August, 2017
Lincoln -- Two sad stories about soybean growers are featured in Harper's ("Bringing in the Beans," by Ted Genoways) and in the Washington Post ("This Miracle Weedkiller Was Supposed to Save Farms...," by Caitlin Dewey).
Farmers are in deep trouble.
Where were the land-grant universities in all of this? Too often they were cheerleading for Earl Butz (one of their own) when he advised farmers to "get big or get out." And they have been AWOL when it comes to testing for the safety of Monsanto and BASF products like the disastrous Dicamba.
Farm policy needs a huge overhaul, as do the priorities of land-grant universities.
