farmers

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Superweeds Start Herbicide Arms Race on Farms

Roundup's strangehold falters in face of new threats

(Newser) - New breeds of “superweeds” are creeping across the Farm Belt, and shaking up the weedkiller and seed industries in the process. The long-dominant Roundup can't deal with immune invaders like pigweed, horseweed, and Johnsgrass, which has given rival chemical companies a chance to bring back old herbicides that Roundup...

UFOs Are Attacking Our Sheep: Brits

'Laser lights' responsible for wounds, says group

(Newser) - A group of British extraterrestrial hunters are claiming that the bizarre wounds suffered by English sheep over the last 10 years are the result of UFO laser probes. Sheep have lost eyes, organs and flesh to the light blasts , they report. The UFOs roam a 50-mile corridor in the west...

Ohio Mennonites Selling Hobbit Tea Line

Including Gandalf the Gray Tea and Bilbo Baggins Breakfast Blend

(Newser) - A 31-year-old Mennonite farmer has scored the rights to market a line of teas based on JRR Tolkien’s classic The Hobbit, and blends like Bilbo Baggins Breakfast Blend and Gandalf the Gray Tea are now available online —shipped directly from Middle-earth via Ohio. “We liked the small...

Farmers Tear Gassed at Sarkozy's Palace

Angry protesters dump hay to action against falling incomes

(Newser) - Hay bales were met with tear gas as French farmers protested outside Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential palace early this morning. Police moved in after the farmers dumped hay outside the palace, forcing the roughly 100 protesters into a side street, AP reports. The aggrieved farmers complain that the government isn't doing...

Alligator Market Collapses; Farmers Fault Hermès

Prices rise even as sales of alligator-skin shoes and bags plummet

(Newser) - Of luxury markets hit hard by the economy, one of the strangest is Louisiana alligator business, which dried up so fast it went from hatching 500,000 eggs last year to none this year. The speed of the collapse is raising suspicions that there's more to it than consumers shunning...

Truly Wacky Online Dating Sites


 Truly Wacky Online Dating Sites 
Oct 25, 2009 10:08 AM CDT

Truly Wacky Online Dating Sites

From vampire lovers to geeks to punk rockers, a site for everyone

(Newser) - If the matches you’re finding on eHarmony are too vanilla, never fear: There’s a dating site out there for you, and Julie Gerstein of Lemondrop rounds up the quirkiest of the quirky:
  • If you wear a lot of black: Find your “own personal Satan” at Gothic Match.
...

'Hobby Farms' Cropping Up
 'Hobby Farms' Cropping Up 
Oct 5, 2009 12:18 PM CDT

'Hobby Farms' Cropping Up

USDA says small farms are becoming more popular even as large farms grow

(Newser) - Most evenings, Gary Mithoefer can be found at the end of a long gravel driveway off a busy highway, tending two garden plots filled with white sweet potatoes, squash, cabbages, and a dozen other vegetables still thriving in early fall. The 62-year-old, who gardens after his workday ends at his...

Glut of Heifers Enter Milk-Flooded Dairy Industry

Semen-sorting technology bolsters herds, depressing already depressed prices

(Newser) - Times are tough everywhere, but dairy farming, never the industry of millionaires, is reeling from a double-whammy of its own making. Three years ago, new semen-sorting technology allowed farmers to ensure nine out of 10 calves born were female (bull calves largely end up in McDonald's wrappers and the like)....

Euro Farmers Protest Falling Prices With Huge Milk Dump

800,000 gallons in Belgian field after recession takes big toll

(Newser) - European farmers today dumped 800,000 gallons of milk in a Belgian field, AFP reports, in a protest against a dramatic dive in prices. The group behind the scene says three French farmers committed suicide in the past week over prices, which have fallen by as much as half as...

Newbie Farmers Pair With Old Hands

(Newser) - Matchmaking just might save the family farm, the AP reports. States such as Iowa, Virginia, and Washington have started programs pairing would-be farmers with those aiming to retire, in the hopes of beefing up independent agriculture and keeping rural areas populated. "I thought I may never get a chance...

China Trusts Prostitutes More Than Politicians

Oldest profession comes in third in poll; farmers are tops

(Newser) - The Chinese people trust prostitutes more than they trust politicians, scientists, or soldiers, according to a new survey from Insight China Magazine. Sex workers finished third, the BBC reports, with 7.9% of the vote, just behind farmers and religious workers. “A list like this is at the same...

Soured Economy Spoiling Organic Milk Market

(Newser) - "Got Milk?" isn't the question organic dairy farmers want to hear these days. Consumers couldn’t get enough of organic milk three years ago, but the souring economy and glut of new-to-the-market organic farmers have spoiled sales, which are expected to drop nearly 15% this year. “We’...

Chew on This: Biodegradable Gum Hits Stores

Will vanish in six weeks after a good chew

(Newser) - The first widely available biodegradable chewing gum hits British stores today. Chicza Rainforest Gum is manufactured in Mexico from the sap of the chicle tree collected by a cooperative network of chicleros, or gum farmers. Unlike regular gum, Chicza uses no petrochemicals, isn't sticky, and dries up and crumbles to...

After Record US Drought, Bleak Summer Looms

Texas farmers fear poor crops, Calif. preps for increased wildfires

(Newser) - The first two months of this year have been the driest on record in the US, foreshadowing a summer of poor crops and brutal wildfires. Texas farmers have delayed planting corn and cotton, while cattle ranchers have sold off cows they can no longer feed. “It might take me...

Neil Young: Don't Forget Farmers in Bailout

(Newser) - Neil Young puts down his guitar and picks up his pen today on behalf of family farmers. In an essay in the Boston Globe, Young argues that tight credit, declining prices, natural disasters, and the overall economic gloom has many of them on the brink. The situation is as dire...

As Milk Prices Sour, Cows Head to Slaughter

Farmers can't afford to keep them

(Newser) - Hundreds of thousands of America's dairy cows are being turned into hamburgers because milk prices have dropped so low that farmers can no longer afford to feed the animals. Dairy farmers say they face a perfect storm of destructive economic forces: At home, feed prices are rising and consumers...

Salmonella Scare Rattles Peanut County

Farmers report fewer contracts

(Newser) - A Georgia county that boasts a big peanut in its courthouse square is getting crunched by the salmonella outbreak, the Los Angeles Times reports. In Blakely-Early County, Ga.—the self-proclaimed "Peanut Capital of the World"—peanut plant workers are losing jobs and farmers are getting fewer contracts....

Use Stimulus to Invest in Food Reform
 Use Stimulus to 
 Invest in Food Reform 
OPINION
Jan 12, 2009 5:19 PM CST

Use Stimulus to Invest in Food Reform

Fixing food will save health and environment

(Newser) - Just because Barack Obama has a lot of issues to deal with once he's sworn in, he shouldn't leave food reform off the table. Putting a bulk of the stimulus package toward local and regional food systems will cut costs and bring us back from the edge, Tom Philpott, founder...

Farmers Already Working on Your '09 Bird

With Americans eating 17% of annual output today, planning ahead is crucial

(Newser) - Ever wonder how the grocery store bins fill up with so many turkeys come late November? Lots and lots of planning, explains Nina Shen Rastogi in Slate. Americans will eat about 46 million birds today—that accounts for 17% of all turkeys raised in the US in a given year....

Amish Blast ID Cow Chips as 'Mark of the Beast'

Farmers sue USDA over Michigan's mandatory tag program

(Newser) - A group of Amish farmers has launched a federal lawsuit against the USDA claiming that electronic ID tags on cattle are the mark of Satan himself, not merely of the Michigan Animal Identification System, Wired reports. The farmers say the mandatory program, aimed at tracking livestock diseases, violates the "...

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