“How do we feed more people with less land and less environmental impacts?” is a question that has kept agricultural-minded folks up at night for years. In the past five years, coupled with recent pandemic-based food supply disruptions and the American quest for...
Water is the core to our existence, from how our bodies perform to the availability of our food! For some of us in the Eastern U.S., the lack of available water and rain may not be an issue (especially with the recent rains/floods), but for others it is. The reality...
I’ve never met a dairy farmer that lacked passion and commitment about their cows and the quality of the milk produced. From my early days around my grandfather and father on our dairy farm, to today’s producers, the commitment remains the same even as technologies...
Earth Day is here. It’s been 52 years since the first celebration was initiated by then-Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. His goal? To shed light on the need to protect the environment. Over the years, federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and...
What and how we plant, grow or eat today is the benefit of curious minds over the years committed to answer the “what if” question. Think about it! The ability to buy bread rather than make it; the availability of fruit and vegetables anytime from anywhere; and the...
“Eat chocolate” was the reported advice given by physicians in the 1800s to patients needing a remedy for anxiety and “broken hearts.”1 The lore of the “doctor’s order” combined with the centuries old tradition of Americans exchanging heart shaped cards and candy...
“Food waste is a serious issue!” was the first line of a blog I wrote in January 2019. Fast forward to 2022 and we’re still talking about eliminating food waste, but what are we DOING about it? Even with my “don’t toss food” upbringing, I admit that my refrigerator...
“What is old is new again” may be the perfect description of the coming food and agriculture trends in 2022. When you look at new products on the “must have” lists, it is clear that consumers desire to connect their health back to nature. Turmeric, sunflower seeds,...
For those of us who grew up with “dirt under our fingernails” or are currently engaged in raising cattle or crops from almonds to corn, it can be easy to say, “sustainable agriculture has always been at the core of our existence.” However, sustainable farming...
Drought and extreme heat in the western United States have dominated the headlines over the past couple of months. We see pictures of fallow farm land too dry to plant and Lake Mead in Nevada at its lowest point ever. Unless we are living with the stark realities of...