Sources of Interest
Agricultural news is slim, few and far between and usually relegated to only a few places. Mainstream media doesn’t have an audience for hard ag journalism, and ag journalism mostly preaches to the choir.
Two great publications that I typically get information from are Successful Farming and AgWeb –. Both have varying degrees of in-depth coverage and decent reporting. I also subscribe to Successful Farming magazine. Usually, I can find topics that are of interest, but there are only two. In the age of new media, however, there is a third option that most wouldn’t realize – podcasts.
Here are a few of the podcasts I listen to throughout the days and a little color that you may find with them. Some are agriculturally related and some are not, but I enjoy all the same.
Farming Today – this is a BBC funded project out of the UK where they talk in depth on all manner of ag related topics and have speakers that I engage with on Twitter, such as Gareth Wyn Jones, Royal Welsh and a few others that talk about the struggles in the land locks UK and the all out assault from the anti-agriculture progressives.
The Dairy Show Podcast – The Dairy Expo folks bring a milk producers perspective and talk about the current conditions and struggles within the industry.
Guns & Mental Health – Walk The Talk sponsors this podcast about mental health challenges and also gun ownership. I may or may not be a guest on this podcast one day to talk about guns as a tools for rural life and how high powered rifles keep the federal hog population from overruning our fields, hand guns as protection from venomous snakes and humane ways to cull a sick animal. Mental Health is also a topic near and dear as the aging farmers of America are faced with growing older and their personal loss of fortitude lead some to seek suicide as the only option to no longer “be a burden” to their families that they physically can no longer support.
Tramlines – this podcast is focused on agronomy, but has a healthy mix of a few things. Sometimes sciency, but always interesting.
The Checkout – Errol Schweitzer brings his perspective from years as a Whole Foods executive, and his work with Farmshare Austin, which is where I know him from.
As for updates from your local farmers at Foxglove Grove, it’s meat chickens and rain, glorious rain.
