John Ikerd

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

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.

The only means of restoring our democracy is to elect a president in 2020 who will actually preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

The two most important current public policy issues for young farm families are “Medicare for All” and "free college tuition."

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.

Several presidential candidates are promising to reform antitrust policies to restore competition to markets. This blog examines why.

How do statistics so often lead scientists to deny differences that those not educated in statistics can plainly see?

The Constitution of the United States gives very few economic responsibilities to government.

If we are to preserve our democracy and continue living in a civilized society, we must make government work. Unfortunately, too many Americans no longer bel...

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

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

Questions of “sound science” and “burden of proof” invariably arise from conflicting indictments and defenses of industrial agricultural as either a threat o...

A consensus among scientists is no longer accepted as proof of the existence of fact or reality.  Public acceptance of “alternative facts” is not limited to ...

Land-use plans for rural America are not a new idea. The Buffalo Commons was a proposal made first by Frank and Deborah Popper who argued in a 1987 essay tha...

How can crops produced without soil be called “organic”? They can in the United States – but not in Canada, Mexico, Japan, or 24 European countries that proh...

Over the past several weeks I have written a series of eight “Finding Common Ground” blog posts. I have recently combined them all in a single “Common Ground...

Skepticism seems to persist regarding whether the organic/local/sustainable food movement will actually eventually replace the current industrial food system...