An Urban's Rural View

Demand for labor is strong, but the labor force participation rate still hasn't returned to where it was before the pandemic. Should the boomers be blamed?

With its recent half-point increase, the Federal Reserve is accelerating its attack on inflation. But inflation hawks think it's not accelerating enough.

Though Japan is a U.S. ally and many years the fourth largest export market for American agriculture, the two countries diverge widely on an important international-economic issue.

The coronavirus will leave long-term economic, political and social consequences in its wake, and one of the possible consequences could transform rural America.

The Fed is getting serious about raising interest rates. Its critics think it's still behind the curve.

Sales of plant-based meat slowed in 2021. Cultured meat is coming, and a consulting firm thinks it will take market share from both conventional and plant-based meat.

Russia's invasion tightens the bind the Federal Reserve Board finds itself in as it contemplates beginning to raise interest rates.

British food doesn't deserve the abuse hurled at it. The United Kingdom is actually a pretty good place to eat.

In the years since Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush, conservation has become divisive -- or is it regulation that divides us?

The Biden administration is preparing an Indo-Asian Economic Framework aimed at reasserting U.S. leadership in Asian economic diplomacy without stirring up the domestic political passions that killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

China's purchase of U.S. products fell short of what it agreed to in the phase-one trade deal two years ago. That puts the Biden administration in a bind.

We've reached a turning point in the COVID-19 story, the beginning of the new normal.

In 2016, Congress thought it was resolving the heated disputes over labeling food with genetically engineered ingredients. Fat chance.

In which, with humility, forecasts for 2022 are made and distinguished from wishes for the year.

To slow inflation, the Federal Reserve looks likely to begin raising interest rates next year. Higher rates are not the ideal cure for the inflation afflicting farmers. Plus, they'll raise borrowing costs.

America's political polarization goes beyond left versus right. A new study shows how deep are the differences of opinion within the left and the right.

Jerome Powell's second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board doesn't look like it will be a lot of fun. Inflation is going strong and financial markets are pricing in an interest-rate increase for next May.

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that President Joe Biden signed into law will make the economy more competitive for decades to come. It was a bipartisan victory as much as Biden's.

President Donald Trump buried free trade. President Joe Biden has no plans to resurrect it.

Portugal is a small country with diverse agriculture and a successful strategy for dealing with COVID-19.