An Urban's Rural View

So much has changed in the last four years, the issues are so different, that the next four can't be a carbon copy of Tom Vilsack's earlier eight.

It's easy to pooh-pooh Former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman's choice for USDA's most important function. But actually, he has a point.

Calls for an Infrastructure Week diverted criticism from President Donald Trump but otherwise led nowhere. Washington needs to focus a whole year on doing something about infrastructure.

DTN's lead analyst makes a strong argument for USDA not to accept China's ending-stocks numbers.

The president-elect has given some clues about his approach to China but many questions remain.

It's amazing what these virtual-meeting technologies can do. This year's DTN Ag Summit will be virtually the same as if we were all in the same room.

Maybe with an end in sight we'll overcome our pandemic fatigue and take the precautions necessary to get through the winter.

Exit polls suggest the urban-rural political divide wasn't as big this election as it was in 2016.

Once considered a futuristic fantasy, vertical farming is now taken seriously by big outfits like Driscoll's, the lead player in the berry business.

They may both be superpowers, but the U.S. and China don't get much respect these days in surveys of international opinion.

This has turned out to be a hard-luck year for the Midwest's major-league baseball teams.

No, COVID-19 isn't going away soon, but when it does, many things will have changed.

Should the U.S. abandon "strategic ambiguity" and tell China it will defend Taiwan militarily?

We can still buy wonderful fruits, vegetables and meat at the Newport Farmer's Market in Newport, Oregon, but the coronavirus has closed down many of the things we love about it.

The idea that the purpose of a corporation is solely to generate profits for owners is being challenged again, and the challenge could affect farmers and ranchers.

Some pundits think a weakening dollar signals an end to America's overpowering influence in the world.

Those unrequested envelopes of seeds from China are the modern-day equivalent of the Trojan Horse.

The president is no longer interested in trade talks with China, and anti-Communist ideologues have become America's voice.

The controversy over industrial policy is no longer whether to have one but what kind. Abraham Lincoln's industrial policy offers some suggestions.

Geopolitical events are testing the ability of the U.S. and China to be both rivals and trading partners.