An Urban's Rural View

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's success in knocking an asteroid off course is, as NASA's director says, "a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity."

China's president professes a fondness for Iowa but U.S.-China relations have spiraled downward on his watch nonetheless. With relations getting chillier, the U.S. and China need a crisis-management mechanism.

Farmers are always free not to use conservation easements, but there's no reason to demonize them.

U.S. companies sell a lot of semiconductors but increasingly make them overseas. The government is spending big bucks to encourage more domestic production.

The techno-optimists have been right (and the Malthusians wrong) about agriculture's ability to keep up with population growth, but a new book challenges techno-optimism on the decarbonization front.

To avoid having to raise interest rates into the stratosphere in the long run, as the Federal Reserve did in the early 1980s, today's Fed looks likely to continue to impose unusually large increases in the short run.

The U.S. has a Labor Day, not a May Day, even though the May Day in many other countries commemorates an 1886 incident in Chicago, the Haymarket Riot.

Speculators have wound down their collective long position in ag futures. The strong dollar was one of the reasons.

Speculators have wound down their collective long position in ag futures. The strong dollar was one of the reasons.

In 2020, when the pandemic was at its worst, the Newport Farmer's Market in Newport, Oregon, was a shadow of its former itself. Now it's back.

Sri Lanka's president mandated an overnight switch to organic agriculture and crop production plummeted.

There's more government money available for rural broadband internet, thanks to last year's $1.2 trillion infrastructure law. Now the challenge is to make sure it's spent where it's needed.

At a university in Sichuan, students read "1984" and find ways around the government's internet firewall even as they study "Xi Jinping thought."

Ruminations on the nation's deep divides and a lost virtue that could be restored.

The Federal Reserve Board doesn't want a recession, but by raising its benchmark interest rates an unexpected 0.75 it's choosing to emphasize fighting inflation even at the risk of causing one.

Despite a strong dollar, U.S. exports, including ag exports, have been robust. Now there are signs that the runup in the dollar may be ending.

The U.S. has convinced 13 Asian nations to join a conversation about "economic models." It's not pushing for a trade deal because there's no support in Congress for trade deals.

The U.S. has convinced 13 Asian nations to join a conversation about "economic models." It's not pushing for a trade deal because there's no support in Congress for trade deals.

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.