John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 5 years ago
Topics: Dairy, Agriculture US, Economics,

Matthew Chapman "On America’s dairy farms, milk and other food products are going to waste in massive quantities. Farmers are dumping food — even as millions of American households are food-insecure, and record numbers of cars are swarming food banks nationwide. Why is this? On Thursday, WIRED broke down the key reasons why farmers can’t afford to feed the poor in general, and in the coronavirus pandemic specifically. Report Advertisement “Some products don’t sell well outside of a restaurant,” wrote Aarian Marshall. “Tomatoes make their way into ketchup, soup, and pizza sauce eaten outside the home. Chicken wing prices have dipped, as the marquee product of March Madness missed its star turn. Meanwhile, prices of beef round and chuck, the more affordable parts used in ground beef and roasts, have jumped almost 40 percent since March. Prices for loin and ‘short plate,’ often used in short ribs, skirt steak, and hanger steak, have declined. ‘It’s an indication of what things mostly go to food service, but also what people want and what people can afford,’ says Jayson Lusk, an economist who heads Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics.”

John LaRose Jr. John LaRose Jr.
shared this article 5 years ago
Topics: Poultry, Sustainability,

" When Jackie Augustine opens a chicken coop door one brisk spring morning in upstate New York, the hens bolt out like windup toys. Still, as their faint barnyard scent testifies, they aren’t battery-powered but very much alive. These are “solar chickens.” At this local community egg cooperative, Geneva Peeps, the birds live with solar power all around them. Their hen house is built under photovoltaic panels, and even outside, they’ll spend time underneath them, protected from sun, rain and hawks. Geneva Peeps is one of the many experiments in agrivoltaics, or co-locating solar panels and food production, being undertaken around the United States. The practice had already been happening in countries like the United Kingdom and Uruguay. Over the past few years, more pilot programs have been set up in states like New York. And with photovoltaic capacity projected to more than double (again) over the next five years, some developers are exploring whether agrivoltaics may ease concerns about farmland being given over to solar production."

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