Nearly of the US's garlic comes from China. Another quarter of it from Spain. At least it did before the trade war. It's possible some of the garlic being sold rn is the tail end of garlic that was shipped in before the tariffs started. wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtra...

Some possible reasons: US went from potato exporter to importer. Mostly from Canada. Most of the potato parts of Canada are pretty close to the potato parts of the US (AB & BC vs ID, OR, & WA). So it's not a HUGE difference. But it can change up supply chains just enough to be noticeable.

Trump administration announces bold new jobs program for every writer with a backbone & a functional clicky-finger

see I knew I was forgetting something can't believe "pizza" is the one that fell off the map

*carb + cheese + a nontoxic member of the Solanaceae

Shower thought: way more food is "mostly just grain + cheese + tomato" than you would think lasagna spaghetti (marina + parmesan etc) enchiladas grilled cheese & tomato soup nachos if there's salsa I gotta be missing some

trying out that "live premiere thing" YT can do with this video rn there's a live chat & stuff and I am IN IT youtu.be/FJSPO55yMYk

Update: -I got Venmo to work! -Then the checks arrived in the mail. -Recipient duly trashed the checks, bc Venmo payments had been withdrawn from my account. -Venmo locked his account for "suspicious activity" (new account getting paid too much I guess) -Now he & I both don't have the money

Thanks to every mainstream media org that ran a “RFK has some good ideas, actually” piece.

The kind .. you find … in a second hand store

always reblog food system insights

Sounds like Brexit's going well 🥲

Here's the fun thing about legalization, state-level legalization hasn't really helped the safety angle. It's still illegal at the federal level. So food & safety agencies (which are mostly state-level) are breaking federal law if they inspect & enforce safety laws on weed grows. So they don't.

Kinda sorta? There were some advances in LED tech ~10-20 years ago that made them cheap enough for plants. Before that, greenhouses & indoor weed growers both used high pressure sodium lamps. This is an HPS light- deep orange color.

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported? NOEM: We haven't deported veterans MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

Today's Journey in Enshittification: I'm trying to pay a guy and NOTHING is working? Sent the check through the mail: It didn't arrive. Venmo: It worked! Once! Refuses a repeat performance with "technical error, try again later." Setting up an ACH w my bank: "Technical error, try again later."

There was this exploding churro video going around a while back. It had some weird food science stuff going on in it that I don't think anyone has talked about yet, so here it is!

Happy Friday everyone 🎉

If you needed bracing commentary in your day about rural politics & how playing victim isn't the flex we think it is... here you go. youtu.be/hAbU5J-5Z_k

Exactly. If there IS local media, it rarely covers "how the county commission is shady." Bc then, the county commission kicks you out of their meetings! Blacklists you from anything that matters! Then you have nothing to report on! You're not even local media anymore!

Yes thank you! We keep doing this & then we wonder why rural areas "don't feel seen."

Bingo. That's what grinds my gears about making this into an "oh no data centers" problem. That implies that it's new, & restricted to where there are data centers. Absolutely not the case. This is bog standard for rural areas with a lot of livestock, & has been for decades.

Really appreciate your thread here. People are very eager to be critical of new tech infrastructure but seem to treat the existing hideous pollution that we live with as a normal and immutable fact of life that nobody is responsible for.

Yeah I could be wrong but it feels very much like a case of "Journalist documents local corruption, where the corrupt people are blaming Amazon to avoid responsibility" -> "Editor makes the headline about data centers bc nobody will click on stories about local corruption"

Rolling Stone: clearly documents a 30+ year long con job. A rural county's own leadership lined their pockets by helping ag interests destroy the water supply. Everyone who read the article apparently??: Amazon data centers did this in 2011 www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

now taking wagers on when the YouTube channel hits 100K

The dang thing is it works! Shoutout to the old heads at farm jobs over the years who got me in the "warmup & PT before starting work, you 20-something IDIOT" habit a long time ago. Preventative maintenance goes a long way! Then you're already in the habit when it becomes mandatory.

If you're seeing headlines about how China is "switching back to US soybeans" after Brazil's turned out to be contaminated LOL no. It's like 5 facilities and 69K tons of soybeans. Out of ~2,000 facilities and ~100M tons of beans shipped from Brazil to china. www.thepoultrysite.com/news/2025/11...

Yep a few do! But to pull it off, you have to be able to raise cattle all the way from birth to finished fattened beef. And if your land is productive enough to marble a steer, you can do a LOT more profitable things with it than "game the cattle cycle 1 year out of 4 or 5."

Now offering remedial training for the USDA Secretary

TFW when you, a journalist who has occasionally spoken to people in the cattle industry, know more about it than the Secretary of Agriculture. Makes you long for the good old days of John Block.

Our USDA Secretary who doesn't even know what the cattle cycle is What a time to be alive

Happy Thanksgiving, please enjoy some messed-up lore about the US's farm & food history. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hByb...

If you've heard about RFK Jr's "wellness farms," have I got a story for you. I've worked on farms where most of the crew were put there as rehabilitation for various issues. So I'd love to tell you all the various ways those farms made us all worse! youtu.be/pDNoVqiGb_c

squirrel: *points gun* me: what do you want me to do? squirrel: *gestures at sign* me: alright, i get it *opens book drop* squirrel: *makes hurry-up motion* me: NOT A SQUIRREL! squirrel: *disappears into book drop* me: *whispers* forgive me, keith

Yep, that's called "topworking" Most of the big orchards that used to grow Red Delicious are now Gala, Honeycrisp, & Cosmic Crisp. And it's not because they cut the orchards down & started over! They just topworked the new varieties in & pruned out the branches of the older varieties.

😭👵

People had questions, like "Are there apples that taste & crunch like Honeycrisp? But without the existential rage about being alive?" Yep! Let's talk about them!

Trump just cut farm workers' wages $1-3/hr, and there IS something we can do about it. youtu.be/AnCJfhLxk_c

No see that's what they love about her She's just a mom trying to take care of her family! ✨ And the corporate suits hated that! ✨✨

aw sweet the MAHA girlies are starting to turn Elizabeth Holmes into a folk hero

I finally started watching Clarkson's Farm

✨ international nut grove nerdery ✨

Huh...... pretty much completely off-topic, but Trump has a property somewhere that hires H2A workers. The job description for them is managing a vineyard.

There's been a lot of pearl-clutching about public grocery stores! Which is wild, because we have a LOT of experience with public grocery stores in the US. And the folks it serves (US military & military families) stand by it.

Sarah is a must follow for anyone who wants a better understanding of what's really going on with the modern agriculture sector. So many things that seem incomprehensible suddenly make a lot more sense when you hear what she has to say... @sarahtaber.bsky.social

don't know why YouTube decided I want to hear about the latest research on irrigating macademia nuts but absolutely I do

Did an interview with these guys regarding the Current Situation www.youtube.com/watch?v=gInB...

Y'all need Jesus, happy Sunday

You ever just snap & write a sternly-worded letter to threaten people for feeding hungry children? No?