An Urban's Rural View

For good, understandable business reasons, most farmers don't sell at farmers markets. In one way, that's a shame.

All of the farm-bill interest groups want more. What's likely to be available is less. Here's why.

Is Russia an emerging superpower in global food supply?

If the U.S. is going to make a priority of rectifying trade deficits, why not start with the really big one?

A Wall Street mogul who owns an oil refiner has been trying to get the government to shift the "point of obligation" for blending ethanol into gasoline from refiners to retailers. He has failed -- so far.

A company in Switzerland is creating buzz with a burger that buzzes.

There's danger in the game of nuclear chicken the U.S. and North Korea are playing, but there's also the possibility of a more cooperative U.S.-China relationship that could have implications for ag exports.

President Trump's new chief of staff is imposing order and discipline on an unruly executive branch.

Fruit-and-vegetable agriculture has mechanized more slowly than row crop farming, but that is starting to change.

Give the Trump administration credit for Chinese concessions on U.S. ag products and especially for a more constructive than expected approach to NAFTA.

The president called the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement a "horrible deal," but so far he's done little to replace a pact that offered gains to American farmers and ranchers.

Thoughts on cultural differences and human similarities, inspired by a stay with a farm family far away.

President Donald Trump's promise to bring broadband to the countryside is great. But where's the plan?

In urban areas, public-private partnerships may make sense as a way to ramp up investment in infrastructure. In rural America not so much.

Preparing for a trip to Japan, wondering about the national mood there and how it might affect future trade negotiations.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to California's law mandating bigger cages for egg-laying hens. Another challenge is possible. Will the final verdict be rendered in a court of law or in the court of public opinion?

In which we imagine the Oval Office conversation as the president and his budget boss mulled huge cuts in farm programs.

The dollar is falling against a basket of currencies but rising against the Brazilian real. Here's why.

Keeping vast libraries of seeds stored away is worth taxpayer funding, even if farmers only use a small proportion of the theoretically possible seeds.

It's worth spending some time thinking about how to answer the criticisms of farm subsidies.