I recently served as Ambassador to the U.S. Mission in Rome for international organizations including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Our mission was to...
For most of us, we got a crop planted and harvested. We figured out how to deal with skyrocketing fertilizer prices and shortages of critical crop inputs — all with a shortage of new equipment and parts for the old equipment. Some folks even ended the year...
As the rows of corn slide beneath the head of the combine and the yield monitor keeps a running count of the yield from each acre, another corn growing season comes to an end. Surrounded by computer-controlled autosteer and GPS tracking, it may seem hard to believe...
Click BELOW to hear Hoosier Ag Today's Gary Truitt and his "As I See It" commentary: "The Dumbing Down of the Indiana State Fair!" The Indiana State Fair is entering the home stretch. For those of us who have regularly attended the Fair, there was something...
Nobody likes being taken for granted. It makes one feel less important. Your work and accomplishments seem less important. Your efforts feel unappreciated, your opinions irrelevant, and your feelings insignificant. In short, it is not a good thing to be taken for...
A bridge in Yellowstone National Park, a National Historic Landmark built in 1918, was recently washed away by flood waters that swept down the Yellowstone River. Further South in Benson, AZ, time, dementia, and blood cancer took another bridge. The death of Baxter...
When ordering a pizza on-line recently I noticed a new menu category called “The Conscious Connoisseur.” This section contained all kinds of choices that they felt were “sustainable and environmentally friendly.” Most of these were plant-based (not real meat)...
Farming is a risky business. We all know that all too well at planting season. So, whenever possible, producers try to manage or minimize risks. It is not surprising that, when it comes to talking to the media, many in agriculture would avoid talking to a...
I came across a new word recently, Déjà Poo — simply defined as “I have heard this crap before.” This perfectly sums up the current furor over the price of gasoline. Most motorists erroneously believe that the price of oil directly impacts the price of fuel at the...
