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| "Le Jardinier" by Gustave de Smet 1929 |
This Tuesday news thread is a weekly feature here at Big Picture Agriculture.
Readers,
I must say that over the past few months it has been a challenge trying to navigate through the multitudes of bizarre, confusing, ego-infused headlines and tweets when gathering news. While recognizing that politics and agriculture are forever intertwined, my aim here is to present real news, non-regurgitated news, and non-politically-motivated news. Philosophically, I try to come at this from the Taoist state of "wu wei", trying to notice and observe trends and important stories rather than judge, though with a moral obligation to defend our environment when viewing the world holistically and the Earth as Gaia. Only if I had a crystal ball about the future and knew everything would I be qualified to say more. As for the tit for tat headlines, my personal antidote is to listen to classical music and tune out.
--k.m.
- Higher yields, better technology, fewer farmers: In Washington’s apple country, small and midsize farmers must adapt to changing economics, consumer tastes and technology | The Spokesman-Review Quotes: "About a decade ago, there were 4,000 independent apple growers in Washington. Today there’s 1,450." and "You can be the best farmer in the world and still go broke." and "It’s never been like it is right now, never."
- 14 poisoned by Wild Death Cap Mushrooms in California | Huff-Post Quote: "A woman who was given the mushrooms by a forager cooked them for herself, her husband, her 18-month-old daughter, her sister and a friend. They all became ill, and the toddler and the woman’s sister needed liver transplants."
- Executive chairman of DTN says ag info provider can be an industry leader | Omaha World-Herald Comment: This story is very interesting. The leading agricultural news company, DTN out of Omaha, has changed hands again, this time to a Swiss owner who has visions of making it bigger.
- Farmed fish on course to overtake wild catch in 2019 | FT
- On top of the Cornhusker, a hotel honey farm | Lincoln Journal Star
- Perdue Offers Tough Love on Crop Insurance | DTN
- On reducing neonicotinoid dust while planting | NPR
- Rural America Is the New ‘Inner City’; A Wall Street Journal analysis shows that since the 1990s, sparsely populated counties have replaced large cities as America’s most troubled areas by key measures of socioeconomic well-being—a decline that’s accelerating | WSJ
- Effective this week, federal regulators say E15 must be labeled as a “Flex Fuel” in most areas of the country. | USA Today
- ‘Pink slime’ defamation trial set to start in South Dakota | AP
- Georgia peach crop faces nearly 80 percent loss this year | AP
- Deere to buy German road construction firm for about $5 billion | Reuters
- Herbicide-tolerant sugarbeets accounted for 98 percent of sugarbeet acreage by 2013 (with graph) | USDA
- Couple starts organic farm in Nebraska | Ledger-Enquirer
- The economics of soil health | AgPro
- Farm conservation leaders describe trials and solutions | Illinois Farmer Today
- How this ninth-generation Californian got his start in organic farming | LA Times
- New Approach Needed for Small Town Housing | Center for Rural Affairs
- Monitoring devices on farm animals | Wired
- Robots wielding water knives are the future of farming | Wired
- VIDEO: The Growing Trend of Vertical Farming - TruLeaf | Bloomberg
- Leader of Iowa school meals group embezzled for years | AP
- Another Central Valley dairy going solar | Central Valley Business Times
- Global Beef Prices Rise as India’s Supply Under Threat; India’s decision to ban the slaughter of its cattle would cut supply from the world’s biggest exporter of the meat by volume | WSJ
- India’s new cattle laws threaten a $5.6 billion industry that supplies to Armani and M&S | Quartz
- Eco-label in exchange for less chemicals on rice fields | Phys.org
- The Eco guide to tinned tuna | The Guardian
- Dairy products a good dietary source of some types of vitamin K | EurekAlert
- What's in your bread (or vodka)? Chicago's appetite for interesting grains is growing | Chicago Tribune
- Wineries Branch into Legal Marijuana | Market to Market
- Obesity figures shoot up around the world | Media India Group
- Prepared Food Should Come With Calorie Counts; The FDA is wrong to delay mandatory nutrition labeling. | Bloomberg View
- People are drinking fewer alcoholic drinks, according to a new industry report tracking consumption worldwide. | BBC
- Brits wasting money on new 'superfoods' when eggs contain most vitamins, nutritionist says | Farming UK News
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