John Ikerd

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 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.

Opening day at the farmers market signals a new season of hope. This spring, the coronavirus crises has changed this hope to fear.

Our life is still a part of the life of the Earth. Our soul is still a part of the soul of the earth.

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

It’s long past time for transformational change in U.S. farm policy.

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.

We are now seeing a corporate takeover of dairy production, which is the last bastion of full-time, independent animal production.

Agroecology  is a science, a farming system, and a social movement. It obviously is a merging of the words agriculture and ecology. Its...

“The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust or SILT was launched 2015 to help save and protect the best of the family farm – small, diverse, clean...

I seem to view organic standards a bit differently from most people involved in the organic movement. I see standardization as a...

Questions of “sound science” and “burden of proof” invariably arise from conflicting indictments and defenses of industrial agricultural...