Myth Making in the Heartland – Did Agriculture Elect the New President?

This essay addresses the role of America’s farmers in electing President Donald Trump. This role may not have been as large as the agricultural community and others have suggested. Additionally, this essay cautions the agricultural community against taking too much credit for the election of a politician and party whose interests are often at odds with agricultural interests

TRENDS IN ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION OF AGRICULTURE

Environmental Economics and Policy,

Forced Feeding: New Legal Issues in the Biotechnology Policy Debate

In the fall of 2000, I presented a paper, Legal Issues Shaping Society’s Acceptance of Biotechnology and Genetically Modified Organisms, at the American Agricultural Law Association annual meeting in St. Louis. The paper inventoried the legal and policy issues shaping America’s approach toward biotechnology and was designed to serve as a tool for understanding the ongoing debate. Thirty months have passed and the pace of consideration of issues relating to society’s acceptance of biotechnology has not slowed. Just as the article was being finished, the StarLink fiasco was beginning. That episode alone has provided the grist for numerous lawsuits and other policy debates. In the intervening thirty months, several issues have become more settled. What follows is an effort both to update many of the issues discussed in the previous article and to make the analysis more timely and complete. In doing so, the Essay will share whatever insights and observations are possible concerning the role that biotechnology will play in our food and agriculture system and how policy and law will be asked to shape that future

Preserving Farmland, Creating Farms, and Feeding Communities: Opportunities to Link Farmland Protection and Community Food Security

This essay was prepared for the Northern Illinois University College of Law\u27s eighth annual symposium on land use entitled Building Cooperation Across Communities. The essay initially identifies three premises, specifically, farmland preservation, the structural changes in farm organization, and the changes in society\u27s relation to food and agriculture. The essay then goes on to consider how the goals and values involved in each of these three areas overlap, and the resulting policy issues and questions that arise from the interplay of these issues

Swine Marketing Alternatives

The focus of our conference today is on the issue of alternatives for producers, both in methods of production and in marketing. I have been asked to address the issue of marketing alternatives and will do so by examining three questions

Agriculture Without Farmers?: Is Industrialization Restructuring American Food Production and Threatening the Future of Sustainable Agriculture?

This article addresses the rapidly changing face of American agriculture. The author identifies a series of contradictions in American attitudes concerning agriculture and discusses the potential threat to the future of farming in the shape of the coming industrialization. He also addresses the movement toward the concept of sustainable agriculture and suggests a number of steps which can be taken to confront the changing structure of agriculture. The author concludes by setting forth a number of current developments in agriculture which may be considered signs of optimism for the future of farming