Editor's Note: Brian Scott farms with his father and grandfather on 2,300 acres of land in northwest Indiana. They grow corn, soybeans, popcorn and wheat. He blogs about it at The Farmer's Life.

The Dekalb seed company recently shared a poster on Facebook depicting the top corn yields of 1940 and it got the gears turning in my head. For many decades, corn growers at the local, state and national level have competed in yield contests to see who can grow the most corn per acre. Bragging rights are at stake (and sometimes cash and prizes), and the 1940 yield contest winner for my home state of Indiana harvested 94.81 bushels per acre.

What about that clicks in my ag-nerd brain? The fact that in 2012, hopefully the worst drought of my farming career, saw our farm garner an average corn yield of 94.7 bushels per acre. For all intents and purposes, that's equal to the best of the best in my great grandfather’s day.

The poster shows a 102.38 bushel average for contestants over 12 states. The U.S. averaged about 123 bushels per acre following the horrendous drought of 2012. By those numbers, today’s worst is better than yesteryear’s top dogs.
FULL POST

A bankruptcy judge has given final approval for the sale of Twinkies, Wonder Bread and many of Hostess Brands' other assets, clearing the way for the iconic products to return to shelves.

Hostess snacks - including Twinkies, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and Zingers - were sold for $410 million to a joint venture of private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. They expect to return the product to store shelves this summer.
FULL POST

Ryan Goodman is a generational rancher from Arkansas with a degree in Animal Science from Oklahoma State University. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Tennessee, studying beef cattle management. Goodman is one of many farmers using social media to bridge the gap between farmers and urban customers. Follow his story daily at AgricultureProud.com or on Twitter and Facebook.

Each weekday Eatocracy features a special food holiday. These can range from raw ingredients, regional specialties, or guilty pleasures that satisfy our sweet tooth. No matter where these foods come from, they have something in common – it all started on a farm.

March 19 is National Agriculture Day; one day we can set aside our differences and celebrate the diversity agriculture brings to the table. This encompasses not only farmers, but also everyone involved in growing, processing, transporting, and preparing our food for the table. The Agriculture Council of America organizes the event and support comes from numerous organizations across the agriculture and food spectrum.
FULL POST

Legendary heavy metal band Iron Maiden finally has its own beer.

The famed London-based band, which has been around for nearly 40 years, is collaborating with a venerable British brewery to produce its own beer, named Trooper after one of Iron Maiden's classic songs.

Iron Maiden and Robinsons, a 175-year-old family-owned U.K. brewery, plan to release Trooper in May.
FULL POST

Two California residents are suing Anheuser-Busch, alleging that the company waters down Budweiser and other beers "significantly" to boost profits, their attorneys announced Tuesday.

The class-action lawsuit alleges that the maker of the "King of Beers" has the technology to precisely control the amount of alcohol in its beers but adds water so that the alcohol is well below the advertised figure of 5% by volume, the suit said.
FULL POST

On a cold, rainy day, people lined up around the block for supplies from a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center in Far Rockaway, Queens, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy.

More than 100 days after Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast, leaving power lines, houses, family heirlooms and human lives decimated in its wake, it's a clear sign residents are still figuring out how to cope.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the recent storm would cost New York State alone nearly $42 billion. Despite the odds, the recent reopening of small businesses, like a tiny, neighborhood bagel shop, indicates a new day is dawning.

From midtown Manhattan, the trip to Far Rockaway takes a little more than two hours. That’s because there is still no subway service past John F. Kennedy Airport. To access the Rockaways, riders have to transfer to a shuttle bus, then back onto a fare free shuttle train, which only started service in late November. It’s a couple more transfers than residents are used to, but it’s better than the lack of transportation they were saddled with for quite some time.
FULL POST

Burger King's management is just not having it their way lately.

Two weeks after traces of horse meat were found in beef patties at a European Burger King supplier, the burger chain's Twitter account was hacked. Making matters worse, the yet-to-be-identified hackers made it appear as though Burger King was bought by McDonald's.

"We just got sold to McDonalds! Look for McDonalds in a hood near you," the company tweeted at noon ET Monday.
FULL POST

Ask and ye shall receive.

After an outpouring of outrage, Maker's Mark announced Sunday that it won't be watering down its whiskey, after all. The bourbon producer last week said it would have to cut the alcohol volume of its signature red wax-sealed whiskey to 42%, from 45%, in order to meet rising global demand.
FULL POST

John Alleman visited the Heart Attack Grill so often, the restaurant designed an entire line of clothing featuring a cartoon of its beloved "Patient Joe," and placed his face front and center on their menu. Now the restaurant reports via its Facebook page that its most loyal patron has passed away at age 52, from a heart attack.

The nighttime construction site security guard was never officially on the restaurant's payroll, but he was such a fixture at the Downtown Las Vegas restaurant, encouraging passersby to come in, he came to be known as its unofficial spokesman.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Alleman suffered a heart attack while waiting for a bus in front of the restaurant, which boasts highly caloric menu items such as the 9,982 calorie Quadruple Bypass Burger, Butterfat Milkshakes and Coronary Dogs.

Alleman remained at Sunrise Hospital until his brother Paul, his only surviving relative, made the decision to remove him from life support on Monday. Alleman passed away soon after.
FULL POST

2013 marks a milestone for the Girl Scouts, with a century of building "courage, confidence, and character" in young girls across the United States and beyond. The organization also celebrates 95 years of one of its most popular programs: the sale of its famously irresistible cookies.

For the 2013 cookie selling season, which takes place between January and April of each year, Girl Scouts of the USA has revamped its business approach, taking innovative measures to broaden customer access and overall appeal.

And these girls will stop at nothing to make their sale.
FULL POST