Efita Newsletter 997, dated August 02, 2021

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Alessandro Volta, heroe of progress

In the late 18th century, Alessandro Volta proved that you didn't need frog legs, or any other animal tissue, to produce an electric current.

That might not seem like a huge achievement, but Volta's experiments transformed scientific consensus and paved the way for modern technology.
See humanprogress.org


'Jurassic Pompeii' yields thousands of 'squiggly wiggly' fossils, by Jonathan Amos (BBC)


Oral Covid Vaccine Set To Begin Trials In Israel, by Robert Hart

Amid rising cases of Covid-19 driven by the infectious Delta variant, Israel is gearing up to host the first clinical trials of an oral Covid-19 vaccine, which could help boost access to vaccines around the world and serve as a more convenient booster in the future.
See forbes.com


The U.S. economy is growing at a healthy rate, but is still struggling to fully recover (Source NYT newsletter)
G.D.P. is adjusted for inflation and seasonality. | Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis



Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Nearing Home by Phillip Richard Morris


The Hindu BusinessLine: Despite a rise in area, cotton yield drops below 500 kg per hectare in India, by Subramani Ra Mancombu, Chennai, July 30, 2021
…/…
“At least 20 lakh hectares in Maharashtra have been brought under the unauthorised HTBt (Herbicide tolerant Bt) cotton. This is fine for short-term but in the longer run, we need standard companies to produce the seeds to protect farmers from any harm such as adulterated or spurious seeds,” said scientist Mayee.

“Illegal technology, especially to tackle weeds, is spreading. This is distributed through locals in villages and farmers, who are being misled and face risks. The organised seed industry is also affected as a result,” said Ramasami.

According to the multinational firm official, farmers are not showing any interest in non-GM cotton since they have to spend more on spraying pesticides and insecticides. “There is no demand from farmers for non-GM cotton seed,” he said.

“We pretty well know how costly engaging farm labour has become these days,” said Ramasami.

Bt seeds make up over 95 per cent of the area under cotton India, which accounts for over 40 per cent of the total global area. Production, however, is only a little over 26 per cent of the total global output.

Ramasami said the Centre should encourage new technology, which will result in investment by multinational and domestic seed companies improving in research and development.
See thehindubusinessline.com


More Americans than ever rate climate change as their most pressing issue (Source: The Economist newsletter)


Small farms vanish every day in America’s dairyland: ‘There ain’t no future in dairy’, by Summer Sewell in Monroe, Wisconsin

Farming families are facing a choice: compete with high-production outfits, if they can, or abandon generations of dairy farming

…/…
He works up to 80 hours a week, getting up at five in the morning, an hour after 3,500 gallons (13,200 litres) of milk is picked up from his farm every day and taken to a local processor to be made into cheese for retail (which cushioned him from pandemic-specific blows to dairy farmers who sell to cheese processors for restaurants and schools). Green county’s dairy farmers sell directly to cheese makers or co-ops, no one sells fluid milk.

Truttmann’s three kids aren’t interested in farming, but he’s hopeful that a nephew may be. He knows it’s a hard sell – in good times, profit margins are about 10%. “When feed costs are high or hauling costs are shifted, all of a sudden there’s nothing left,” he said.

His favorite job on the farm is getting hours-old calves to bottle feed. He marches into a pen cradles the calf and patiently gets her to suckle – the trick is putting her nose on his wrist, which makes her mouth open automatically. He wants her to get used to him, to understand this is her caregiver from day one.

Back in his house, out of his rubber boots with his ankles crossed, he said, “I don’t think we’re different from any other industry where as times change, you either change with them or get left behind. And that’s the sad, hard reality of it. And even those that modernize are still at some risk of being washed out. It’s always a gamble.” He paused. “Hope sustains the farmer. That’s what the sign says on my back door.”


Americans' Life Ratings Reach Record High, by Dan Witters and Sangeeta Agrawal

There were two surprising things about a recent Gallup survey into life satisfaction in the US.

The first was that more Americans consider themselves to be thriving that at any point for more than a decade. Despite more than half a million Covid deaths, drought, heatwaves, wildfires and resurgent inflation, three in five Americans say they are pretty happy with their lot.

The second surprise was how little media coverage this received. (Though perhaps this is not so surprising, for we are well accustomed to newsrooms ignoring the positives.)


Study tracks food’s value from farm to plate globally

“The big economic players in the food we consume aren’t actually the primary producers on farms,” Barrett said. “So when we think about food issues … maybe we need to spend a little bit more time thinking about what’s happening in that post-farmgate value chain, with the processors, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants.”
See agdaily.com


Why Rural America Needs Immigrants, By Robert Leonard and Matt Russell

We need smart policy like immigration reform for sustained growth.
See NYT


Covid is a terrible health crisis. It’s not the country’s only health crisis. By David Leonhardt (Source: NYT newsletter)



Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory: Young Harvesters by Lionel Percy Smythe (1839-1918, UK)