John Ikerd

I have been reluctant to write about political issues since the 2020 presidential election. I had hoped some of the bitterness and...

Elsie Herring was a friend! We weren’t close personal friends but professional friends who shared a sense of mutual respect and common...

When speaking at public events about the negative impacts of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operators or CAFOs, I am often asked how best to...

It has been a year now since COVID 19 was proclaimed a pandemic. Virtually everyone has experienced the disruption of the food system in...

Why do we need a “Farm Bill”? Farmers make up only 1.3% of the total U.S. population and even less than 10% of the population of counties...

The "Green New Deal"[i] has been systematically demonized by corporate propaganda targeting rural America. Rural people have been led to...

I have been writing a regular column for the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development for the past 10 years. My...

The election of 2020 is finally over. Yes, it is over. Joe Biden won and Donald Trump lost. This conclusion was not reached quickly or...

This series of short essays makes a compelling case for returning the U.S. to the long, difficult journey toward "a more perfect union."

How can the U.S. government pay the economic costs of fulfilling its responsibility to secure liberty and justice for all?

If our democratic republic survives the November election, it will still not survive unless we reaffirm the American Covenant with God.

“We need to run government like a business”--a common refrain in the U.S. But, governments and businesses have very different purposes.

In democracies, the people consent to common values to guide government. In a monarchy, the individual values of the "king" are supreme.

In the elections of 2020, Americans will decide whether we continue the quest toward a more perfect union or choose a different future.

The skepticism of those with memories limited the past 40 years are understandable. The new progressive movement nonetheless holds promise.

My previous blog post advocating reparation raised economic and political concerns about reparation. My proposal avoids these concerns.

The denial of territorial rights of Indigenous peoples, human rights of slaves, voting rights of women are three original sins of the U.S.

The United States of America is a “work in progress”—and probably always will be. We must continue the quest "toward a more perfect union."

A compilation of eight post written in 2017 about finding common ground and healing the Great American Political Divide.

The “Founding Fathers” of the United States of America have been the targets of public criticism, but our problems are not their fault?