As the full national, indeed global, scope of the coronavirus pandemic begins to come into focus, it is becoming clearer that we are experiencing a public health crisis unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes.

The economic health of America’s dairy sector has been among the most significant issues on the NAFTA negotiating table during the past year, as the U.S. government presses Canada and Mexico to revise the terms of the 25-year-old free trade agreement.

The pace of life always quickens after the dog days of August, perhaps nowhere more so than in Washington, D.C., as Congress returns to town after its month-long recess. This September is shaping up as the beginning of an eventful period on Capitol Hill in which movement is expected on issues in which National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and its members are heavily engaged.

The news earlier this summer that Amazon is purchasing Whole Foods struck the food industry like a thunderclap. The one-time trendsetter in natural and organic food retailing is now being swallowed up by an even bigger disruptive force in e-commerce retailing.

During the last year, the topic of trade policy has been part of nearly every major political discussion, both on the 2016 campaign trail and on Capitol Hill. For America’s dairy community, the conversation about our trading relationships closest to home is a tale with two very different perspectives that run counter to the commonly heard narrative suggesting our biggest challenge lies south of the border rather than north.

Too many of the nation’s dairy farmers are facing an ongoing, daunting challenge: finding enough American workers to fill jobs on their farms, even when they provide wages higher than those paid by other local jobs.

The inauguration of Donald Trump represents a dramatic stylistic change in the way the nation’s government will be managed.

Any trip to a supermarket or restaurant these days would suggest that many safe, effective, science-based and common practices in agriculture are on a collective collision course with expectations down the food chain about how food “ought” to be produced.

Congress has returned to Washington from its summer recess for a brief period to work on the federal budget, before leaving Capitol Hill by the end of the month to campaign for the November elections.

Cultural trends wax and wane, as fads and fashions popular with consumers evolve over time. Right now the trendy narrative about the conventional practices common across American agriculture – and why those conventions are supposedly suspect – is presenting a real challenge to dairy farmers and, frankly, all mainstream food producers.