An Urban's Rural View

If we're talking about the period from the rise of agriculture to 1700, Thomas Robert Malthus was actually right about the inability of food production to keep up with population growth. It's the modern era he was wrong about.

Generous European Union farm subsidies help entrench Eastern Europe's increasingly autocratic rulers.

Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue deserved to be criticized for his comment on small farms, even though some of the criticism was over the top.

Many trade commentators have been a lot tougher on President Donald Trump's phase-one China deal than I was.

Farmers and ranchers are rightfully happy with the trade deals with Japan and China. But they shouldn't go overboard in their enthusiasm.

McDonald's is teaming up with Beyond Meat on a test of a new meatless burger offering in Canada. Burger King is already selling a competitor, the Impossible Whopper. A test of taste versus ideology looms.

Negative interest rates sound like a borrower's dream. Or should we say pipe dream?

The transition of homo sapiens from hunter-gathers to farmers used to be considered a good thing. Now some scholars are challenging that view.

If to win a trade war means to stop trading, is that really a victory?

Foreign policy experts agree the U.S. should get tough with China. They disagree on how tough.

The Federal Reserve Board is being swept along in the undertow from the trade war.

There's nothing wrong with moving agencies outside Washington, but please, do it right.

American soybean exporters have a history of taking the long view when it comes to the Chinese market. They need to keep taking it.

Despite the critics who say the food system is broken, most Americans like what they're eating.

Despite being born with cerebral palsy, DTN's late cattle analyst lived life to the fullest.

The Federal Reserve is hinting at interest-rate cuts, but it wants to see more evidence of a weakening economy first.

Wall Street falls in love with an unprofitable maker of plant-based meat substitutes, valuing it more than an established processor of real meat with real profits.

Some observers think the punitive tariffs the U.S. and China are imposing on each other are no longer about bargaining leverage.

In response to a reader's query about the future of farming, we invite other readers to weigh in.

Imposing punitive tariffs on China, and getting punitive tariffs imposed on us in return, will inflict pain on the U.S. economy and especially on farmers and ranchers.