In 1860, only 11% of Missouri votes cast went to Abe Lincoln, with the balance of the vote split among three secessionists. By 1864, Lincoln recovered to collect 69% of votes cast. That’s an impressive turnaround to be sure. Sometimes Missouri giveth, and sometimes Missouri taketh away. Missourians favored Hoover in his first term but […]
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Posted inAgriculture
Letter from Langdon: Who Will Lead USDA? Nominee List Grows Longer.
To a farmer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is an authority figure. USDA can be your banker, your salesman, your regulator, and your benefactor all wrapped into one. For outdoor enthusiasts, USDA maintains the National Forests you visit. For rural communities, USDA is a source of loans and grants that help maintain critical services like […]
Posted inElection 2020
Letter from Langdon: Trump Rewards the ‘Prime Cuts’ of Farmers. The Rest Get Ground into Sausage.
It’s been a good year on farms. Reports are that it’s the best year out of the last six. It’s not management, marketing, higher farm gate prices, or trade-war victories that get the credit. That’s because government money has been fattening farmer bank accounts., Thanks Covid-19. You’re my hero. Government handouts in election years are […]
Posted inAgriculture
Letter from Langdon: Will Biden Talk about the Pig in the Room?
From livestock markets to ethanol, big corporations seem to be winning the policy war in D.C., as well as in states like Missouri. It hasn’t always been this way. The American Agriculture Movement still had access to large populations of disaffected farmers from across the Midwest when, in 1979, they held their massive tractor drive […]
Posted inPolitics and Government
Letter from Langdon: ‘Big Boats’ Swamp the Little Guys in Missouri
A few years ago when Missouri’s falling population dribbled one whole congressional district down the drain, Republicans didn’t waste much time gerrymandering a popular Democratic member of Congress, Russ Carnahan of St. Louis, out of a constituency. Some might say it was payback (or fear) for the fact that Carnahan’s father Mel, former U.S. representative […]
Posted inGrowth and Development
Letter from Langdon: A Tale of Two Towns
Around the time Charles Dickens penned his epic Tale of Two Cities, another historic tale of Midwestern frontier villages began to unfold. Separated by 20 miles and the untamed Missouri River, Rock Port, Missouri, and Auburn, Nebraska, were mirror images of what was taking place everywhere from the Mississippi to the Rockies. This is a […]
Posted inAgriculture
Letter from Langdon: Corporate Power Means Huge Profits for Big Ag and Bare Bones for Farmers
In 2008 we staked our hopes on President Obama. And when Obama nominated former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack to head up USDA (with its oversight of the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) there was optimism that with a sympathetic ear in government, independent farmers and ranchers would finally see crucial support to liberate […]
Posted inAgriculture
Letter from Langdon: Recovering from the Flood, His Cup Runs Over
Limestone is present beneath almost every county in the state of Missouri. Its uses vary from neutralizing acidic soil to low-cost surfacing on rural roads. But here at Langdon, as in all the other Missouri River valley communities impacted by last year’s flooding, we are using limestone rock for filler. We have holes in our […]
Posted inAgriculture
Letter from Langdon: Monopoly Forever
The Missouri House of Representatives has passed a bill put forth by the Missouri Senate, SB 391, that outlaws something called “local control.” Odds are good that Governor Mike Parsons will sign it. They’ve been working on this for awhile. The waiting game is finally over. Local control was an obstacle to corporate-owned livestock and […]
Posted inEnvironment
Letter from Langdon: The ‘Maybe Disaster’ of Northwest Missouri
Recovery continues in and along the Missouri Valley in Iowa. And in Nebraska – where a dam burst on the Niobrara River leading to the collapse of many Missouri River levees and flooding downstream in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri – the landscape is bleak. As is too often the case, it ain’t over till […]
