John Ikerd

The “five stages of grief” are widely used to describe the process people go through in facing, and eventually accepting, the reality of...

Someone recently forwarded me a link to an opinion piece by freelance writer Sarah Mock that begins: “I tried to prove that small family...

Everything eventually boils down to economics! How many times have we heard this assertion—as if it were settled truth? Farmers need an...

We humans are subject to the same laws of nature that govern the rest of the universe. If this were not true, there would be no concern...

Ten years ago, I wrote a book titled The Essentials of Economic Sustainability. It was written initially for short courses I taught in...

"Government spending is out of control! We can’t afford new government programs to rebuild infrastructure, mitigate climate change, or...

I don’t like watching videos of my own presentations, but I force myself to do it from time to time. I know how I feel about...

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...

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...

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

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

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the absolute economic dependency of farming communities on the corporately controlled agri-food...

In my previous blog post, I focused on opportunities for specific changes in the food system created by the COVID-19 crisis.

A response to questions I have been asked about the implications of the coronavirus pandemic for the future of the food system.

“American Farmers Feed the World!” This popular myth is promoted to maintain public support for a failed system of industrial agriculture.

Those of us who are unaffected, or less affected, economically by the crisis can easily afford to pay the economic costs of public health.

We are living through a time of fundamental change in human society, as is becoming increasingly clear. Climate change, fossil energy...

In meeting the challenges of climate change, we can choose; We can bet on market-based solutions or follow the path of the Green New Deal.