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| "Plowing" ~ Antonio Ligabue ~ 1948 |
This Tuesday news thread is a weekly feature here at Big Picture Agriculture.
- Will superweeds choke GMO to a timely death in USA? | NEO
- Farms and Land in Farms 2016 Summary February 2017 | USDA (PDF) k.m.: According to this new USDA report, there were 8,000 fewer farms in the U.S. in 2016 as compared to 2015. There were 500 fewer farms in Iowa and 300 fewer in Nebraska. The average farm size went up and the average age of the farmer also went up.
- US upgrades South America as rival in corn, wheat exports | Agrimoney
- Why Oroville is a big deal - look at the places that need its water. | Wired
- E-Commerce for Farmers: Shopping Online for $26,000 of Herbicides | WSJ
- Should Farmers Fear Trump? Protectionism can mean famine, even war. | Bloomberg k.m.: This is all about how important agricultural commodity exports are to USA farmers because we have a subsidy system that encourages surplus production. It appears to have been written for Donald Trump's reading pleasure.
- Is the Chicken Industry Rigged? Inside Agri Stats, the poultry business’s secretive info-sharing service. | Bloomberg
- Le Pen Lures French Farmers Angered by Worst Crisis in Decades | Bloomberg
- Chart: Marine Catches Have Stagnated While Fish Farming has Grown | World Bank
- Lower quality of same food brands in Eastern Europe raises eyebrows | EurActiv k.m.: This is nothing new, as lower quality fruits and vegetables and foods have been sent to the Midwest and Central USA for years, too.
- The USDA awarded the Nebraska company Bugeater $100,000 to find new ways to turn insects into safe, healthful staple food products that taste good. | Capital Press
- Chart: Energy used by the U.S. food system declined with rising energy prices from 2002 to 2012 | USDA
- A small city in Iowa is devoting 1,000 acres of land to America's vanishing bees | Popular Science
- Iowa farmers getting squeezed out by land preservation tax credits, Farm Bureau says | DesMoines Register
- It's Time To Put Food Policy Back On The Table; One that benefits farmers, and not Monsanto. | Alternet
- Earthworm numbers dwindle, threatening soil health | DW
- How a rural Mississippi town created a new local economy to build its main street | Fast Coexist k.m.: This goes along with the possible fixes for revitalizing rural America which was included in my recent writing. The driver? Cheap real estate prices. Every so often I do hear of someone living in a high cost community moving to the Midwest because they haven't saved enough to retire in their expensive town or city. For more, the WSJ had a story about this just this past week.
- Conventional Farming Ruined The Soil On Our Farm—Here's How We Saved It | Rodale's Organic Life
- Vitamin D 'proved to cut risk of colds and flu'; Move would also save NHS money, argue authors of major study that shows vitamin D can reduce risk of respiratory infections | The Guardian k.m.: This is news, a new study? I thought everyone already knew it. I reported on this back in 2009 when I began blogging, the studies were well documented online back when there were global pandemic influenza scares, so I presented the info as useful then. Any readers here remember that?
- Mayo Clinic Q and A: Considering switching to a vegetarian diet | Mayo Clinic
- Tips on pruning fruit trees | At Home Colorado k.m.: I pruned our peach tree last week.
THIS WEEK'S VIDEO:
This week, let's take a look at "Amazon Fresh". What is your reaction? What do you think? Is this a growing future for food distribution?
To view last week's LINKS, click here.
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