Why and how we spend...

[This is a recycled post from last December - it's easier than rebuilding the archives]

Every now and then you spot a larger trend that resonates with a trend in agriculture. Here is one from The Economist on conspicuous consumption:

The number of luxury buyers in the developed world is also being swelled by two other trends. First, consumers are increasingly adopting a “trading up, trading down” shopping strategy. Many traditional mid-market shoppers are abandoning middle-of-the-range products for a mix of lots of extremely cheap goods and a few genuine luxuries that they would once have thought out of their price league.

Alongside this “selective extravagance” is the growth of “fractional ownership”: time-shares in luxury goods and services formerly available only to those paying full price. Fractional ownership first got noticed when firms such as NetJets started selling access to private jets. It has since spread to luxury resorts, fast cars and much more. In America, From Bags to Riches—“better bags, better value”—lets less-well-off people rent designer handbags. In Britain, Damon Hill, a former racing driver, has launched P1 International. A £2,500 ($4,300) joining fee, plus annual membership of £13,750, buys around 50-70 driving days a year in cars ranging from a Range Rover Sport to a Bentley or a Ferrari.

( Full article here)

This rang a bell - it is similar to leasing combines, etc. that is becoming a trend across the Corn and Wheat Belt. Which led me to the question of how much is the growing acceptance and popularity of such schemes fueled by the desire to drive a bigger, nicer machine for local status reasons. If even we knew ourselves well enough to answer that honestly, I doubt any of us producers would admit it.

Still, I have been known to drive a new tractor/combine/sprayer the long way 'round to a field just to casually pass a neighbor's house. When it only happens a handful of times in your career...

The handyman's secret weapon...

No, not duct tape. The true key to successful home repair is getting the parts.

So when the door to our dishwasher slammed down tonight, I did not despair nor cry like a girl (like last time), I surfed to repairclinic.com and without a parts number or adult supervision found the correct part and ordered it.

This could be your triumphant life too.

It's not just ethanol that's threatening...

The soy industry is dealing with significant disillusionment among nutritionists and medical professionals regarding the manifold health claims associated with soy consumption.

Soy is a bean. That much we know.

But is soy a miracle worker that protects us from cancer, heart disease, bone loss and hot flashes? Or is it an overrated and menacing little legume that affects the thyroid and raises certain cancer risk and is found in nearly every processed food? [More of a must-read article for any soybean grower]

Following the fad-o-the-month in the food industry is a short-term business plan. Now with competition for acres from corn, and declining consumer infatuation (admittedly a small portion of soy consumption, but widely touted), and the flood of DDG's into the protein market, the soy industry faces a crossroads here in the US.

Meanwhile sunflower growers are being wooed like homecoming queens as processors have sold oil to transfat-fighting food makers that they had assumed would come from acres they had in their pockets. Not so fast.

When I was in North Dakota earlier this month (insert your Ole joke here), growers were chortling about skyrocketing contract offers to grow sunflowers. Processors were finally figuring out what the scarcity of 85-day corn meant.

There may be only one solution for the soybean producer: burn it.

Hey, it worked for corn!

It's worth the trip...

Be sure to make it to the Top Producer Seminar in Chicago next month. The highlight will be, of course Thursday lunch when that talented columnist from Top Producer, me, speaks. And this year I really, really am going to buy a round instead of just sponging off friends and innocent bystanders.

Click on the ads above to get all the info.

It's the best meeting I go to all year.

And where, pray tell, will those plants be?...

A company called Bluefire Ethanol is going to build 20 (count 'em, 20) cellulosic ethanol plants over the next six years. Seriously.

This is no speculator-come-lately to the ethanol scene. And they may just have the technological moxie (is that still a word?) to pull it off.

BlueFire Ethanol, Inc. (previous post) is established to deploy the commercially ready, patented, and proven Arkenol Technology Process for the profitable conversion of cellulosic ("Green Waste") waste materials to ethanol, a viable alternative to gasoline. BlueFire's use of the Arkenol Process Technology positions it as the only cellulose-to-ethanol company worldwide with demonstrated production of ethanol from urban trash (post-sorted MSW), rice and wheat straws, wood waste and other agricultural residues.

Since 2003, the technology has been successfully used in the IZUMI pilot plant operated by JGC, the licensee of Arkenol for Japan and SE Asia, to produce ethanol for the Japanese transportation fuel market. Over the last 10 years, the initial testing on a vast array of potential feedstock has been completed both in the U.S. and at various locations throughout the world. BlueFire has completed the arrangement of the major commitments necessary to proceed with final development of its first commercial facility which will be sited in California. [More]

My question: how can this make me a buck? Or will it compete with corn-ethanol?

Better still, if I start harvesting corn stover, what does that mean for my fertilizer requirements?

The most likely cause of those reported differences is the modification ofsoil nutrients due to addition/removal of residues. Although corn residue does contain significant amounts of macronutrients, the major contribution of agricultural residue to the soil is in terms of organic carbon (SOC) (Allmaras etal., 2000). Allmaras et al (2004) determined that over thirteen years of continuous corn, across tillage treatments, stover harvest (0% residue) decreased total SOCby 20% as compared to stover return (100% residue). [More]

I don't think we know. But if the cellulosic approach to ethanol takes off, we may find out the hard way.

Thanks a lot, Mom...

As many of us farmers settle in for a long winter's computer session, we may be in for back problems. The reason is surprising:

Your mother probably told you, as her mother told her: sit up straight. Whether at table, in class or at work we have always been told that sitting stiff-backed and upright is good for our bones, our posture, our digestion, our alertness and our general air of looking as if we are plugged into the world.

Now research suggests that we would be far better off slouching and slumping. Today’s advice is to let go and recline. Using a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a team of radiologists have found that sitting up straight puts unnecessary strain on the spine and could cause chronic back pain because of trapped nerves or slipped discs. [More]

Once again, we find that ignoring our own slovenly instincts was a bad decision.

I may never shave again...

'Tis the season...




This flash-animation of The Drifters' White Christmas has been around, but like Yukon Cornelius, Linus, and Ralphie, it just wouldn't be Christmas without them.

[via Neatorama]

Imagine what they could do with the scent of beer...

It seems humans - or at least college students - can follow a scent trail.

By studying blindfolded college students who crawled through grass to sniff out a chocolate-scented trail, scientists found evidence of a human smelling ability that experts thought was impossible. [More]

Meanwhile we can't smell ourselves, since our brains respond to changes in stimuli - not constants. (Thank goodness!)

In fact, there are a lot of smell myths. But my favorite "olfact" is this one:

And symmetrical men smell better.

Borrowing sweaty undershirts from a variety of men, Thornhill offered the shirts to the noses of women, asking for their impressions of the scents. Hands down, the women found the scent of a symmetrical man to be more attractive and desirable, especially if the woman was menstruating. [More]

I'm not smelly, I'm lopsided.

What a relief

Juan hasn't gone phishing...

Somebody else finds the "identity theft" cover for illegal immigration raids a little hard to swallow:

Of course, if this were presented as an immigration crackdown, people might ask: Why were no charges filed against the employer -- Swift & Co? The world's second-largest meat processing company has "never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor ... knowingly hired such individuals," Swift & Co. President and CEO Sam Rovit said in a statement.

Note the word: knowingly. Rovit didn't just fall off the meat wagon. He's read the statute. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act made it a crime to "knowingly" hire illegal immigrants.

That's a monster loophole. Suddenly, whenever there is a raid, no one knows anything. Illegal workers? Who? What? Where?

It's cynical, and it's the sort of thing that makes it hard to believe that Americans are serious about combating illegal immigration. How can we be if we don't address the problem at its source? [More]

Stay tuned, folks, this is just the beginning.

Small schools, big problems...

Small schools in rural America are dwindling. In places like Nebraska and Montana, charming country schoolhouses simply have no one to serve. Declining populations and - perhaps more importantly, fertility - have made difficult closure decisions commonplace.

Shafer and many rural Nebraskans for years have watched people leave, businesses dry up and the number of farms and ranches dwindle. In some places, small schools are among the few remaining symbols of vitality and community identity, providing hope for the future while acting as reminders of the past. An anomaly in some states, they remain a pillar of education systems in some, like Nebraska and Montana, that have remote regions where cattle have long outnumbered people.

But populations in rural areas of those and other states are dipping to levels where there are few, and sometimes no students to teach. A school in the same county as Pony Lake shut down this year when its attendance dropped to a lone student.

In Montana, small country schools are drying up like the state's drought-plagued pastures. About a hundred have closed over the last decade and "the rate of decrease has accelerated," said Claudette Morton, director of the Montana Small Schools Alliance. [More]

We are still dropping school population here in my corner of central Illinois. It seems some towns achieve a critical mass and attract job-providers and population, or the Mother of All Good Fortune , a major government facility like a university. Others are reshaped by economics into low-cost bedroom/retirement locations for those in the lower half of our economy.

There is a popular, but mistaken belief that economic support to agriculture can reverse this trend. That seems unlikely, since the determining factor for the number of people in farming is not profitability, but technology. We are adding gizmos from GPS to robot milkers that drastically lower the need for people.

A more likely scenario as prosperity surges through low-population areas may be boarding schools. You read that right. Sure, homeschooling is a choice, but requires a parental commitment some may not be able to make.

Others been here before, and when distances were not easily covered, the boarding school became a valid choice for rural parents who could afford it. Now add in religious concerns about education, worries about competing academically, and difficulty attracting qualified teachers and we could see remote education become more acceptable to the next generation of farm families. Not to be offensive, but a growing foreign (mostly Hispanic) student percentage has awakened some unfortunate biases among rural parents who would just as soon their child grows up in a familiar (to them) culture. This concern may be greater than we think since few are willing to admit to it.

Besides, these children will likely be joined at the lip with Mom and Dad, like modern college students. And despite being traditionally associated with privileged and problem students, boarding schools may only be a voucher away for many farm families concerned with education in rural schools.

Guy at Best Buy caught dancing

Well, we had one with opera, so what the hey...

Please, Santa...

All I want for Christmas is:


Periodic table socks.

For more gifts for the engineer in your life.

Big Oil has dreams too...

I generally eschew referring to the petroleum industry as "Big Oil" although it may be more descriptive than pejorative. And I suppose many would lump me in with "Big Ag" so what's sauce for the goose...

Anyway, for those of wading through the profit potential of renewable fuels, an update on the world as pictured by the people who just happen to bring us almost all of our energy needs here on the farm.

Nobody will accuse ExxonMobil (XOM) of greenwashing. The world's largest oil company released its energy forecast for the year 2030 yesterday and, in contrast to the sunflowers-and-bears imagery promoted by competitors BP (BP) and Chevron (CVX), ExxonMobil predicted a fossil-fuel future marked by skyrocketing oil and gas consumption and soaring greenhouse gases emissions. Dependence on Middle East oil will grow. Not that there's anything wrong with that: "The progress of people around the world is driving demand for more energy," the report states. "We are a world on the move and liquid fuels are essential to meet those demands....By 2030, energy demand will increase by about 60 percent, compared to 2000. The global energy mix will look very similar 25 years from now. Oil, gas and coal will be predominant." [More]

I suspect they may be right. The petroleum industry is not populated with morons or villains. In fact, they believe just as strongly as we do in their work, which is not without its uncertainties either. And they also have plenty of cash to make bets with.

[BTW - if you have not read Marcia Taylor's interview with ex-petroleum exec turned ADM CEO, Patricia Woertz, you should. We may need a "Big Ethanol" label soon.]

I think the latent fear in the alternative fuel industry is those petrodollars are working furiously to a) find new petroleum resources and b) develop technological answers to pollution problems from fossil fuels.

Suppose they succeed? Do we cheer or not?

Alagna walks off-stage in Aida at La Scala

Check out the guy who had to step up to the plate when Alagna walked. Pretty cool!

And all the ships at sea...

OK, you're probably too young to know about that phrase, but if you have marveled at the maps showing where all the airplanes in the world are at any time, take a peek at this one for cargo ships. Stop and think about it. After we locate all the trains, the next step is pinpoint all the cars. And then, all the people.

The NSA is probably working on it now.

Sticking with tried and true gifts...

Obviously a bunch of you are sticking with the ol' reliables for Christmas this year. Jewelry, appliances, frankincense...

Turns out we may be endangering frankincense trees in the Horn of Africa. (You didn't even know it came from a tree, didja?)

The trees on the Somali coast grow, without soil, out of polished marble rocks, to which they are attached by a thick oval mass of substances resembling a mixture of lime and mortar. The young trees furnish the most valuable gum, the older yielding merely a clear, glutinous fluid, resembling coral varnish.

To obtain the Frankincense, a deep, longitudinal incision is made in the trunk of the tree and below it a narrow strip of bark 5 inches in length is peeled off. When the milk-like juice which exudes has hardened by exposure to the air, the incision is deepened. In about three months the resin has attained the required degree of consistency, hardening into yellowish 'tears.' The large, clear globules are scraped off into baskets and the inferior quality that has run down the tree is collected separately. The season for gathering lasts from May till the middle of September, when the first shower of rain puts a close to the gathering for that year. [More]

So do the "green" thing and give your special someone some myhrr, instead.

Immigration and technology...

The recent raids by immigration authorities of meatpacking plants across the US signals another ratchet up in immigration enforcement. (We discussed this on USFR this week) This is a hot political topic and surprisingly fractures normal political boundaries.

Most curious about the raid was the cover story of concern about not illegal immigration but identity theft. This is a red herring in my view designed to make it seem desperate Hispanics are phishing your credit card, doubtless to engage relatively unconcerned Americans in the outrage. Reason's Kerry Howley agrees:

Something very backward is going on when anti-immigration officials are trading in dated identity scares. A litmus test for "seriousness" in the immigration debate is support for an employer verification system, a massive federal database that employers will be required to consult before making hires. And one of the chief arguments against creating that database is that it will surely spur a massive increase in actual identity theft, encouraging middlemen to sell, and undocumented workers to buy, more sophisticated false documentation. [More]

It also impacts specific sectors of agriculture, such as livestock (especially processing), dairy, and horticulture. Proponents who favor strong measures to limit illegal entry often envision forcing these industries to raise wages to attract needed workers. Certainly that would be one outcome. But more typically in the US we solve labor cost squeezes with technology.

This seems to be the direction for Europe where labor is even more expensive. Meanwhile, Australian researchers have developed robotic milkers that attach and detach autonomously. This free range dairy concept would drastically reduce the human factor for milk production.

The automatic milking machines are based on ones already used in Europe with special adaptations for Australia's free-ranging cattle. "It is basically a robot with an arm that attaches the milking cups to each teat so it milks each cow," Fulkerson said. He notes that most modern dairies use milking cups that release—but don't attach—automatically. "At the moment the farmers put them on themselves," Fulkerson said. "But the automatic machines use lasers to find the udders, and a computer memorizes the configuration of the udder for the next milking." The machines spare farmers the twice-a-day chore of rounding up their herds and attaching 200 to 300 sets of cups. Cows can visit milking sheds when they want to relieve themselves of their milk and the discomfort of full udders. "It is a better lifestyle for the cows and the farmers," Fulkerson said. [More]

The real puzzler is whether this will disadvantage or aid smaller farms - always the darlings of the media. My understanding right now is Hispanic labor has been a godsend to small dairies and it strikes me as unlikely a massive investment in robotic technology would be attractive to these operators if the source of cheap labor (and c'mon, we know much of it is illegal) dried up. This debate is continuing among dairy producers.

University of Minnesota professor Marcia Endres says often the choice is decided by the personality of the individual running the operation. "You need to fit the system with the manager, I think," says Endres. Endres says robotic milkers work best in computer savvy operations. Score one here for the Goblirsch's. Matt says he and his brother love technology. Good people managers may choose another route. They may go heavy on labor, expanding the herd and then hiring workers to run the place. Endres says each system has its trouble spots.

Other sectors are working to reduce as much manual labor as possible as well. But they have less of a problem with consolidation and larger economic production units. For agriculture, our obsession with small farms necessarily means an obsession with labor intensive farms - it's always written into the script of the agrarian life. Only Americans don't do hard work so much any more. And if we do, we position ourselves directly in competition with people who have no other economic tool to raise their lives.

The motivation factor is obvious in the comparative results. I think it likely that the uproar over illegal immigration will grow, enforcement will intensify (along with massive budgets), and small businesses will collapse under economic pressures.

Meanwhile, illegal immigrants will continue to find ways to find work.

Anybody else having problems?...

This from a long-time reader:

John, are you sure your blog is working properly? I think I have set up three accounts now, which have allowed me to post once per each of those accounts, then disallowed my password the next time I wanted to post. I've noticed that you are getting very few comments, which really surprises me, thus my suspicion that something is not right with the blog. I could be totally wrong about this and it may be that I just don't know what I'm doing (high probability) but maybe you should look into it. Denny

As far as I know, the guys at Google who run blogger (beta) know what they are doing. Lord know they have enough people and money to keep it maintained. My assumption is a problem like this would have been reported and resolved since it would affect a few bazillion blogs. I could not find anything in the help section or FAQ's about this.

My guess - and I stress the word "guess" here - is your browser security settings may be part of the issue. If the blog cannot read from your computer who you are it cannot link you to a stored account.

I'll keep investigating, but frankly I have discovered some these problems kinda go away as newer versions of browsers/blogger software are installed. Anybody who can help us out here would be eligible for a Major Award.

Another thought - you might try upgrading to Firefox 2.0 or IE 7.0

May the Force Be With You.

Seriously though...

Why aren't women as funny as men? The irrepressible Christopher Hitchens spells it out in the best article I've read in fortnights.

Why are men, taken on average and as a whole, funnier than women? Well, for one thing, they had damn well better be. The chief task in life that a man has to perform is that of impressing the opposite sex, and Mother Nature (as we laughingly call her) is not so kind to men. In fact, she equips many fellows with very little armament for the struggle. An average man has just one, outside chance: he had better be able to make the lady laugh. [Read the whole brilliant piece]

[Warning: grownup language]

Still time to order...

The Ultimate (as of 12/13/2006) Swiss Army Knife

The Giant is a real product, available for the very real price of £495, but it is aimed at completists and collectors. One gadget website correspondent has balefully written, "I envision this monstrosity being presented as a rare 'salesman's sample' on 2310's version of The Antiques Roadshow." Wenger admit that its practicality is limited, and that its purpose is partly to promote the company . [Way more]

Seriously though, I need one of these.

Really.

NIMBF and electricity prices...

A funny thing happened on the road to electricity deregulation. No - not Enron. I'm talking about the fact that all the schemes to allow users to select from multiple suppliers depended on a national electric grid that could deliver power from anywhere to anywhere. It seemed like such a great concept...

But like our roads and bridges, those transmission lines are clogged to the point of heavy congestion charges being levied in some areas. And the outcome has not met expectations, to say the least.


So why don't we build more transmission lines? Hmmm, let's guess.

The Energy Policy Act signed by President Bush last year seeks to speed construction of transmission lines by preventing state and local officials from blocking lines, or even influencing where they are built.

A federal proposal to invoke these restrictions for a proposed high-voltage line through the Allegheny Mountains in Virginia has generated hundreds of complaints. Business owners, local officials and refugees from big cities said it would be irresponsible to mar their mountain vistas and small towns with a row of 17-story steel skeletons supporting the lines.

Protests are also expected against proposed transmission lines from two nuclear plants in Arizona to Southern California and against a 1,000-mile line that Arizona Public Service plans so it would be able to cool Phoenix with electricity from wind farms and coal-fired plants in Wyoming. [More - great article]

There is strong disconnect for most of us to the benefits we enjoy here in the ol' US of A and the costs of same benefits. largely I think this is because often you can skate by with some other sucker picking up the tab. Nowhere is this more easily seen than when siting public utilities or highways.

Power lines don't need a whole bunch of acreage, and it could just as easily be on your neighbors land as yours, so why not pull in every political favor and stalling tactic to prevent becoming the fall guy. Farmers can often be strong opponents of power lines even when faced with a relatively small impact compared to residential of small business owners whose entire home or business may be in the way. We have our own Not-In-My-Back-Forty attitude to match those who don't want a CAFO sited, for example.

This is America, and so we can take action to prevent needed progress. And boy, do we ever!

Meanwhile the backlash from higher prices is growing and the political change in Washington could radically subvert this experiment in free enterprise. Much as I support the idea, I would have to say the execution of this effort to bring market forces was badly botched. The grid may be the least of our problems. For example, without a robust grid new power plants will have to be sited near population centers, and with nuclear power suddenly looking like a stroke of genius again, we won't be able to site them in less conspicuous locations like Wyoming or Oklahoma. That will slow things down a tad.

Enron was just the first sign of bad management of this transition.

I think we're about to take a step backward in energy economics, and to free market supporters I gotta say:

We had our chance and we blew it.

Why didn't Fox think of that?...

One of the longest running soap operas in England is Emmerdale, which began as Emmerdale Farm and had many plot lines woven into farm settings.

At last - recognition that our lives out here in the rhuburbs are steamy, devious, filled with beautiful people, and captivating.

In other words, reality TV.

Happy days are here again...

I have been speculating that the farm economy could be heading for that rarest of occurrences: widespread prosperity. In fact, I will be in ND with a new presentation - Prosperity for Dummies: Managing success after a long layoff.

In what may be the first of confirming indicators, the Hoosier Farm Show seems pretty upbeat.

One measure of the health of the Indiana farm economy is the health of Indiana-based farm trade shows. If the health of the 28th annual Indiana Farm Equipment Show is any indication, the Hoosier farm economy is in good shape. The show opened on Tuesday at the State Fairgrounds with record numbers of exhibitors and impressive first day crowds. “We had a waiting list of exhibitors this year and; that is the first time that has ever happened,” said Dick Sherman, Show Manager. [More]

All this leads me to believe that the relatively high margins we now anticipate won't last as long as we would like as farmers bid up input prices. It is happening with rents, fertilizer, and now maybe machinery.

Canada has a right wing?...

Those wacky Canadians are having a quite the set-to over the Canadian Wheat Board. For all of you non-wheat growers, the CWB is one of those horrible state trading enterprises (STE) that we point to in defense of our subsidies.

Anyhoo, it seems the conservative government wants to do away with its monopoly (or more accurately, monopsony) powers, which doesn't sit well with old socialists in Saskatchewan especially. Also, some Canadian farmers want to be able to sell their grain elsewhere - namely the US.

It was a "damn the Canadian Wheat Board" (CWB) vote yesterday as members elected directors. The results resolved little on the dispute with the federal government over the board's monopoly. Full speed ahead.

The pro-monopoly forces remain clinging to power, so we can only expect the foot-dragging and defiance to continue. [More]

What is interesting about this political battle is the effort by the government to dismantle a popular farmer monopoly. Although some larger farms want to have selling options, the vast majority of small farms apparently like the "single desk" powers of the CWB.

Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl is refusing to back down on a Tory campaign promise to end the Canadian Wheat Board's marketing monopoly even though farmers rejected that plan in the board's director elections.

Despite losing his bid to control the 15-member board with directors who share his vision for the Winnipeg-based agency, Strahl said he will still hold a plebiscite on opening up barley marketing. [More]

It is startling to see efforts to end this type of control in a country with such a strong socialist history. Canadian farmers could end up with few subsidies and no STE, joining Argentine, NZ, and other major ag producers as truly free-market international players.

Meanwhile, here in the land of the free, protectionism has wide bipartisan support. Besides, it is becoming apparent that grain producers would just as soon ride the wave of mandated markets for biofuels and skip exports altogether. This indifference has finally caught the attention of domestic livestock producers, who are much more invested in free trade, and who don't receive LDP's.

We're betting the farm on biofuel mandates. This should turn out OK unless some major new oil fields are discovered allowing oil to drop below $40 or so.

Like the soon-to-be formerly frozen Arctic. Or the Gulf of Mexico. Or a warmed up Siberia.

Who is burying whom...

A good friend in the deathcare (yep - that's what they are calling it now) industry brought up a stunning observation from an article he read about America's historical funeral profile. Namely, until about 1930, parents were more likely to bury children than the other way around.

A century ago, Pine said, his great-grandfather worked as a funeral director and had two livery set-ups: a black hearse with black horses for adults, and a white hearse with white horses for younger folks who had died. “They ran the white hearse more than they did the black hearse,” he said. “All the customs that we have were built around burying young people....The needs (of families) began to shift some time in the ‘30s, and the ‘40s and the ‘50s, and we didn’t necessarily recognize it.”

But there has been another major shift – a “demographic revolution” even – that many in deathcare have missed, Pine said in his Oct. 18 NFDA presentation, “The Changing Face of Death.” It explains why there’s such a gap between the kind of highly personalized “celebrations of life” that more families want today and the more routine, somber ceremonies that funeral homes had long grown accustomed to providing. “In the course of human history, most cultures have been made up of parents who buried their children, because most deaths occurred to young people,” Pine said. Today’s Baby Boomer funeral directors “are really sort of the tail end of...the first generation where children are burying their parents. This is a huge shift.” [More]

Nothing could have surprised me more, even though I have read much about our recent past. The idea of burying a child is so abhorrent I had discounted the possibility in my mind. And if you can slide past the professional observation about the "problem" of fewer deaths in the US over the next decade as a challenge to be countered, you can get some sense of how our approach to death is changing. It follows that our traditions will change as well.

It will be interesting to see how churches act to accommodate this trend. We have seen more memorial services at our small church than I remember. Funerals can be arranged to suit the mourners rather than mortuary requirements since cremation now accounts for over a third of all services.

Sadly too very large funerals occur when young people lose their lives way too soon. The link between young men and suicide is as alarming as any social problem I have experienced, and has touched our small community far too deeply. Added to the accidental deaths more associated with young people, such services remain in our memory long after we lay old friends to rest.

We derive comfort from our customs of death, and such practices are important to the grieving process. The extended lives, and nomadic lifestyles of so many of us will challenge those traditions.

Meanwhile, a very large service industry ponders how to cope with these changes.

Honey, will you put the leaves in the table?...

One the many highlights of your in-laws coming for Christmas is wrestling with the dining room table.

There is an easier way (be sure to watch one of the videos):


Probably more than a little beyond my budget.

[via boingboing]

Chains we choose...

One of the reason small towns are struggling has been America's love affair with chain stores. While widely derided by cultural critics and generally condemned as cookie-cutter retailing, they also obviously fill some retail need.

You can show people pictures of a Pottery Barn with nothing but the name changed, he says, and they’ll love the store. So downtown stores stay empty, or sell low-value tourist items like candles and kites, while the chains open on the edge of town. In the name of urbanism, officials and activists in cities like Ann Arbor and Fort Collins, Colorado, are driving business to the suburbs. “If people like shopping at the Banana Republic or the Gap, if that’s your market—or Payless Shoes—why not?” says an exasperated Gibbs. “Why not sell the goods and services people want?” [More]

Like the idea of sprawl representing the dream of owning a house, chain stores exist because we want variety and value where we live, not just where others live. And big-box retailing may actually make the pie bigger for local businesses.

My theory is chain stores likely have a shorter business half-life than one-off establishments simply because the ubiquity will over time make them unfashionable - even lame. The Gap is struggling with this curse right now.

In other words, if we let them consumers will solve this problem with free choices.

[via aldaily]

Zombie chickens - after the cheap laugh...

Culling old hens can be a problem when you work in the millions that industrial egg producers do. And just when you think you've killed them...

"Zombie chickens" is the nickname for live hens who are digging their way out, crawling and staggering from the heaps. Some say this was a one time situation where two dozen birds were buried alive, caused by inexperience, but others say that every now and then they do get zombie chickens roaming around.

These old birds don't have much in the way of meat, usually less than a pound of usable meat vs. a five pound healthy young cooking chicken. Supposedly slaughtering them properly and transporting them frozen for sale costs more than composting them. Also no one wants old stewing chickens anymore, not even soup factories, and the last California rendering plant stopped accepting the old hens as of last May. This isn't just a California problem but a nationwide one.

Suggestions are being made on how to use the retired birds. Some say make chicken sausage to feed the poor and homeless, others say use them as food for exotic reptiles kept in zoos and as pets. One industry group thinks that they could be used as fuel in power plants, like excess slaughtered beef is in some plants in Europe. Right now no one is coming up with any really practical and useful ideas. Does anyone want to start an old age home for retired hens? [More]

This makes for cute reading but we will continue to have to deal with a population of omnivores who I think prefer to avoid knowing "where their food comes from".

This old farmer lament may be better off handled with a "don't ask, don't tell" policy than strident educational efforts. We kill animals and eat them. And a lot of our neighbors really don't want to be reminded.

Works for me.

My family resembles glyphosate-resistant weeds...

Check out this cool map that show how your ancestors spread across the US.

Still - it reminded me of an invasive species...

[via Metafilter]

There is room for us inorganic, unnatural, remote growers too...

One aspect of the enormous wealth we have and generate in the First World is the ability to underwrite a vast array of arbitrary choices. You can drive a car of any color, for example, unlike the Model T. You can choose housing from an often bewildering range of styles and sizes.

And you can choose food for whatever reason you wish. The latest issue of The Economist has a brilliant article summarizing this trend:

HAS the supermarket trolley dethroned the ballot box? Voter turnout in most developed countries has fallen in recent decades, but sales of organic, Fairtrade and local food—each with its own political agenda—are growing fast. Such food allows shoppers to express their political opinions, from concern for the environment to support for poor farmers, every time they buy groceries. And shoppers are jumping at the opportunity, says Marion Nestle, a nutritionist at New York University and the author of “Food Politics” (2002) and “What to Eat” (2006). “What I hear as I talk to people is this phenomenal sense of despair about their inability to do anything about climate change, or the disparity between rich and poor,” she says. “But when they go into a grocery store they can do something—they can make decisions about what they are buying and send a very clear message.”

Although I neither buy nor grow these specialty items, I welcome their addition to the grocery shelves. The choice of food ideology is no less sacrosanct than reproductive ideology or scientific ideology.

Results, as they say, may vary:

What should a shopper do? All food choices involve trade-offs. Even if organic farming does consume a little less energy and produce a little less pollution, that must be offset against lower yields and greater land use. Fairtrade food may help some poor farmers, but may also harm others; and even if local food reduces transport emissions, it also reduces potential for economic development. Buying all three types of food can be seen as an anti-corporate protest, yet big companies already sell organic and Fairtrade food, and local sourcing coupled with supermarkets' efficient logistics may yet prove to be the greenest way to move food around.

Adherents however may be surprised by the consequences of their success. Our present food system evolved to satisfy the same goals they espouse, by people just like us making rational decisions. And as I have mentioned before, at some point somebody has to start doing the math and realizing what a staggering achievement it is to provide almost every conceivable foodstuff almost everywhere at comparatively low prices.

Our food system ain't broke. It's just not cute enough for some.

One more reason why the Boomer [Geezer] Music rules...

Amazing video of juggling to the music of the Beatles.

[via Metafilter]

Walk this way... (If I could walk that way...Ba-dum-bump) You spot someone at the far end of the field getting out of a car. You can barely see them, but as they walk along the road, you realize it is a woman. How do you make this determination? It turns out it could be hardwired deeper in our brain that we thought.

Imagine someone walking along at night strung with white Christmas tree lights. Even though you couldn't see a face or even clothing, you'd probably be able to tell if the person was male or female, young or old, just from the patterns made by the lights as they moved. Queen's University psychology professor Niko Troje thinks there's a lot more information encrypted in such "biological motion" and that it can be reliably teased out using sophisticated computer analysis. [ Deleted from Toronto Star]

Take the test to see how many walkers you can identify. [My score was 93/143.]

The Cousin Contest...

From time to time I have used friends of mine - Judy and Steve Stierwalt - as an example: between them they have 96 first cousins. This remark has always drawn gasps of incredulity from audiences.

Until today.

Becky Peterson, Director of Marketing of Farm Credit Services of Mandan, revealed she has 99 first cousins.

On one side.

(It seems her grandmother had 18 children.)



These people must be stopped.

Near and Fargo...

I just finished speaking to a group for North Dakota Farm Credit Council in Bismarck, ND. After you finish all the standard jokes, it turns out ND just might be the place to be for the next decade or so.

They have a wide variety of crop choices, the highest social capital of any state, and they are not afraid of Canadians.

Anyhoo, I told the listeners if they checked my blog I would include the reference sources for my remarks.

1. To uncover your signature strengths click here.
2. To learn more about ND economics click here.
3. For more information about happiness research click here.
   
4. To learn more about Yankee and yeomen farms click here.
5. To learn more about social capital click here.
   

The best part is I learned today the transportation issue could be the choke point for ethanol expansion. It turns out there are not enough locomotives - at least where rail is the only solution for moving ethanol.

Heard it through the grapevine...

I actually heard about this deal from the guy sitting behind me on the airplane to Bismarck, ND today. He was talking on the phone to a colleague about the buyout. I guess it's good news for his 401k retirement fund.

I wonder how many other conversations are overheard and pieced together by casual onlookers today.

My guess: too many.

For Illinois fans (after football season)...

Christmas Gift Idea #479


Basketball Mouse

[via Raw Feed]

Deep inside we're all subsidy serfs...

It seems the competition from Chinese produce growers has tempted the US industry to turn to the Dark Side.

But now, in the face of tough new competition primarily from China, even these proud groups are buckling. Produce farmers, their hands newly outstretched, have joined forces for the first time, forming a lobby group intended to pressure politicians over the farm bill to be debated in Congress in January.

Sadly, it may not save them. But by using the power of California in Congress, they may just save us older recipients by diluting our payments.

Also, as the dollar continues to drop versus the yuan, what excuse will we use?

Tell me global warming isn't good for business...


(I suppose they could cut the trees before they build the dam, but what do I know?)

And just in case the glaciers do melt, and say, Colorado is underwater, we can still harvest those trees.

And we'll build those houses where?

Wages and prosperity, the saga continues...

I have posted before about the problem of stagnant wage growth for most Americans, and have even opined that it is partly caused by the intense focus on wage pressure by the inflation-watching Fed. In short, we may be solving one problem [inflation] by deepening another [wage stagnation].

It could be it has to be this way - I don't know. But one reason econo-yahoos like Lou Dobbs are getting ratings is because this trade-off sure hits home with a lot of people who feel like they aren't sharing in the prosperity that has been hailed in the form of corporate profits.

New numbers are not reversing this trend. Paul Kaihla at Buisiness 2.0 Blog, reaches a similar conclusion:

In a normal economy, GDP goes up -- and the share claimed by workers follows along. In 2000, the last year of the Clinton boom, workers' incomes totalled 49 percent of GDP.

But that hasn't happened in the cycle since then.

As of today, worker compensation is only 45.4 % of GDP, and that calculation isn't off the back of my lunch napkin but by Nigel Gault, Global Insight's widely-followed managing director of North American macroeconomics.

Doesn't sound like much of a drop? Each percentage point equals $133 billion out of the collective pockets of workers. Also consider that wages and salaries as a share of GDP are now equal to their lowest level since 1929, the incept date for the data we're using.

Meanwhile, corporate profits as a share of GDP rose to 12.4 percent today.

How high is that? It's the highest since 1950. In 2000, at the height of the bubble economy, profits were only 11 percent.

This reversal of fortunes between business income and the income of the workers businesses employ is one of the most disturbing distoritions of the Bush II economy.

I have not been a supporter of the Economic Policy Institute -- and they don't use this yardstick for wages -- but how can you avoid concluding that, in aggrregate, these numbers justify the EPI's attacks on the national jobs recovery as a "wageless" one?

More surprising to me is staunch defenders of inflation fighting are less opposed to a minimum wage hike than previously. While it may cost some jobs, many former opponents are looking for some answer to spreading the apparent wealth growth in America around. I may not be the only apprehensive observer.


My point is less that the rich don't deserve their investment returns than a nervousness when economic inequities are going the wrong direction and academics simply justify the status quo. The equations may be right, but if a majority of ordinary people in the US feel like they are being treated unfairly, strange things begin to happen in politics. And I think Lou Dobbs qualifies as a strange thing. Also the grim outlook for trade liberalization, budget discipline, and immigration.

Theoretically, at least, the ol' invisible hand should rebalance labor and capital. If things have not undergone a fundamental change -

However, there is another factor that might have raised the return on capital relative to labour in a lasting way, namely the integration of China and India into the world economy, along with their vast supply of cheap labour. To the extent that this increases the global ratio of labour to capital, it will lift the relative return to capital. Outsourcing may not have destroyed many jobs in developed economies, but the threat that firms could produce offshore helps to keep a lid on wages. As a result, the share of profits in national income could stay relatively high for a period. Labour's share would remain low, though workers may still be better off if the cake itself is growing faster. But this is not a reason to expect profits to continue to grow faster than GDP; indeed, in a competitive market profit margins will eventually narrow. Even if outsourcing reduces costs, competition will eventually force firms to reduce prices, distributing the benefits back to consumers and workers. [More]

Regardless, I wonder if modern populations have the patience to wait for the adjustment to be made.

The problem of imaginary properties...

The organic issue gets more difficult even as it get more popular. Because organic is about how things are produced and not about the product itself, the rush to secure the market premium for organic food is becoming the realm of lawyers and regulators who can discuss with straight face how many organic angels can dance on the head of an organic pin.

Today's example is organic fish, which my counterpart at AgDay - host Scott Kinrade - has his shorts in a knot over. While it strikes him as absurd, he is young and not wise to the ways of the organic world, where perception is everything, and objective measurement is scorned.

At the moment, there is no federal standard for labeling fish as
"organic." While cows, pigs, chickens and all sorts of other animals can
easily meet existing standards by being fed specific types of food and not
getting any hormones or antibiotics added to them, fish are much harder to pin
down. Part of the problem lies in the fact that many fish are carnivorous and
because there are currently no organic fish, they cannot eat organic feed.
Additionally, to ensure that fish are only eating organically, which is not a
problem for herbivorous fish, they must be supervised and receive specific feed.
If fish have to be supervised to get the "organic" designation, that means that
wild fish will not qualify, which is a sticking point for those who actually
fish wild fish.

He is not the only observer puzzled by the bizarre nature of non-organic nature. Fear not - I shall counsel the young Jedi.

Where the organic definition gets truly theological is in prepared foods. How about organic salad dressing? Or organic macaroni and cheese?

Personally, I would prefer some preservatives in foods that hang around in my refrigerator for a few weeks, but those whose lives are diminished by the presence of extremely low risk materials in their food now have a choice.

I have no beef with organic buyers or producers. I also have no argument with folks who wear those magnetic bracelets to relieve pain until they tell me they are for real. Then I need to see some data - not anecdotes.

Pass the preservatives, please.

Christmas Gift Idea - For Boaters




Got a boater on your list? How about a personal flotation device for the boat keys?



Plus it's not expensive.

X-Play - The Emperor Gets A Job

Some humor for the Star Wars generation.

[Thanks, Aaron]

Travails in the old polonium market...

It seems the unfolding story of the Russian spy who was poisoned by polonium has triggered a major flap in the otherwise humdrum world of selling radioactive micro-sources.

All isotopes are made to order at an NRC licensed reactor in Oak Ridge Tennessee. When the isotope is made, it is shipped directly to the customer from the reactor to insure the longest possible half-life.

The exempt quantity amount of Polonium-210, or any of the radioactive isotopes sold is so small that they are essentially invisible to the human eye.
In the case of needle sources, the radioactive material is electroplated on the inside of the eye of a needle.

You would need about 15,000 of our Polonium-210 needle sources
at a total cost of about $1 million - to have a toxic amount.

In comparison, Americium-241 is a similar toxic Alpha radiation emitter.
Instead of a half life of 138 days like Polonium-210 has, it has a half life of over 450 years. It is far more toxic - and there is 10 times more than the 'exempt quantity' amount in every smoke detector in your home.

[Please note these are fresh radioactive materials - not your stale leftovers.] An interesting note about the owner of this retail website:

United Nuclear is run by Bob Lazar, who some 20 years ago claimed to have worked on alien spaceships on a secret military base in Nevada, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Lazar was unavailable for comment on Tuesday. [More]

I also suspect we're in for a bunch of smoke-detector regulations now.

[via Metafilter]