1. Want to curb nitrogen pollution? Regulate fertilizer producers, not just farmers (New Food Economy)

• author is an environmental studies professor at NYU.
• farm fertilizer contributes 41% of the nitrogen delivered to Gulf of Mexico
• incentives for farmers to use less fertilizer haven't been successful
• advocates for using similar route that U.S. took with gas mileage: regulate the few instead of the many.
• ensure the producers can profit from being regulated

2. The dirty truth about oat milk (Mother Jones)

• cites paper by UMN researchers studying biodiversity - published Jan. 4 - that's worth revisiting

3. The White House calls food stamp funds for Puerto Rico 'excessive and unnecessary' (Grist)

•  Statement last week opposed additional $600M in post-hurricane food assistance (Nutritional Assistance Program is their version of SNAP)
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Puerto Rico already gets way less from federal government for NAP than it would through SNAP. But poverty rate is 3x the national average and cost of living is higher than other places in the U.S.
• Gov. Ricardo Rossello said NAP funding already below what low-income residents needed even before Hurricane Irma.

4. With Minnesota farmers facing stress, Legislature works to improve mental health outreach (Pioneer Press)

• Legislature will take up bills funding more mental health counselors in MDA
• Effort to pass additional funding failed last year
• stresses listed: low prices, tariff fights, low yields, inclement weather, government shutdown

5. Business and industry press Trump and Congress to end shutdown (POLITICO)

• Letter from U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other biz orgs, totaling 385 industry groups, including those repping ag
• It says the shutdown is causing "lasting damage to families, businesses, and the economy as a whole"
• Groups typically lean Republican. Letter said there are "numerous paths forward that would allow for the government to be reopened"

1. Minneapolis Public Schools makes new food waste plan (Twitter)

• Partnership with Natural Resources Defense Fund, which paid for the development of the plan
• Three-year implementation
• Lists ways MPS already works to reduce wasted food

2. Supreme Court will decide whether to keep companies' SNAP sales secret (New Food Economy) 

• The case was brought by the Argus Leader (South Dakota paper) to obtain data on how much grocery store revenue is from the federal food stamps program
• Supreme Court said it will hear the case
• Opposition to releasing the data says it'll compromise competition among grocery stores, but it's not clear what advantage knowing SNAP revenue would give competitors.
• Bigger report on the case from August

3. President Trump's extravagant $3,000, 300-sandwich celebration of Clemson University (WaPo)

• Just need to save this link because this level of analysis on such a silly thing is inspiring

4. Shutdown tests farmers' loyalty as Trump visits their annual convention (POLITICO)

• "Farmers" equals the farm bureau. It's their 100th annual convention.
• The reporter found voices on both sides of that loyalty question, but it's hard to know what the majority feels. In ag, as in anything, it depends on the echo chamber you walk into.

5. The sobering details behind the latest seed monopoly chart (Civil Eats)

• The chart is an update from a 2008 version published by Phillip Howard of Michigan State University. He started tracking in 1998 – two years after genetically engineered seed varieties were introduced
• Article suggests weak anti-trust law enforcement, which allowed a few companies to take over the global seed supply
• Historical impact: fewer choices and higher prices for farmers; less innovation; 
• Article includes list of "seed stewards"

1. Female ranchers are reclaiming the American West (NYT)

• Changing nature of ranching – from heavy lifting to strategy? – leads to changing gender roles
• Women giving more consideration to environment, new tech
• Strong photo story

2. Peterson resists Democrats' call for climate action (POLITICO)

• New House Ag Committee Chairman left off climate action in the list of priorities for the committee this year
  
• Committee will focus on state of farm economy, Trump's trade policy, and implementation of new farm bill
  
• Despite feeling pressure from his party, Peterson, a centrist Dem, but he resists committing to anything, including hearings on climate change mitigation and adaptive strategies for farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses.
  
• EPA says ag contributes 9 percent of U.S. GHG emissions via fertilizer use, animal methane, etc.
  
• His perspective is the majority in ag
  
• climate assessment  by 300 scientists, 13 agencies discussed climate change will lead to lower crop yields, added stress on livestock operations, more severe weather events; more carbon increases plant growth, including weeds, and decreases nutritional value of crops
  
• no-till and cover crops can help sequester carbon; anaerobic digesters convert manure into energy instead of leaving it in lagoons
  
• Smaller groups like the farmers union take a more liberal approach to climate change 

3. U.S. shutdown sends grain traders, farmers hunting for data (Reuters) 

• USDA reports delayed by shutdown included updates/projections of soybean stockpile
• Farmers, et al pivoted to private sources of trade and supplies analyses to help make decisions

4. Federal judge strikes Iowa 'ag-gag' law (IowaWatch)

• 2012 law prohibited recording at ag production facilities 
• judge said the law's primary purpose was to ban speech criticizing practices at facilities
• “'When the state seeks to regulate protected speech, it bears the heavy burden of showing that the prohibition satisfies constitutional scrutiny,' Senior Judge James Gritzner, of Iowa’s Southern District, wrote in a ruling he handed down Wednesday, January 9. 'Defendants have not met their burden.'”
• Iowa Attorney General's office is considering an appeal
  

5. Industry wary of alternatives tries to protect a word: meat (AP)

• Four states (nebraska, tennessee, virginia, wyoming) want states to legislate meaning of the word "meat" to prevent faux meat or lab-grown meat producers from using it 
• Missouri was the first state to regulate the term. That happened about 5 months ago.
• Industry strongly opposes use of the phrase "clean meat" to describe what's grown in a lab
• Farmers, industry folks supporting such regulation say it's about truth in advertising and protecting major business in their state

1. Minnesota Farm Bureau sets priorities for 2019 legislative session (Voice of Agriculture)

• priorities include: financial and emotional challenges, rural communities, health care, taxes, trade, transportation, and food

2. With food inspectors furloughed, reduced FDA inspections 'put our food at risk' (WaPo)

• FDA oversees 80 percent of U.S. food supply
• Suspended all routine inspections of domestic food processing facilities 
• CDC estimates 48 million people get sick from foodborne illness each year
• Inspectors look for unsanitary conditions, insect infestations, and contamination

3. USDA finds $5.1 billion to fund food stamps program through February (New Food Economy) 

• Congress had approved funding through Jan. 20, but then USDA funding for SNAP (food stamps) would run out
• More than 40M Americans rely on food stamps
• USDA decision includes funding for Women, Infants, and Children program

4. School lunch debt increasing (New Food Economy)

• Students who can't afford to pay the full cost of lunch but don't qualify for reduced price or free lunch accrue debt that adds up quickly for school districts
• Effort has been made to ban "lunch shaming" which refers to practices that punished kids for carrying lunch debt. Sometimes by not feeding them.
• The total lunch debt in the United States isn't tracked
• I've never heard of lunch debt... is this a thing in Minnesota?

5. Meet the granary weevil, the pantry monster of our own creation (NPR)

• Well written story about an insect that has never been seen outside of "human food storage situations"
• language is playful yet specific; sparse in citations but well-sourced; includes history in a few short sentences
• Cause 2 to 5 percent of harvested grain waste in developing countries

1. Supreme Court declines to hear challenges to animal welfare laws (New Food Economy)

• By declining to hear the cases, the lower court rulings supporting state laws in California and Massachusetts will stand
• California case stems from 2008 ballot initiative and subsequent law that raised standard for animal treatment on farms, i.e. poultry/eggs, veal, pork; the ballot initiative banned confinement of those animals; they should be able to turn around, stand up, sit down, extend limbs; the law extended the ban to the sale of those products within California, even if the animals were raised outside the state
• Massachusetts passed a similar ballot measure in 2016
• Other states, egg-producers, sued California and Massachusetts, arguing those states violated a federal egg production law and constitutional protection for interstate commerce

2. Has New York Found the Secret to Linking Retiring Farmers and Eager Upstarts? (Civil Eats)

• Program=Hudson Valley Farmlink Network
  
• Rather than just listing what's for sale, they have a "boots on the ground" component
  
• 150 matches over 4 years
  
• Organizes farmland bus tours
  
• Offers in-person connections that lead to other important assistance, like help with capital, mentorship, legal help 

3. Mongolia, cheese, and the future of dairy in the era of climate change (Civil Eats)

• I've been thinking about dairy for awhile because I love it and because dairy farmers in Minnesota are a topic of interest
• The article talks about grazing being a more sustainable method for raising livestock that give us milk and cheese, which would help to offset GHG emissions they contribute
• Additional resources: cheese & culture: the history of cheese in western civilization
• March 2017 report: large family farms continue to dominate u.s. ag production (USDA)

4. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions spiked in 2018 – and it couldn't happen at a worse time (WaPo)

• U.S. CO2 emissions rose 3.4 percent in 2018, according to study published by independent economic research firm Rhodium Group
• At the same time: scientists / Paris Climate Agreement call for aggressively lowering emissions; Trump rolls back regulations Obama set to help the nation meet those goals
• Guilty parties: electric power generation (+1.9%) – burning natural gas, which is slightly better than coal; transportation (+1%) – more airline travel, on-road shipping; 
• U.S. has never actually been on track to meet Paris Agreement goal to reduce GHG emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 (2005 is when emission levels peaked, according to WaPo chart sourced from report)

5. What it's like to be a street food vendor in Mexico City (CityLab)

• Fun feature: lots of voices of people who own the stands; how much they make; how gender factors into the time of day they'll work or what tasks they do. 
• The use of so many voices is the highlight, I think; and the way that teaches non-native readers about the difference between types of tacos

1. We need to talk about palm oil (Huffington Post)

• It's an ingredient in A LOT of stuff we buy, including food, fuel, and beauty products
• The demand is leading to major deforestation where it's harvested, mainly Malaysia and Indonesia, which supply 85 percent of what the world consumes
• Deforestation threatens species, displaces indigenous people, contributes to smog, and drives climate change
• Public awareness and outrage has spurred major companies to espouse sustainability goals, but little has actually changed.

2. Here's the GMO label coming in 2020 (New Food Economy)

• Label will appear on anything made with GMO (or "bioengineered") soy, corn, sugarbeets, etc, as well as products like the Arctic Apple and Rose Pineapple. It takes effect next year and all GMO food must have labels by 2022.
• The rule has some exemptions, including for products made from/by animals that consumed feed with bioengineered ingredients. It also excludes food made by gene-editing. Additionally, oil or sugar made from GMO crops like corn or sugarbeets won't require labels.
• Biotech experts say the labeling rule promotes transparency for consumers and isn't addressing nutrition or food safety, since GMO foods are widely considered safe (90 percent of scientists agree).
• Exemptions lead to confusion and raise questions about whether the rules will accomplish that goal of transparency.

3. Researchers 'hacking' photosynthesis (NPR)

• A regular task plants perform during photosynthesis – detoxification – takes a lot of energy and is done inefficiently. It takes away from the plant's job of growing leaves that we use for food or other products.
• Scientists at the University of Illinois are working on improving production in those plants by inserting genes that shutdown their inefficient system in favor of a better one. They started with tobacco, which grew faster and bigger. Now they're turning attention to plans important for food to see if the method will produce more fruit or if it will just grow more stalks and leaves.
• The goal is to increase crop productivity.

4. New Minnesota Pollution Control Agency commissioner talks about water quality (MPR)

• The new commissioner is Laura Bishop, who formally led sustainability efforts at Best Buy
• After Walz announced her appointment Thursday, she said she's ready to look at water quality data so the state can take next steps
  
• Pollutants including farm runoff, road salt, and chemicals in products we use diminish water quality in the state
• The state needs to move to address climate change, she said, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from sources including agriculture
• Walz says he'll approach environmental regulations with "humility" that asks businesses to cooperate, not just comply.
  
• Minnesota farmers didn't like the way the Dayton rolled out new rules on buffers and fertilizer
• Not noted in the story: MPCA has say on studying environmental impact of factory farms. The agency recently sidestepped an opportunity to require an EIS (environmental impact statement) for a proposed hog farm in Fillmore County. The agency denied the permit and, since that was its decision, avoided answering the EIS question.

5. Podcast interview with Samin Nosrat (Longform)

• I listened to this yesterday. It's a rerun from May 2017, before Nosrat's book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat was published
• Nosrat started working at a restaurant while attending Berkeley - Alice Water's restaurants no less. She didn't have an interest or experience cooking before that, and she turned it into her career. She was told to read tons of cookbooks to learn, but she noticed no one actually used cookbooks. She picked up on the unspoken rules: master salt, fat, acid, heat. She realized every cook knew the principle, but no one had written about it.
• She started writing after forming a friendship/connection with Michael Pollan. No big deal??
• The book is written as a master class. It teaches the principles of those four primary ingredients, but doesn't promote any single way of cooking. She believes anyone can cook.
• PRACTICE is key. How true of all things in life.
• I bought it immediately.

1. Cargill profits drop 20 percent (Star Tribune)

• Factors like trade and industry-specific problems combined to reduce the company's profits from $924M to $741M in its latest quarterly report. 
• Revenue was $28B, which is down 4 percent.
• A growing appetite for meat around the world is good for Cargill, which sells most of its grain to feed livestock.
• Article cites a "challenged dairy industry." Feels like an understatement... or no statement at all. Not sure which "challenges" its supposed to refer to. People's shrinking interest in cow's milk? Prices? Oversupply? 

2. Gov.-elect Tim Walz names new Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner – Thom Peterson (MPR)

• Peterson was the head of government relations for the Minnesota Farmers Union and helped me with several stories thanks to the many, many years he spent working on ag policy at the Legislature.

3. Changing the rules on livestock farm air emissions reporting (Grist | New Food Economy)

• Congress, President actions exempt large livestock operations from reporting their air emissions – something the livestock industry has lobbied for over 10 years.
• A coalition of groups including Food & Water Watch, the Humane Society and others, led by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit against the EPA, saying the changes will impact health and environment.
• Two laws at issue: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), which mandated that farms tell emergency response committees about spills, leaks, or other hazardous waste discharges, which includes farm waste products (ammonia and hydrogen sulfide) over 100 pounds – a standard that many farms don't reach.
  
• How they changed them: Congress passed the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method (FARM) Act in March, exempting farms from reporting air emissions under CERCLA. The EPA's proposed rules under EPCRA makes the same exemption.
• Industry groups listed: U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, National Pork Producers Council, American Farm Bureau Federation, and National Cattlemena's Beef Association

4. New Food Economy revisits 2018's most contentious food stories

• Why that's a cool idea for a year-end wrap up: We forget to go back! It's so important to follow up and keep following up, if necessary.

5. The biggest food recall of 2018 is one you still haven't heard of (New Food Economy)

• What a good find. I don't know why I don't ever think much about food recalls, but it's the point at which most people realize the food system has an issue. 
• "A plant's entire output was called into question." 100M pounds!