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
