Editorial: Welcome to TheCropSite Newsletter

It feels like Mother Nature flipped the Summertime Switch here in the Midwest. Temps hiked up near 100º F (38ºC) over the weekend and weather is expected to range between 70º - 90º F (21º - 32º C) over the next 10 days, with no major rain in the forecast.

So... I'm going to ask you in indulge me going a little off-topic (and a little long-winded) this week as Chicago was host to NATO meetings on Sunday and Monday. As my colleague and I were leaving our Chicago Board of Trade office Monday afternoon, we caught the tail end of a NATO protest walk. Being journalists, we simply had to follow to see what was happening, and frankly it was easy to get sucked in to the shouts and the drums playing - it felt a lot like a parade. In the end, all remained peaceful and we just stood back and watched America's freedom of speech at work.

I have to add that almost more interesting was the shocking amount of Chicago policemen on-hand. They were literally shoulder-to-shoulder lining the streets, keeping watch on the protesters, the media, the media-seekers and even those of us on the street taking pictures with our cell phones. Even as we made our way to our hotel, policemen were at every corner and surrounding key buildings. I had been a little nervous about safety during NATO, but I have actually never felt more safe in Chicago.

So what was NATO up to?

The Chicago Summit was planned as a time to assess progress since the last NATO Summit, but intervening events — the international financial crisis and revolutions in the Arab world — expanded the agenda. However, three issues dominated the agenda.

Topping the agenda was the planned military withdrawal in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 — a timetable that European nations want to speed up. President Barack Obama, who visited Afghanistan earlier in the month, signed an agreement with the Afghan president reiterating the US commitment to stay through 2014 and maintain a largely noncombat presence for another decade. NATO leaders planned to hash out the transition of security provision from NATO to the Afghan government.

Second on the agenda was "Smart Defense" which is another way of saying “do more with less.” European nations have cut their defense spending, so the US defense spending within the Alliance has shifted from 50 per cent to 75 percent. The US simply can't sustain this portion, so Smart Defense will find ways to cut costs by prioritizing, pooling resources and determining country specializations.

Last, with the world radically changing amid a global financial crisis, NATO wants to find partnership opportunities with non-NATO countries in order to deal with emerging threats.

Just prior to the NATO Summit was the G-8 Summit where leaders from The Group of Eight, including the US, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Russia, focused their talks heavily on Europe's debt crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to the summit demanding austerity (cost-cutting) as the most important step toward easing the eurozone's debt troubles. However, other leaders pushed to promote economic growth and job creation.

A joint statement noted that budget cuts should "take into account countries' evolving economic conditions and underpin confidence and economic recovery", meaning time will be given to let indebted countries reduce their deficits to lessen the impact of economic cuts.

It called for "investments in education and in modern infrastructure," which would involve more government spending. The group also noted support for Greece remaining in the euro. However, speculation abounds that Greece may not be able to follow that course.

I said earlier I was only going a little off-topic, because all of this impacts the global financial markets. And what impacts the financial markets will greatly impact our world of food production.

Have a great week!