Free Republic

A survey conducted by Iowa State University has found that farmers in Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois support President Trump’s tariffs against China. According to the study, nearly 60-percent of respondents in those states expressed support for the ongoing trade war, while 14-percent had neutral feelings on the matter. This comes after Beijing announced earlier this month it would be suspending purchases of all U.S. agricultural farm products in response to the Trump administration’s recent round of tariffs targeting $300 billion in Chinese imports. Although the heightened trade tensions between Washington and Beijing has resulted in a near $10 billion decrease...

The gruesome display of 19 bodies scattered in Mexico may be linked to a vicious war, not over drugs but avocados, according to a report. Mexican police on Thursday discovered nine bodies hanging from a bridge, seven more slaughtered and another three dumped in what authorities say was a gang-turf massacre in the western state of Michoacán. Falko Ernst, an International Crisis Group researcher who studies cartels, said the fight over the region’s billion-dollar avocado industry was likely the largest factor in the bloodbath. Around 80 percent of the avocados imported into the US come from Michoacán, according to the...

China announced on Tuesday that it has suspended purchases of US agricultural products in retaliation for a “serious violation” of agreements between its President Xi Jinping and his counterpart Donald Trump. Trump’s announcement last week that the US would put a new 10 per cent tariff on US$300 billion worth of imports from China was “a serious violation of the consensus of the heads of state of the two countries”, state news agency Xinhua said in a report issued soon after midnight. China “has not ruled out import tariffs on US agricultural products purchased after August 3, and related Chinese...

Is a trade deal with China just around the corner? The White House announced this morning that an “enforceable trade deal” is now in sight after “constructive” talks with China in Shanghai. In a key concession, China has agreed to open its market for more American agricultural imports, which would be a huge win for farmers in the Midwest.That is, if China gets pinned down to that position: Update from the White House on the Shanghai talks: "The Chinese side confirmed their commitment to increase purchases of United States agricultural exports. … we expect negotiations on an enforceable trade...

Located in northern Newfoundland, the site of L'Anse aux Meadows was founded by Vikings around A.D. 1000. Until now, archaeologists believed that the site was occupied for only a brief period... In August 2018, an archaeological team excavated a peat bog located nearly 100 feet (30 meters) east of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. They found a layer of "ecofacts" -- environmental remains that may have been brought to the site by humans -- that were radiocarbon dated to the 12th or 13th century. These ecofacts include remains of two beetles not native to Newfoundland -- Simplocaria metallica,...

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the earliest example of the use of a bridle bit with an equid (horse family) in the Near East. The discovery provides first evidence of the use of the bit (mouth piece) to control an animal long before the appearance of the horse in the Near East. Evidence of the bridle bit was derived from the skeleton of a donkey dating to the Early Bronze Age III (approximately 2700 BCE) found at the excavations of the biblical city Gath (modern Tell es-Safi) of the Philistines, the home of Goliath, located in central Israel....

Ancient people may have moved some of the massive megaliths of Stonehenge into place by greasing giant sleds with pig lard, then sliding the giant stones on them across the landscape, a new study suggests. After re-analyzing ceramic pots that earlier researchers believed were used to cook food, archaeologist Lisa-Marie Shillito concluded that many of those pots may have been used to collect fat that dripped off pigs as they were spit-roasted. The grease would have been stored as lard or tallow and used to lubricate the sleds most archaeologists believe were used to move the stones... The pottery fragments...

VIDEO: 20 Master Gardener Tips to grow your best Green Beans ever. Includes tips on Soil Preparation, Planting, Fertilizing, Watering, Weed Control, Insects, Diseases, Harvesting and Storing. Includes a detailed listing of State Specific Recommended Varieties and Planting Dates.

China has once again failed to meet its end of the bargain, stymieing the ongoing trade talks with the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his Twitter on July 11 that China is “letting us down” by not promptly buying more American farm goods as had been promised. “They have not been buying the agricultural products from our great Farmers that they said they would. Hopefully they will start soon!” the president wrote.Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in Osaka, Japan, for the G-20 Summit in late June. After a bilateral meeting, Trump announced that a new...

I recently had a puzzling experience and wonder whether you might be able to shed some light on it. Over the past few years I’ve become increasingly unable to eat wheat without experiencing significant gastrointestinal distress, and I’ve been eating a gluten-free diet for about two years as a result. A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to Hungary and succumbed to the temptation of eating some irresistibly fabulous, crusty European bread. I figured I’d pay the price but that it would be worth it. However, nothing happened. By the end of the trip I was feasting on croissants, thin-crust...

Farmers in Illinois whose land has been thrashed by flooding have given up on planting. Instead of growing food, they decided to throw a party. And who could blame them? The storms that have caused major flooding in Illinois have forced farmers to give up on their crops. Forecasts for even more rain also sent corn futures to a 5-year-high, bringing the food crisis ever closer to reality. Few farmers will even see a benefit from the higher prices because they can’t even get their corn planted in the ground. Dozens of corn farmers and those who sell them seed,...

The Green party in Germany said it will ban industrial farming to reduce global warming if it comes to power.

Must Farm is located within the silts of a slow-flowing freshwater river, with stilted structures built to elevate the living quarters above the water. This palaeochannel (dating from 1700-100 BC) was active for centuries prior to the construction of Must Farm (approx. 1100-800 cal BC), and a causeway was built across the river... Excavations between 2009 and 2012 revealed the remains of nine logboats in the palaeochannel, in addition to fish weirs and fish traps - further evidence of the long history of occupation in the landscape. The Must Farm houses are the 'most completely preserved prehistoric domestic structures found...

Governor Abbott has just signed another pro-liberty bill,  this one about pig hunting. Texas has a problem with feral pigs. From smithsonianmag.com: Wild hogs are among the most destructive invasive species in the United States today. Two million to six million of the animals are wreaking havoc in at least 39 states and four Canadian provinces; half are in Texas, where they do some $400 million in damages annually. They tear up recreational areas, occasionally even terrorizing tourists in state and national parks, and squeeze out other wildlife.Texas allows hunters to kill wild hogs year-round without limits or capture...

A grape variety still used in wine production in France today can be traced back 900 years to just one ancestral plant, scientists have discovered. With the help of an extensive genetic database of modern grapevines, researchers were able to test and compare 28 archaeological seeds from French sites dating back to the Iron Age, Roman era, and medieval period. ...a team of researchers from the UK, Denmark, France, Spain, and Germany, drew genetic connections between seeds from different archaeological sites, as well as links to modern-day grape varieties. It has long been suspected that some grape varieties grown today,...

Archaeologists have uncovered "strange ring-shaped objects" from a 3,000-year-old hillfort site that unmistakably look like modern-day Cheerios. The discovery, made at a burial site in Austria, was found near an area that is believed to have stored cereals. The researchers note that the rings, which are [between ~1.0 & 1.25 in] in diameter, were deliberately put into the storage pit. "Three incomplete ring-shaped charred organic objects, found together with 14 rings and ring fragments made of clay were discovered in a secondary filled silo pit, excavated among a total of about 100 pits of this kind at the site," the...

AccuWeather is predicting a significant shortfall in United States corn production for 2019 as a result of continued flooding, wet weather and the upcoming forecast throughout key parts of the U.S. Corn Belt. AccuWeather predicts corn yield will be a significant 9% lower than an earlier U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimate. The USDA predicted 14.96 billion bushels – last year’s corn yield was 14.3 billion bushels -- but a just-released AccuWeather analysis estimates this year’s total at 13.6 billion bushels.

It is a remarkable thing that the U.K. and Irish parliaments were able to hypnotize themselves and pass climate emergency legislation when the southern half of the planet has not warmed at all in 120 years. For example, this record of Cape Leeuwin (courtesy of Erl Happ), on the southwest corner of the Australian landmass, shows recent January mean maximum temperature back below the 120 average: The U.K. and Irish parliaments were able to work themselves up into a lather over climate even though parts of the northern hemisphere set new cold records this last winter. A spike in food...

Apples originally evolved in the wild to entice ancient megafauna to disperse their seeds; more recently, humans began spreading the trees along the Silk Road with other familiar crops; dispersing the apple trees led to their domestication. Recent archaeological finds of ancient preserved apple seeds across Europe and West Asia combined with historical, paleontological, and recently published genetic data are presenting a fascinating new narrative for one of our most familiar fruits. In this study, Robert Spengler of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History traces the history of the apple from its wild origins, noting that...

The number of acres of U.S. farmland held by foreign-owned investors has doubled in the past two decades, raising alarm bells in farming communities. American soil. Those are two words that are commonly used to stir up patriotic feelings. They are also words that can't be be taken for granted, because today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities. When the stock market tanked during the last recession, foreign investors began buying up big swaths of U.S. farmland....