Six months into my first job as pup reporter in the last century, I pestered my boss to transfer me from the green fields of north central Iowa to the story-littered streets of Washington, D.C. to …

If you’re in charge of reversing American agriculture’s three-years-old-and-growing trade deficit, your list of options is as limited as it is unworkable. You can, for instance, …

When you're 8 or 9 years old, you don't see the world as you will as a 50- or 60-year-old. Much of what seems perfectly ordinary to a child often becomes quite extraordinary with the passing of time. …

Despite all his accolades and achievements, Dwight D. Eisenhower remained modest and plainspoken. “The proudest thing I can claim” he noted after his triumphant return to the U.S. from …

For U.S. farmers and ranchers, Thursday, May 22, was right out of a Dickens novel: It was the best of days and the worst of days. Early — and I do mean cow-milking early — that …

On Feb. 21, 2018, this space outlined my assessment of Congress’s meandering approach to the overdue 2018 Farm Bill. Don’t just polish the badly tarnished 2014 Farm Bill, I urged; write a …

The opening lines in an April 11 farmdocDAILY post should have raised an eyebrow or two among Farm Bill geeks both in and out of Congress: “The U.S. crop safety net,” it begins, …

From 30,000 feet, the Port of Los Angeles looks like a child's toy being unfolded into a multi-faceted Transformer. This blocky, brawny big brother, however, covers 7,500 acres and lies …

Somewhere along life's highway most of us learned to balance a checkbook. This task usually involved a pencil, the back of a used envelope, and some basic math. Today, however, a click or two in a …

If you are one of the millions of Americans who pollsters say “voted for change” last November, boy, are you getting it now. As of this spring, for example, illegal border crossings …

Longtime readers of this weekly effort may recall my affection for the word “woodenheadedness.” It comes from “The March of Folly,” Barbara Tuchman's 1984 book about …

The Trump Administration may grant U.S. agriculture special exemptions from parts of its ever-changing tariff regime but it can't exempt it from everyday economic reality. That mainstay of …

Medicaid looks to be one of the big corks Congress hopes will help plug an estimated $4.7 trillion flood of red ink that accompanies tax cuts Republicans plan to pass this spring. They’re …

One of the first marketing lessons offered to me, a wet-behind-the-ears ag editor, by a steely and successful ag futures trader was as simple and useful as a feed bucket. “Markets hate …

Sir Isaac Newton — he of “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” fame — was a polymath who excelled in math, physics, astronomy, alchemy and theology. …

On Jan. 7, the day after Congress certified Donald J. Trump’s election as the next president of the United States, the U.S. “Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout …

The four-page executive summary of the November-issued report on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) doesn’t predict when or how the hopefully-named “green” aircraft fuel will be …

The Christmas tree was a scrub cedar hacked from the edge of the woods that bordered the farm. Big-bulbed lights, strung in barber pole fashion, generated almost as much heat as the nearby …

While the president-elect continues to nominate prospective members of his incoming administration, the outgoing Congress faces a hectic sprint to complete a long list of unmet legislative duties …

Nearly every autopsy of Vice President Kamala Harris’s stinging White House defeat begins with some variation of the phrase, “Voters pointed to the rising price of food as their chief …