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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • Iceland produces most of their cucumbers in high tech greenhouses using geothermal energy for heat and light.

    Greenhouse cucumbers grow best in temps around 25-35c. Since the ambient temp in Iceland is usually cooler than this, venting the greenhouse is uncommon.

    As the plants use CO2 in photosynthesis the levels of CO2 in the air decline and the O2 levels increase. The lower levels of CO2 drastically slow down the cucumbers growth. The growers often supplement the plants with CO2 from tanks.


  • The smaller restaurants kept their prices tracking actual inflation to maintain their customer base. Lately they have been enjoying increased business because of the nationals screwups.

    The local Greek place $65.

    The best taco truck in town is $55.

    For $75 I can get my local family owned Thai place with leftovers for the next day.

    DQ, McD, Subway, KFC, all run between $60-75.

    For $70 I can even get my family chipotle and enjoy the guaranteed food poisoning a few hours later.




  • You want to really get worried?

    Everything we produce in agriculture is constantly fighting off plagues. From insects, bacterial, fungal and virus infections. It is constantly under attack.

    In crops on average farmers have to change to new varieties every 10 years. In some species it’s every 3-4.

    Global warming is also making it much harder for agriculture. Higher temps = diseases come earlier in the season and last longer. Pest populations are not reduced as much over the winter.

    We have also reached the limits of traditional breeding in many species for disease/pest resistances.

    There is ways we can prevent the pending collapse but not without some massive investments, a complete overhaul of the laws, and fundamental changes in how we do agriculture.









  • No it’s not what happened to North Korea at all. I have no clue where you got that from.

    The collapse of the Soviet Union cutting off food, fuel, fertilizer, and technology support started it.

    Then torrential rainfall and flooding destroyed that years crop and food storage in the main production regions. It also destroyed many of their hydroelectric dams and irrigation systems. Without support from the soviets they had no way to repair them.

    However the main reason hundreds of thousands of not millions died was because of the governments unwillingness to open their borders for international aide/trade. The government deliberately starved their population.


  • This sounds like a government program with good intentions but no actual understanding of what needed to be done.

    First off both organic and conventional farming methods do acidify the soil. Contrary to what these farmers think organic/traditional farming does it much more rapidly.

    Higher rainfall zones also naturally have more acidic soils. Traditionally cultures have temporarily overcome this by burning the vegetation (slash and burn).

    If 70% of the soil in the country is acidic the government program should have been to subsidize lime application and soil testing first. Lime is much cheaper than fertilizer anyways and balancing out the pH makes all nutrients more available.

    They could have then subsidized the appropriate usage of fertilizer based upon the test results. Blindly applying any type of fertilizer is a recipe for disaster. Fertilizers must be applied in balance for the crop, soil type, pH, and the nutrients.





  • “boy do I have thrips” triggered a funny memory.

    When I worked in Ag. Research we had a big international field day. People from 50+ countries visiting in. I got the wonderful job of doing presentations in the field all day long. This was in late summer on a bad thrip year.

    Well, one of the office goons decided that they would order all the staff polo shirts for the three day event. We were all supposed to wear the same color on the specified day.

    They ordered in a light blue, yellow, and green polos. The first day was to be light blue. I “accidentally” wore the green one instead and had a few very irate office goons on my back first off that morning. Strangely enough all of the experienced outdoor staff “accidently” wore the green shirt as well.

    For those that don’t know, thrips are highly attracted to light blue and they bite. I laughed my ass off most of the day.

    The following two days everyone wore green. Except for the one determined office goon who wore the yellow shirt. In a field full of honeybee hives…