Free Republic

Would you look at that? Trump's tariffs are having their intended impact for American businesses. At least for now. In Alabama, farmers are showing their gratitude for President Trump's tariffs which are making business boom in the produce world. It's only been two days now and we've actually had a lot more calls of people having interest in doing business and the price hasn't even changed. So, this leveling the playing field with international trade actually ... levels the playing field? A 17% tariff was all it took?? From NBC 13 in Birmingham: Many are concerned this will mean higher...

Amid disastrous green diktats and crippling cuts to farmers’ livelihoods, the out-of-touch elites in Brussels seem to have forgotten where their food comes from. This afternoon, farmers from all over the European Union met outside the European Parliament to march on the Berlaymont, the European Commission’s HQ. Organised by COPA-COGECA, the umbrella body for 22 million European farmers, the demonstration should by all rights be a wake-up call for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The unions will hand over a petition signed by 6,335 organisations, along with a symbolic pair of boots, in protest of the EU’s plans to...

Alcohol may have done more than just fuel celebrations in ancient societies. A study led by Václav Hrnčíř from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology suggests that indigenous fermented drinks helped ancient societies grow in size and complexity. The study, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, draws a link between alcohol and the rise of structured governance. Researchers analyzed data from 186 traditional societies worldwide. They found that communities producing their own alcoholic drinks, like fruit wines or cereal beers, often showed higher levels of political organization. The team focused on societies that existed before industrialization and widespread...

Our study explored the evolutionary trajectory of grapevine cultivation in Italy through the analysis of archaeological grape pips spanning approximately 7,000 years...During the Early Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods, the absence of morphologically domestic grapes suggests a reliance on wild grape gathering, possibly with some experiment of proto-cultivation of wild grape.Despite previous research showing the presence of domestic grapes in Middle Bronze Age sites such as Pertosa Cave in southern Italy and Sa Osa in Sardinia, our study of grape pips from several other sites do not reveal robust evidence for domestic grapes in Middle Bronze Age sites in...

What makes the Galápagos tomatoes particularly notable is not just that they produce alkaloids, but that they are generating types not seen in modern tomatoes...The team examined more than 30 tomato specimens collected from various locations across the islands. They discovered that tomatoes growing on the eastern islands produced alkaloids similar to those found in today's cultivated varieties. However, tomatoes from the western islands were synthesizing a different form of the molecule—one that matched the chemical profile of ancient eggplant relatives.This distinction is due to stereochemistry, which refers to the spatial arrangement of atoms within a molecule. Two compounds can...

“Farm security is national security,” declared U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins, as she unveiled a sweeping National Farm Security Action Plan at a press conference on July 8, 2025. Flanked by Trump adviser Peter Navarro, several governors, and key Cabinet officials, Rollins rolled out the most aggressive federal effort in decades to curb foreign ownership of U.S. farmland and shield the agricultural sector from national-security threats, particularly those posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).The USDA’s announcement follows a February 2025 directive from President Trump, who ordered the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)...

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins revealed that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is rolling out the National Farm Security Action Plan, which will “promote agricultural prosperity” and “defend the foundations of agriculture” and strengthen the U.S. domestic food supply. During a virtual pen & pad event on Monday evening, ahead of a press conference on Tuesday, Rollins explained that the plan includes “seven key action items.” One of the key action items focused on “securing and protecting the American farmland,” while another key point focused on “rooting out fraud, abuse, and foreign adversaries” that were posing a threat...

A new study published in the journal Science suggests that humans might have played a significant part in the sudden deforestation of rainforests from Central Africa. This work contradicts the prevailing view that the expansion of farming practices was the root cause as well as the increased incidence of long, severe dry spells.Germain Bayon, a geochemist at the French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea in Plouzané, and his colleagues examined the weathering of sediment samples that were drawn from the mouth of the Congo River. Deforestation intensifies weathering; therefore the clay samples would provide a continuous record of...

The switch to agricultural rather than hunter-gatherer-based societies is one of the most pivotal moments in the history of humankind. Archaeologists have long thought that this transition may have been influenced by hardships, as communities began relying more heavily on domesticated crops due to increasing population and diminished wild resources. However, according to a statement released by the Public Library of Science, new evidence from Peru's Altiplano region suggests that this was not the case there. Researchers recently examined the diets of 16 individuals buried at the sites of Kaillachuro and Jiskairumoko between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago, during the...

The Blue Book, the voter information booklet sent to voters prior to the narrow passage of Proposition 114, which began the release of gray wolves into western Colorado, indicated the wolf program would cost taxpayers $800,000 annually. Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis told legislators the cost of the program in FY 2024 is over $3 million, about $2.2 million over budget. In a hearing of the joint Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee this week, Sen. Dylan Roberts, D–Frisco, who represents the areas most impacted by wolf releases, said he understands much of that figure represents prevention and...

According to a statement released by The Australian National University (ANU), researchers have identified the earliest known evidence of rice in the Pacific Islands. Rice was originally domesticated in central China 9,000 years ago, but it took thousands of years for it to reach the Marianas Island in western Micronesia. Phytolith analysis of microscopic plant debris found on pottery from the Ritidian Beach Cave in northern Guam indicated that rice arrived there at least 3,500 years ago. Previously, the earliest known evidence of rice in the remote Pacific dated to between 1,000 and 700 years ago, so this discovery pushes...

Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced during a meeting of the Western Governors’ Association in New Mexico, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule. This outdated administrative rule contradicts the will of Congress and goes against the mandate of the USDA Forest Service to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands. Rescinding this rule will remove prohibitions on road construction, reconstruction, and timber harvest on nearly 59 million acres of the National Forest System, allowing for fire prevention and responsible timber production. This rule is overly restrictive...

A new genome mapping model uncovered 62 key trait loci in bananas, overcoming chromosomal barriers and aiding future crop improvement across complex plant genomes. Bananas are a dietary staple for millions of people, but their cultivation faces serious threats due to limited genetic diversity and significant breeding challenges. In a major scientific breakthrough, researchers examined more than 2,700 triploid banana hybrids to uncover the genetic basis of 24 important traits related to yield, plant structure, and fruit quality. By using a high-resolution SNP dataset along with an adapted genome-wide association study (GWAS) model, the team identified 62 genomic regions associated...

Here’s a story you won’t see the mainstream media cover, ever: the white African farmers once demonized and stripped of their land and livelihoods under Robert Mugabe’s Marxist dictatorship in Zimbabwe didn’t just vanish into thin air. These fighters packed up, crossed the border, and rebuilt. And guess what? They’re doing amazing. If you don’t recall, back in the early 2000s, Zimbabwe’s government kicked off a so-called “land reform” plan that drove white farmers off their land, often violently, and handed them over to Black Zimbabweans. Roughly, about four thousand white farmers were forced out, and many were attacked or...

For three decades, Andy Henry has declined $20-30 million offers for his 21-acre, 175-year-old farm. Ironically, local government is using his perseverance to take the entire property via eminent domain and replace pasture with affordable housing. Grass for concrete? Legacy surrendered? No deal, Henry says. Period. Full stop. On South River Road, in Middlesex County, N.J., warehouses and industrial buildings have replaced the once abundant farms of yesteryear—except a lone holdout. “My family sacrificed on this land for 175 years,” Henry adds. “All the other farms disappeared. We did not. We will not.” In 1850, Joseph McGill—Andy Henry’s maternal great-grandfather—bought...

One is an event, two is a coincidence—but three is a pattern. On Monday, the Department of Justice announced that a third Chinese national has been nabbed for allegedly trying to smuggle biological materials into the United States. Making things more disturbing is a fact that a Hollywood screenwriter couldn’t have come up with: the smuggler was studying in, where else, Wuhan, China. You’ve heard of Wuhan, haven’t you? The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan released a statement alleging that Chengxuan Han, “a citizen of the PRC” (People's Republic of China), sent packages containing biological material...

Among the most surprising finds is that the inhabitants of the earliest cities of the Bronze Age (3500–1200 b.c.) were enthusiastic pig eaters, and that even later Iron Age (1200–586 b.c.) residents of Jerusalem enjoyed the occasional pork feast. Yet despite a wealth of data and new techniques including ancient DNA analysis, archaeologists still wrestle with many porcine mysteries, including why the once plentiful animal gradually became scarce long before religious taboos were enacted...In the 1990s, at the site of Hallan Çemi in southeastern Anatolia, archaeologists unearthed 51,000 animal bones dating to about 10,000 b.c. Of these, boar bones made...

A piece of bread baked millennia ago was recently unearthed in Turkey — and now a local bakery is recreating it. Scientists recently uncovered an ancient bread recipe in Turkey, and a local bakery has successfully brought it back to life. The bread, dating back roughly 5,000 years, was discovered as a piece of charred loaf buried beneath the threshold of a house in Eskisehir, a city in central Turkey. Archaeologists found this remarkable artifact in September 2024 during an excavation at Kulluoba Hoyuk, a Bronze Age settlement that has been studied for decades. An Ancient Discovery Preserved Through Millennia...

California Gov. Jerry Brown had some sharp words for environmentalist critics of his proposed Sacramento River water tunnels. On Wednesday, Brown told critics of his $15 billion plan to “shut up, because you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” according to the AP. Brown’s office told Sacramento Bee blog Capitol Alert that the governor’s remarks were made in “jest.” But the sharp rebuke highlights the tension surrounding the pricey project, which would send water from the northern part of the state south by using a pair of underground water tunnels to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River...

Vladimir Putin is demanding urgent potato imports from Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, while he delays supplying the ally with promised notorious Oreshnik horror missiles. Putin has made the shameful admission that he has run out of spuds - one of his country’s leading food staples - amid economic meltdown during his war with Ukraine. It now appears Belarus will not get the lethal missiles until after Lukashenko supplies Putin with new exports of potatoes which have spiralled in prices in Russia. The Minsk tyrant has even cancelled sanctions against imports from the EU to stock up to supply Russia. -snip-...