Steve

The image presents a comparison of the leading causes of death in the United States for 2023 and the media coverage these causes receive from three news outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fox News. In the footer, it notes the data sources, indicating that the information is based on media mentions from Media Cloud (2025) and death data from the US CDC (2025) and the Global Terrorism Index, with a clarification that values are normalized to sum to 100%.

Does the news reflect what we die from?

Wildfire smoke is charring your wine. This microbe could help Bacteria already living on grapes can break down smoky chemicals that wreck flavor

In 2020, wildfires in California and Oregon cost the U.S. wine industry an estimated $3.7 billion in losses. And with climate change fueling ever longer, drier fire seasons, winemakers are desperate for new defenses.

Now, a new study offers a surprising new lead. https://scim.ag/42m7vHB

lots of folks are starting to submit AFRI grant applications today (one of USDA NIFA's signature programs), under a government shutdown. Who knows when we'll see a dime of that money go out to support critical ag research

USDA funding delays under Trump compromise agricultural research Sharp drop in grant awards leaves researchers frustrated

USDA funding delays under Trump compromise agricultural research doi.org/10.1126/science.z6m1yp4 "We are all juggling"

The planet, and human social life, depend on peasant farmers | Aeon Essays Far from being a relic of the past, peasants are vital to feeding the world. They need to be supported, not marginalised

Great article on peasants as environmental stewards. aeon.co/essays/the-p... Peasants are central to agroecology, but we have a complicated relationship with the term in the US. Read to the end for a poignant quote that might resonate with a lot of US farmers

Forest expansion may actually increase farming output Agriculture is the largest cause of deforestation. But new research finds forest expansion may not displace agriculture.

See also: www.futurity.org/forest-expan...

Empirical evidence supports neither land sparing nor land sharing as the main strategy to manage agriculture–biodiversity tradeoffs doi.org/10.1093/pnas... ¿por que no los dos?

Farm Aid Turns 40 and Returns to Crisis Mode

“The 40th anniversary concert comes at an auspicious time, as American farmers face perhaps the bleakest economic conditions since the 1980s farm crisis that spurred the first Farm Aid.”

Banking on Pollen When seed saving doesn’t work, pollen may be the answer to preserving botanical heritage.

Seed banks are critical for preserving the genetic diversity of imperiled plants. But did you know there are some species--including up to a third of Hawai‘i’s at-risk plant species--whose seeds simply cannot be banked? How do we save those?

Enter: pollen banking.

A revolution is sweeping Europe’s farms: can it save agriculture? Momentum is building for regenerative agriculture, a set of approaches that could help farms to weather the changing climate and make them more profitable.

Nature reports on the momentum that is building in Europe for regenerative agriculture, a set of approaches that could help farms to weather the changing climate and make them more profitable. #plantscience 🧪

Herbivores induce plant chemical defenses based on the identity of their attacking parasitoid Many parasitoids increase plant fitness by decreasing herbivore feeding damage. Solitary parasitoids (where only one individual completes development per host) generally cause their hosts to feed les...

Herbivores induce plant chemical defenses based on the identity of their attacking parasitoid doi.org/10.1002/oik.... "...we found evidence for specific plant responses to feeding by different herbivore–parasitoid combinations that was... dependent on parasitoid identity."

Who controls food in the West? - High Country News Consolidation, shifting politics, water rights and the myth of the cowboy all play into the region’s ability to feed itself.

“No other corporation in history has ever amassed this degree of control over the U.S. food system.”

Researchers speaking to a group of people in front of a vineyard, with mountains in the background

Got to visit Virginia Tech's research farm in Winchester for a field day this morning. Possibly among the most scenic research farms in the US

A screenshot from an RSS reader showing diverging coverage of the MAHA report from two ag news sites. Civil Eats reports that MAHA "moves further away" from their goals, while CropLife highlights industry groups that "applaud" the MAHA report

A tale of two sources

Heard a grain marketer speak at a farmer meeting tonight. Lots of folks started to shift in their seats when he spoke about the current soybean market - Brazilian farmers grow 6 billion bu annually vs 4 billion bu from US, China demand for US beans has completely evaporated this year

RFK Jr.'s new MAHA roadmap is finally public The long-awaited document stops short of surprise regulations and leaves pesticides alone.

The #MAHA strategy document is finally public.

Contrary to what MAHA world wanted, it argues pesticide regulations are already “robust.”

It also calls for ensuring the “best childhood vaccine schedule” and addressing vaccine injuries.

More details below:

www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Report: Big businesses are doing carbon dioxide removal all wrong The technology is needed to limit global warming. But corporations are supporting it in lieu of emissions reductions.

Fossil fuels emit carbon that had been stored on geological time scales. Effective carbon dioxide removal needs to sequester carbon for a long, long time. grist.org/accountabili...

Mycorrhizal Network and Symbiotic N‐Fixer Jointly Enhance the Interplant Nitrogen Sharing Symbiotic interactions with mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria synergistically enhance nitrogen transfer between plants via mycorrhizal networks. Our synthesis of 15N labeling studies rev...

Mycorrhizal Network and Symbiotic N-Fixer Jointly Enhance the Interplant Nitrogen Sharing doi.org/10.1111/ele.... "In the presence of mycorrhizal networks, N transfer from N-fixing donors to non-N-fixing receivers increased... accounting for 5.61% of the total N in receiver plants."

The Rio Grande’s pecan problem - High Country News How Big Ag is threatening New Mexico’s water supply.

Powerful food interests in the West are putting profit ahead of the environment. @thefern.org

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother Nature - Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/467N16m

saw the paper headline a couple of days ago, and the paper is more optimistic than I first thought. Only focuses on geologic storage, not in soils or ocean. I worked on enhanced weathering in agricultural soils, and carbon storage there would be beyond what's in this study (still not unlimited tho)

A prudent planetary limit for geologic carbon storage - Nature A risk-based, spatially explicit analysis of carbon storage in sedimentary basins establishes a prudent planetary limit of around 1,460 Gt of geological carbon storage, which requires making explicit ...

here's the paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

How much carbon can we safely store underground? Much less than previously thought. Carbon storage “can no longer be considered an unlimited solution to bring our climate back to a safe level.”

How much carbon can we safely store underground? Much less than previously thought. grist.org/science/carb...

The words we use to talk about nature are disappearing. Here’s why that matters. We’ll need to do more than ‘touch grass’ to revive them.

The words we use to talk about nature are disappearing. Here’s why that matters. grist.org/language/nat... "Experts say that detachment from nature is at the root of many of the environmental problems the world faces today, from biodiversity loss to climate change."

btw Gophers were up 59-0 at the half, and Northwestern St had only 18 yds total offense... not the best of college football

Soil health practices increase farm profitability Learn how soil health practices can boost farm profitability and resilience, with strategies for beginners, intermediate and advanced practitioners.

"Wherever you are in your soil health journey, the message is clear: Keep going because the benefits will compound with every season." www.farmprogress.com/soil-health/...

Winter camelina shows promise as cover crop alternative Research indicates winter camelina may offer benefits similar to rye for reducing nitrate leaching, without negatively impacting corn yields in rotation.

Winter camelina emerges as promising alternative to rye cover crop www.farmprogress.com/cover-crops/... Some info about comparing cover crops against a new winter cash crop for the Upper Midwest

Catching up on some news reading while watching Minnesota vs. Northwestern St

POLITICO Pro: Millions in research funding for farmers on hold at USDA as fiscal deadline approaches The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program has supported hundreds of farmers and ranchers annually for decades, but its $48 million in funding has yet to be distributed.

NEW: Nearly $50M in research and education funding for farmers and nonprofits remains on hold at USDA.

It's not clear why but the end of FY25 is almost here.

If it's not spent, the money goes back to Treasury.

Effects of grazing exclusion and pasture management on soil microbial communities in Californian irrigated pastures Grazing lands in California and across the globe are increasingly challenged to meet rising livestock product demands while simultaneously balancing d…

🌱 From Applied Soil Ecology: In California pastures, soil microbes show little response to grazing exclusion, with communities shaped more by site conditions than management. (Danny J. Eastburn, Leslie M. Roche)

▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#PlantScience #Rangelands