Category Commodities
Nails wish they were this tough
On the 9th of November I had to stop over at the shop by the processing tower where I work. This is a tall building full of equipment to separate soybean seeds from plant debris, insect parts, and other non-seed items. Pretty industrial. Concrete and steal all around. Not the sort of environment one imagines […]
Leaves
Gentle readers. Those paying attention may have spotted a trend for timing of the publication of thoughts here over the past many months… they’ve been coming at the end of the month. And those who know me appreciate the degree of procrastination I bring to a writing commitment. I have my reasons, and they work […]
Can we be specific?
Someone is showing a photo of a soybean plant on a screen then asking an audience what they are looking at. He corrects anyone who offers “soybean plant” … it is a photograph of a soybean plant. Better still – the digital rendering of a picture onto a screen through software used to make a […]
Cows – a gut check… and the future of beer?
The North American soybean harvest of 2018 is not yet in the books. It consumes this writer and many others as perhaps it should. It may interest many that for much of the eastern parts of the North American bread basket the harvest thus far has gone fairly well, and yields have been quite good. […]
Linus and Lucy?
George and Martha? Bill and Hillary? Mark Antony and Cleopatra? Well, none really. But if you had to pick one of these couples, A, B, C, or D – which makes the most sense? A – Linus and Lucy; brother and sister and supposedly full sibs. The seedlings shown here are hybrid corn seedlings. Single […]
How much is enough?
The world of global industrial agriculture is a commercial effort on a grand scale. While tempting, it really is too big a boast to suggest industrial ag might feed us all. Clearly there are billions who feed themselves without a significant contribution from industrial ag interests. But whether such a grandiose boast is tenable or […]
If that’s leading, not sure I want to follow
Yes, very quiet on this front. Sorry. Very quickly now – news just across the radar this morning shows Monsanto reporting less income in 2015 vs. 2014 and then in the same story their plan to cut 2,600 jobs in the coming months. Agriculture is a tough business. There are ups and downs. Monsanto’s corn seed […]
Two edges of the same sword
Being number one is awesome, or a major pain depending upon point of reference. Being number two is almost as awesome, and simultaneously only a bit less painful than number one when viewed from the same perspectives. It’s great to be first, you get the most attention. It’s a pain because everyone else wants to […]
Gulliver's Pulse 
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