AgClips
Recent AgClips
Policing white-supremacist rallies:lessons from small-town America
Daily Yonder | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Rural NewsWith smaller budgets and fewer personnel, several rural law-enforcement agencies have managed to protect both free speech and public safety when white supremacists come to town. While metropolitan Charlottesville erupted, these places kept the peace. So far in 2017, white supremacy or neo-Confederate groups have staged events in small towns and rural areas throughout the South. More events are likely to come. White supremacists have shown a penchant for trying to recruit in these areas.
The future of meat
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Food NewsUnsurprisingly, the session that left me with the most questions was one titled “The Mystery of Meat,” featuring speakers from Beyond Meat (plant-based burger company), Mosa Meat (cultured meat) and Memphis Meats (cultured meat). The speakers (aided by representatives in the audience from HSUS and The Good Food Institute, which is a spinoff of Mercy for Animals focused on promoting meat alternatives) pushed the term “clean meat” for their products. If you follow my blogs, you know I have a bone to pick with that word choice.
Why save the small town?
High Country News | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Rural NewsCities, it seems, are inevitable. Economies of scale make it difficult to maintain the essentials of living in rural places. For most of human history, transportation and information exchange have been arduous, time-consuming and expensive; even the Pony Express operated at a loss. The idea that everything is more efficient, and therefore cheaper, when done in bulk has helped encourage cities’ growth, said Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist with the Santa Fe Institute. West is researching the relationship between economies of scale, growth and long-term sustainability.
Dairy industry group continues to attack food companies over alleged 'fear-based' labeling
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Food NewsA dairy industry group with strong ties to Wisconsin has added more examples to its list of what the group says is “fear-based” food labeling.
50,000 line up outside Tropical Park seeking post-hurricane food assistance
Miami Herald | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Food, Rural NewsTens of thousands of wilting South Floridians stood hours in the sweltering, soggy heat Sunday at Tropical Park, waiting to apply for special food stamps available only to victims Hurricane Irma, stunning state officials who were expecting just a fraction of that response. “We’ve been dealing with about 10,000 people a day,” said Ofelia Martinez, the Miami site manager for the state Department of Children and Families (DCF). “But when we opened the doors this morning, the police told us there were already 50,000 people waiting outside.”
Study to explore Illinois' energy future
Dispatch Argus | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Energy, SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe Illinois Commerce Commission has launched an 18-month study to explore the use of emerging technologies to improve the state's electric grid. The "NextGrid: Illinois' Utility of the Future" study is the collaborative effort of the ICC, Ameren Illinois, ComEd, and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois, the Herald-Whig reported.It's a "consumer-focused collaborative study to transform Illinois' energy landscape and economy," said ICC Chairman Brien J. Sheahan.
Wind power to overtake coal power in Texas
Washington Examiner | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Energy NewsWind energy is expected to overtake coal in Texas after Friday's news that two large coal-fired power plants are set to close in the next year. The utility firm Luminant announced that it would close the Sandow Power Plant and the Big Brown Power Plant in early 2018.
Survival Rates of Rural Businesses: What the Evidence Tells Us
Choices magazine | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Rural NewsAcross the rural-urban divide the average five-year survival rate across all birth year cohorts for urban (metro) counties was less than for rural (non-metro) counties, 67% and 70%, respectively. This is consistent with the findings of others (Buss and Lin, 1990; Renski, 2009; Yu, Orazem, and Jolly, 2011). If the definitions of rural and urban are refined along a broader spectrum from large urban to remote sparsely populated rural, the relatively high survival rates in rural areas becomes even more pronounced (Figure 2).
Crowdsourcing website identifies foodborne illness outbreak
Food Safety News | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Food NewsFor at least the third time this year, the crowd-sourced website iwaspoisoned.com has identified a foodborne illness outbreak, this time among students who ate at a Georgia Tech dining hall. The “North Avenue Dining Hall” at the university in Atlanta started showing up in reports on the foodborne illness website in the past couple of days. When such clusters of reports at one foodservice location pop up, Patrick Quade keeps a close eye on the website he launched in 2009.
EPA, herbicide makers agree to new limits on dicamba use
Des Moines Register | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Agriculture, Federal NewsThe Trump administration has reached a deal with three major agribusiness companies for new voluntary labeling requirements for a controversial herbicide blamed for damaging crops. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday its agreement with Monsanto, BASF and DuPont regarding the application of dicamba, which is used to control weeds in fields of genetically modified cotton and soybeans.