Jordan Wirfs-Brock's Library tagged agriculture →  View Popular

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The Columbia Journalism Review asks why, with all the media attention California's struggling economy and climate change have been getting recently, few people have put two and two together and written about what climate change means for California's major industry: agriculture.

This is timely for me, personally, because I just finished summarizing a paper on how agricultural land-use in California influences local climate and air quality. Oh, feedbacks are fun, and it's clear that this is an important -- and complex -- issue.

From CJR:

"This dearth in coverage is partly understandable. The potential effects of heightened atmospheric CO2 on the efficacy of the herbicide glyphosate don’t necessarily make for sexy reading. Moreover, while a great deal of research has been conducted on ways the greenhouse effect may alter the production of global cereal crops (rice, wheat, corn), the same is not true for horticulture (fruit, vegetables, nuts, and flowers), which, along with livestock and dairy, comprises the bulk of California’s agricultural output. And then there’s the fact that California is home to many distinct microclimates, and that shifting weather patterns and increased CO2 concentration may harm some crops while benefiting others."

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Antibiotic resistant strains of s. aureus in Iowan pigs? Not really a surprise. But this -- "overall MRSA prevalence in swine was 49% (147/299) and 45% (9/20) in workers" -- kind of is.

Unfortunately (well, only for a manure-head like me, really), the researchers didn't test feces, they tested "naris" and "nares", which I know know is a "nasal cavity."

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Chandler sent me this one. I think this is hilarious. I also think ugly fruit can be delicious and fun to eat (it's more interactive).

From the article:

“This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, European commissioner for agriculture, who argued that regulations were better left to market operators.

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