Chad Kruger

On whether the “organic vs. conventional” comparison is meaningful

My colleague Chuck Benbrook posted a fascinating article this week summarizing his recent paper that evaluates how organic milk impacts human nutrition. If you haven’t read it, you should. In the comments of Chuck’s post, another colleague Andy McGuire inquires and Chuck confirms, the likely reason organic milk is nutritionally superior to conventional milk is […]

When MANAGING for soil carbon really pays

In August I published a post describing one mechanism by which increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) can lead to direct financial benefit on irrigated farms. In that particular example, the agronomic value of the carbon could be more than 10X greater than the potential value of a “carbon credit”.  While it’s clear that there are […]

Considering the vulnerability of our food system to climatic disruptions

While the nationally televised Seahawks game was delayed for lightning Sunday night, much of the inland Pacific Northwest braced for the fourth major storm event this summer, with warnings for high winds and severe dust storms, massive electrical storms, heavy rainfall with localized flash flooding, mudslides and extensive power outages. Fortunately, my family did NOT […]

No, I won’t stop eating meat to feed the planet

Full disclosure: I come from a livestock-producing family tradition and I eat meat. And I like it. A lot. In his latest provocative post, my colleague Andy McGuire reflects on a new paper that assesses the potential to feed a growing global population by shifting from meat consumption to a vegetarian diet. The paper presents […]

No glyphosate-tolerant wheat found by WSU wheat breeders

I know that many residents of Washington were extremely concerned to learn about the discovery of glyphosate-tolerant wheat in an Oregon farm field this spring. WSU’s Agricultural Research Center released a news update today indicating that the glyphosate-tolerant gene was NOT discovered in any of the WSU breeding lines (commercialized or in development) nor in other […]

Safety first, please! Even renewable fuels can be hazardous

The fertilizer plant explosion in Texas a few weeks back provided a stark reminder of one of the downsides of energy technology – that they can be dangerous. More recently, a “backyard” entrepreneur in Washington State discovered the same while experimenting with hydrogen fuel – though thankfully with no loss of life.  As reported in […]

Categories: Energy