by Ken RootThe oil and gas industry is on the rocks. The Exxon Valdez has nothing on this wreck, brought on by large oil producers inflicting pain on their economic and political adversaries. This time, the users of petroleum products, from aviation to agriculture and...
by Ken RootIn five decades of reporting on agriculture and rural America, I have seen farmers ride the escalator of optimism and then plunge into the abyss, time after time. It is a herd mentality that apparently still exists even though the herd is much smaller....
by Ken RootMeat is still on the menu! The feared dietary guidelines were released last week and ?sustainability? was left out of the equation as to what foods are healthy for Americans to consume. The conflict goes a lot deeper than meat and potatoes, it goes to the...
by Ken RootI am concerned about a standoff now underway between U.S. citizens in Oregon and the Federal Government at a remote wildlife refuge. It seems to be a long way away but so was Ruby Ridge, Idaho, where Randy Weaver and his family were confronted by federal...
by Ken RootWe could be planting genetically enhanced varieties of wheat by now and been through the complaining and gnashing of teeth from food companies and importers. Monsanto?s decision to stop almost ten years ago was driven by pushback from U.S. producers fearing...
by Ken RootAs I get older, I am amazed how many items in my daily life disappear and then re-appear in an unlikely place. Joe Kreger, the cowboy poet, wrote about ?Gremlins in My Shed? and assigned blame to unknown beings that hid his tools and then started sneaking...
by Ken RootOn December 23, 1985, President Ronald Reagan signed into law what can be argued to be the greatest long term soil, water and wildlife conservation program in American history. It came at a time of economic depression on the farm and a time of public...
by Ken RootThe Sub-Saharan country of Ghana was my location for the past week. I traveled there with a USDA Trade Mission led by Deputy Secretary, Krysta Harden. The goal of the group, of business and government leaders, was to strengthen relationships with an...
by Ken RootThe drought in California has placed meteorologists in the spotlight and made the El Nino weather pattern very important news. I know of no other profession where we applaud a success rate of fifty percent and soon forget the shortcomings of the...
by Ken RootOn the day following the EPA ruling on biofuel volume for 2016, no one seems happy. That may be the best sign that the agency?s tortured two year delay, in setting the volume required to be blended with gasoline, was fair to all parties. If either the oil...
