and barrels of ink if you wanted to be heard in this world. Today, you just need an internet connection.  Yesterday, a friend sent me a link to this Reuters’ article that essentially says glyphosate is to blame for every health issue known to man. I surfed around and found the original paper, which was published in a physics journal called Entropy. Say what you will about journalists, but most of us are naturally skeptical. Maybe I…

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Just in time for the Super Bowl, we’ve got folks in ag arguing over a chicken wing shortage. Fox News ran a story yesterday that featured a quote from Bill Roenigk, chief economist and market analyst for the National Chicken Council. In essence, Roenigk said chicken supply is down because of high feed prices. Feed prices were up because of the drought and the RFS mandate. Growth Energy wasted no time in responding with a football-themed news release defending the RFS. Reading…

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As we reported in the October issue of Prairie Farmer, cellulosic ethanol has a lot to prove next year. It’s been a running joke in ag for some time – “Cellulosic ethanol has been three to four years away for the past 10 years.” Most know the best jokes have a bit of truth to them. This one certainly does. Prior to joining Farm Progress, I worked for Country Journal Publishing in Decatur. Biofuels Journal is one of several magazines they publish. When I joined in…

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Yesterday, I drove down to Waltonville to see Illinois Governor Pat Quinn discuss the severe drought that’s devastating much of the state. An hour later, I felt like Linus standing in the middle of a pumpkin patch, albeit more like a sweet-corn patch in 100-degree-F heat. Here’s how it went down. The Illinois Farm Bureau announced it would be hosting Quinn to tour some sad-looking corn fields in Jefferson County. That’s right, he was leaving the confines of Chicago to move…

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I’m very close to being a full-fledged digital/social media addict. I check e-mail, Facebook and Twitter combined about 100 times a day. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I’ll be “detoxing” over the next five days. I’m travelling with the Illinois Farm Bureau to Cuba. Smartphones and the like will not work in this country. In many ways, it will be like turning back the clock to 1999. Either I’ll enjoy it, or I’ll suffer massive withdrawal…

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On a day such as this, it’s easy to get swept up in the patriotic images we often associate with war. A grandfather looking dapper in his dress uniform, Old Glory framed for display, or white gloves firing rifles in a 21-gun salute. For many in my generation, these images are how we understand Memorial Day. The majority of us did not go to war. We don’t understand how it feels to see close friends, many of them barely over the age of 18, die in an arena of combat. In 8th…

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I’ve never seen so much outrage over something that doesn't deserve a second thought. I’m speaking of Terence Loose’s “College Majors That Are Useless” article. Everyone in the ag industry is up in arms over this piece of terrible journalism. Calm down folks, it’s Yahoo, which in my mind is a step or two above the National Enquirer in terms of news quality. At this very moment, three of the top five news items aren’t even news (a ball boy made an…

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I think I’ve figured out why many of our nation’s politicians have law degrees rather than medical doctorates. Have you ever seen an ER doc slap a Band Aid on a gunshot wound and call it good? Of course not. That wouldn’t fix the root cause. The bullet needs to be removed, lest the body be forced to fight added stress from infection. On the other hand, our legal system is a complex patchwork of Band Aid upon Band Aid. Many times the lawyer who understands how and why a…

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Not much surprises me these days. I still get outraged, but surprised, nah. As a writer for a farm publication, I get email from folks who have even the smallest connection to ag. Since so few in today’s world even understand the industry, it’s no wonder they don’t know the difference between production ag and somebody’s strawberry-growing side venture. To the public relations folks sending these emails, I’m only interested in production ag.   When…

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The Center for Food Integrity released a study this week that shows just how far removed consumers are from the farm. According to the survey, 40% of consumers strongly disagreed with the statement “The United State has a responsibility to provide food for the rest of the world.” Instead, more than half agreed with a statement that said we should concentrate on teaching developing nations how to feed themselves, rather than export food to them. There are two very important…

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