While policy discussions often focus on replacing American jobs or exploiting vulnerable migrant populations, few have considered the impacts these jobs have on workers and their families.

Long before it became a cliché, there were many heroes who never wore capes. I met one: the rail-thin, then-86-year-old Theodore W. Schultz, in his sun-filled, University of Chicago office on a cold, January day in 1989.

May is Mental Health Month. This time is a great reminder for each of us to make sure we are consistently checking in with ourselves, with our friends and family, and beyond our fencerows with our neighbors and community members.

It is springtime in the Midwest and farmers are farming to beat the band. Many farmers and farm families will spend long days in tractor cabs and in the direct sun getting the crop in the ground. When it is finally time for a break, it will more than likely be outdoors.

When I first joined Farm Bureau as a young farmer, my goal was simple: to make a positive impact and uplift the lives of my fellow farmers.

I think farm leaders are the masters of getting things done. On any given day, farmers wear any number of different hats and roles requiring many skills, ranging from agronomist to HR manager to operations manager to marketer.

Federal policymakers have a problem: Their hope to make corn and soybeans the feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel hit a wall when the aviation industry ruled biofuel from either crop did not meet its “sustainable” guidelines.

The easiest way to win any game is to rig the rules. That’s what Big Ag and its loyal boosters at the U.S. Department of Agriculture appear to be doing to make sure their new project, sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, flies.

Several times over the past few weeks I’ve been approached by a friendly stranger. They wanted to know if I would comment on an issue and sign my name in support or opposition.