From ChartR: There might soon be a vitamin C-shaped hole in many Americans’ breakfasts: orange juice prices are hitting all-time highs, as a series of poor harvests strain the existing supply of frozen juice futures.
Indeed, while the price of OJ has climbed at an alarming rate in recent years due to reduced production yields, this week saw frozen concentrated orange juice futures ...reach a record price of $4.87 per pound. That’s roughly 5x where they were trading in 2020.
These juiced-up figures have arisen from a blend of bad weather and disease that’s long plagued the world's orange groves...And Florida, world-renowned for its oranges, won’t be able to pick up the slack. The Sunshine State has seen output decline steadily for more than 2 decades, thanks to citrus greening, hurricanes, falling yields, and a booming housing market that’s turned citrus farms into premium real estate.
Chatting to the local farmer (land owner rather than the tenant actually looking after the sheep) and he was claiming that locally nesting Buzzards are killing lambs. I'm suspicious about this, and even web 'rural life' forums you'd kinda think would be anti-raptor seem to be largely unconvinced that this happens. Ravens may seem more likely to blame, but of course a Buzzard's gonna peck at an already dead one. 🤷 #ukBirds#farming
This could be a mere human error, but I suspect more as I've seen it too often.
The German supermarket chain #Rewe promotes their continual offers of regional goods, especially fruit and vegetables. Small signs tell customers that certain items are from the local area, and people seem to trust them.
An occasional check, though, and it is clear this is not the case. These potatoes are from #Egypt which, no matter how you fold the globe, is not regional to #Bremen. A second container had potatoes from Israel, also not local by any stretch of the imagination.
In fact, none of the items marked as Regional goods on offer in Rewe Bremen yesterday were regional at all.
Time, perhaps, to give someone a geography lesson, or ask whether this is being done on purpose.
I cannot date this, but apparently some time in the distant past (possibly 80’s?) the International Harvester tractor company used punch cards for inventory and parts ordering. #retrocomputing#farming
#SolarStorm#GPS#Farming#JohnDeere: "The solar storm that brought the aurora borealis to large parts of the United States this weekend also broke critical GPS and precision farming functionality in tractors and agricultural equipment during a critical point of the planting season, 404 Media has learned. These outages caused many farmers to fully stop their planting operations for the moment.
One chain of John Deere dealerships warned farmers that the accuracy of some of the systems used by tractors are “extremely compromised,” and that farmers who planted crops during periods of inaccuracy are going to face problems when they go to harvest, according to text messages obtained by 404 Media and an update posted by the dealership. The outages highlight how vulnerable modern tractors are to satellite disruptions, which experts have been warning about for years."
In my research I asked farmers how they evaluated farming practices and increased biodiversity was one of their metrics. They were right!
"Changing How We Farm Might Protect Wild Mammals—and Fight Climate Change
Nearly a quarter of U.S. mammal species are on the endangered species list. Researchers say farming with biodiversity in mind may help stave off further decline."
“Farmers’ union lobbied to increase pesticide limit in UK drinking water. NFU’s director of strategy asked for review of EU-derived protections as part of post-Brexit loosening of rules.” Well you wouldn’t want public health getting in the way of increased farm rents for rich landowners. #tories#farming
Who could have guessed that forcing cows to eat bird poo would result in spreading pathogens ?
Experts fear that H5N1, which was only first detected in cows a few weeks ago, may have been transmitted through a type of cattle feed called “poultry litter” – a mix of poultry excreta, spilled feed, feathers, and other waste scraped from the floors of industrial chicken and turkey production plants.
Food insecurity looms around the world, with worsening climatic conditions. Some crops can be adapted/changed but that is more difficult when the problem is unpredictable and wide-ranging between drought and flood.
In Her Own Words: An Indigenous Farmer’s Inventive Approach
"Michelle Week tells how she brings traditional foods to her community, many at no cost."
"The farm caused a lot of intergenerational healing and more openness with my family. I have all this ancestry and family trees, photographs my grandmother has gotten over the years, a bunch of books about our particular tribe. "
The ducks and geese are now in their own pen, and have really been enjoying exploring their new home.アヒルとガチョウは今、自分の囲いの中にいて、新しい住処の探検をとても楽しんでいます。 #farming