A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

Most of us probably learned in grade school science class that our Moon's gravitational pull causes the rise and fall of ocean tides. What you might not know is that the force of that attraction waxes and wanes in conjunction with an 18.6-year lunar cycle. According to a NASA-led study, a new phase in the cycle could bring catastrophic flooding ...

Farmers in the U.S. are increasingly running into unfamiliar signs of crop diseases with changing climate patterns allowing pathogens to take root in new areas. As correctly identifying the problem is one of the most crucial steps in preserving crop yields, we put together some information on disease threats being reported in new regions across key growing regions.  Corn:Tar Spot ...

As agriculture emerged in early civilizations, crops were domesticated in four locations around the world — rice in China; grains and pulses in the Middle East; maize, beans and squash in Mesoamerica; and potatoes and quinoa in the Andes. What about corn??? Scientists believe people living in central Mexico developed corn at least 7000 years ago. It was started from a ...

Water is one of the most important crop inputs on the farm, and for some it can be one of the most expensive. Currently farms pay on average about $41 per acre for irrigation. But that figure jumps to over +$70 per acre in drier areas like California. Clearly, efficient irrigation systems and water management practices are needed to help ...

Ukraine has been a growing player in the international grains market for over a decade now. Once known as the "breadbasket of Russia," many argue that the country has never truly lived up to its full agricultural potential. That's largely thanks to lingering Soviet-era policies that have severely limited investment in the sector, despite the country being free of communist ...

Big markets can make big moves so we thought it was time to circle the wagons with some experienced traders and hear their perspective on where we are headed and how to best play the opportunity as a spec and a producer. Enjoy the fireside chat!  David Parker, Professional Trader at Olam - David is a graduate of Harvard University and a ...

It was early-July in 1962 that a store called Walmart opened in Rogers, Arkansas. It was the vision of a hard-working rural Midwestern kid named Sam Walton. Sam was born in Oklahoma on a small farm. At around 5 years of age his family moved to Missouri. While attending eighth grade in Shelbina, Missouri, Sam became the youngest Eagle Scout ...

Somewhat surprisingly, NASA has played a big role in the development of many new food technologies that have emerged. Any long-term space mission that the agency hopes to conduct needs a way of producing food as transporting enough packaged food to sustain astronauts just isn't practical. And obviously, food production will be a necessary capability if humans are going to ...

You do the math... data shows we are already using 70% of the global freshwater supply for ag irrigation, yet there are still an estimated 800 million chronically undernourished people in the world today. In other words, the world needs more freshwater to help maximize crop yield, but at the same time we need to save water and other scarce ...

Nearly 85% of the food that humans produce requires the help of a pollinator. One of the hardest working insects in this group is the bee, which pollinates an estimated 1 in 3 bites of food we eat. However, we have all seen the studies and data that indicate more than half of these essential creatures in North America are ...