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The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the President signed into law: H.J.Res. 80, which authorizes VA to refer certain veterans for dental care in the community; S. 394, the “Presidential Transition Enhancement Act of 2019,” which provides for changes to how the General Services Administration provides services and facilities to Presidents-elect and Vice Presidents-elect and makes other changes to the Presidential transition process; and S. 2107, the “Protecting America’s Food and Agriculture Act of 2019,” which authorizes the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire additional agricultural specialists, agricultural technicians, and canine inspection teams to improve the...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

The Lansing Center Lansing, Michigan 1:02 P.M. EST THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, hello, Michigan! AUDIENCE: Hello! THE VICE PRESIDENT: It is wonderful to be with all of you. Thank you for such a warm and generous welcome. But before you get too comfortable, I’ll tell you what — and maybe it’s because we’ve both served as governors — but I have to tell you: As we look around that Cabinet table, this President and I are proud of every member of this Cabinet, but no one more so than the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue. Would you give him another...

Billions of desert locusts have descended again on East Africa. Crawling first, then sprouting wings and flying in hungry hoards of 40-150 million or more, they are devastating crops and threatening tens of millions of people with lost livelihoods and starvation. This year’s plague, says the United Nations, is the worst in 70 years for Kenya, the worst in a quarter-century for Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.  Locust swarms can blanket scores or hundreds of square miles at a time, travel 80 miles a day, and consume more than 400 million pounds of vegetation daily, Africa Fighting Malaria cofounder Richard...

The Trump administration plans to allow 45,000 additional seasonal guest workers to return to the U.S. this summer, the highest number since the president took office, according to three administration officials. The Department of Homeland Security plans to announce the additional seasonal-worker visas next week, an administration official said. They will become available in two waves: the first 20,000 will be immediately available, while employers can apply for the remainder for jobs beginning June 1. It wasn’t clear whether the White House has fully signed off on the numbers, and an administration official cautioned they could change. The additional visas...

America’s farmers have faced many difficulties over the past several decades. Misaligned trade deals, troubling weather patterns, and an onslaught of attacks from anti-agriculture activists have all contributed to an unfortunately high number of struggling family farms representative of the entire agriculture industry.While these issues persist, it has become increasingly clear that America’s farmers are facing a new threat: the progressive left of American politics.From far-left Hollywood elites to out-of-touch liberal billionaires, today’s Democrat Party is pushing an anti-agriculture agenda that would spell doom for thousands of family farmers and the rural communities in which they live.During his acceptance speech...

President Trump on Wednesday signed an order in California to re-engineer the state’s water plans, completing a campaign promise to funnel water from the north to a thirsty agriculture industry and growing population further south. The ceremonial order comes after the Department of the Interior late last year reversed its opinion on scientific findings that for a decade extended endangered species protections to various types of fish — a review that had been spurred by the order from Trump. Trump said the changes to the “outdated scientific research and biological opinions” would now help direct “as much water as possible,...

At a Glance A mature swarm of locusts entered South Sudan this week.Warmer temperatures and more rain have contributed to the outbreak.Some swarms are the size of cities and can move up to 90 miles a day. The locust outbreak plaguing East Africa has now reached South Sudan as swarms the size of cities continue to move across several countries, fueled by extreme weather and changing climate patterns. "Studies have linked a hotter climate to more damaging locust swarms, leaving Africa disproportionately affected — 20 of the fastest warming countries globally are in Africa," Richard Munang, United Nations Environment Programme...

RUSH: Bloomberg, all the stuff that’s being discovered about Bloomberg. Folks, this myth that billionaires are brilliant. They may be at one or two things, but they are not massive, triumphant examples of a brilliant IQ. This guy says some of the stupidest stuff and has said some of the stupidest stuff and done some of the stupidest stuff over the course of his political and business career that you can imagine, and it’s all been kept under the radar. Now it’s starting to surface. Ignorant and Arrogant Bloomberg Insults Farmers Feb 17, 2020 RUSH: Bloomberg, all the stuff that’s...

Israeli researchers revealed Wednesday that they successfully grew extinct date plants from ancient seeds found at archaeological sites in the Judean Desert. Dozens of seeds were gleaned from archaeology collections gathered at locations in the dry Dead Sea area, including the Masada hilltop fortress built by King Herod the Great in the first century BCE and the ancient site of Qumran, famous for the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s. Six saplings grew from 32 seeds sown and the plants have been dubbed Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, and Hannah... Radiocarbon dating revealed the seeds used for...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania -- The first time Mee Cee Baker went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show, she was a 12-year-old 4-H member whose pig got loose during the market show and took off into the center of the massive complex. A chaotic scene emerged as the frightened animal ran haphazardly among the large equipment, tractors and people. Everyone in attendance, at least in Baker's 12-year-old eyes, seemingly chased it down or ran away. The next year, Baker, who later worked in education and outreach in former Gov. Ed Rendell's state agriculture department, said she found herself traumatized again but in a...

Dog detectives might be able to help save ailing citrus groves, research published Monday suggests. Scientists trained dogs to sniff out a crop disease called citrus greening that has hit orange, lemon and grapefruit orchards in Florida, California and Texas. The dogs can detect it weeks to years before it shows up on tree leaves and roots, the researchers report. Advertisement “This technology is thousands of years old – the dog’s nose,” said Timothy Gottwald, a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a co-author of the study. “We’ve just trained dogs to hunt new prey: the bacteria that...

Garden anywhere with raised beds in 80% less space, with only 2% of the work, and using only 10% of the water required with traditional garden beds. WATCH THE VIDEO...

U.S. and global crop production continue to set new records, even as climate activists ramp up a campaign to convince people that climate change is decimating crop production and forcing farmers out of business. A prominent propaganda campaign is being presented by Politico. Politico in October published an article titled, “‘I’m standing right here in the middle of climate change’: How USDA is failing farmers.” On December 9, Politico followed up with an article titled, “How a closed-door meeting shows farmers are waking up on climate change.” The October article claimed “American farmers are reeling” from extreme weather caused by...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is warning of potential damage to crops and the high food prices that could follow after the New York metropolitan area saw record high temperatures this past weekend. “It hit ~70° in NY,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Sunday night. “In January. This weather at this time of year can be very risky for local farmers & families they serve.” “If certain crops germinate/flower prematurely & a freeze follows, crops could fail or drop in yield. When food supply drops, prices rise,” she continued, while adding the hashtag #ClimateCrisis. Her post came in response to another tweet sent...

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a finding that could – and certainly should – undermine some of the most outrageous lawsuits and jury awards in American history. Bolstered by San Francisco area juries that have given multi-multi-million-dollar awards to clients who claim glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller) caused their cancer, jackpot justice lawyers have recruited some 20,000 additional “corporate victims” who hope to reap their own fortunes.Their cases are based on the assertion that: (a) Bayer-Monsanto negligently or deliberately failed to warn consumers that the glyphosate it manufactures is carcinogenic; (b) the plaintiffs used Roundup...

Some plants emit a high frequency distress sound when they are placed under environmental stress, a team of researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel has found. The team, led by Itzhak Khait, examined the sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants when stressed by insufficient water or when their stems are cut. Microphones recorded ultrasonic sounds between 20 and 100 kilohertz emitted by the plants in both cases, the study found. The sounds emitted by the stressed plants are at frequencies unable to be heard by humans, however the team of scientists believes “some organisms” can hear the sounds...

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

Writing in the Journal of Ethnobiology, Natalie Muellert, assistant professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences, describes how she painstakingly grew and calculated yield estimates for two annual plants that were cultivated in eastern North America for thousands of years—and then abandoned. Growing goosefoot (Chenopodium, sp.) and erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum) together is more productive than growing either one alone, Mueller discovered. Planted in tandem, along with the other known lost crops, they could have fed thousands. Archaeologists found the first evidence of the lost crops in rock shelters in Kentucky and Arkansas in the 1930s. Seed caches and dried...