Farm & Food File
A syndicated column by Alan Guebert
About Alan
Alan Guebert is an award-winning agricultural journalist and expert who was raised on an 720-acre, 100-cow southern Illinois dairy farm. After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1980, he worked as a writer and senior editor at Professional Farmers of America and Successful Farming magazine. In 1984, Guebert returned to Illinois to establish his freelance writing business and to serve as a contributing editor to Farm Journal magazine.
He began the syndicated agriculture column “The Farm and Food File” in 1993 and it now appears weekly in more than 60 newspapers throughout the United States and Canada.
Guebert previously wrote ”Letter from America,” a monthly perspective on U.S. farm and food policy for European and Asian publications. “Letter from America” ran from 1995 through 2007.
Throughout his career, Guebert has won numerous awards and accolades for his magazine and newspaper work. In 1997, the American Agricultural Editors’ Association honored him with its highest awards, Writer of the Year and Master Writer.
Alan and his daughter Mary Grace Foxwell collaborated and co-wrote The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories from the Farm of My Youth. Their book was published in May 2015 by the University of Illinois Press and the pair held 75 book events with farmers, foodies, and friends across the country. Their book is available for purchase online and at bookstores nationwide.
Latest from Alan
Meet the ‘Barons’ Who ‘Corrupt’ Your Dinner Table
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, March 24, 2024
The first economist, Scotland’s Adam Smith, had it right almost 250 years ago when, as writer Eric Schlosser notes in the foreword of an important new book by Iowan Austin Frerick, that “…merchants and manufacturers were ‘an order of men, whose interest is never […]
On the Road: New Zealand’s South Island
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, March 17, 2024
If an important part of your business is flying between the U.S. and New Zealand–like it is for Air New Zealand–you get pretty skilled at making the tedious, 13-hour flight from Los Angeles to Auckland go smoothly.
Part of it is the late night departure […]
WTO Slides Into a Vacuum, EU Slides Into Nationalism
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, March 10, 2024
On March 2, the 13th World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial ended like most previous ministerials. After its 164 member-ministers discussed the burning need to change two, key international trade rules, everyone went home without changing any key international trade rules.
This actionless talkfest, however, carried […]
The Growing Disconnect Between Numbers and Soft Policy
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, March 3, 2024
Like much of the news anymore, the initial numbers from the 2022 Census of Agriculture were accurately reported, quickly downplayed–or even worse, ignored–by most Big Ag groups, and then just pushed aside by the rush of the next day’s news.
That’s a mistake because the […]
‘And The Lord Said to Peter…’
Posted on April 10, 2024
Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, February 25, 2024
While my father milked cows and farmed for almost 50 years, I never heard him say he loved–or, for that matter, even liked–either cows or farming.
I did know he loved to fish and it may have been that great passion that gave him the […]