Armed with only the best of prognostication tools, here are the 2026 agricultural stories that people will be talking about. I assembled together a copy of the Sortes Astrampsychi, cattle oracle bones, an educated rooster, 10 pounds of brie cheese slightly past its expiration date, and a bag of dried fava beans. What can possibly […]
Author Archives: Dave Dickey, Columnist
David Dickey always wanted to be a journalist.
After serving tours in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, Dickey enrolled at Rock Valley Junior College in Rockford, Ill., where he was first news editor and then editor in chief of the school newspaper, The Valley Forge.
A 1988 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Media, he spent the next 28 years at the University of Illinois NPR member station WILL-AM 580. There, Dickey reported on sports, news, and hosted Saturday programming including "Weekend Edition" for more than a decade.
During the last 13 years of his career at WILL, he served as the station's director of agricultural programming. He developed the station’s first podcasts, established a syndicated WILL-Ag Radio Network partnering with commercial radio stations, and established an ag newsletter.
He started contributing on a freelance basis to Investigate Midwest in 2015 and as of December 2022 had written more than 230 columns. His focus is on national agricultural issues that often cross over into state agricultural or local agricultural policy. A few examples include state attempts to pass ag-gag laws, the plight in recent years for cash-strapped farmers, the development of CRISPR and lab cultured meat, and the debate over glyphosate and dicamba.
Awards: During his radio career, Dickey won a dozen Associated Press awards for his reporting and he is a recipient of a Peabody for his reporting on dental issues in Illinois.
Professional memberships: As an opinion writer, Dickey avoids professional memberships.
