Terry Daynard

This graphic illustrates the distribution of the labor force across different sectors—agriculture, industry, and services—based on income levels of countries in 2023. On the left, there is a stacked bar representing low-income countries, where 59% of the workforce is in agriculture, 10% in industry, and 31% in services. Next, the lower-middle-income group shows a breakdown of 40% in agriculture, 23% in industry, and 37% in services. The upper-middle-income countries have 21% in agriculture, 28% in industry, and 51% in services. Finally, in high-income countries, only 3% of the labor force is in agriculture, with 23% in industry and 74% in services. The title highlights the trend that higher-income countries have fewer agricultural workers and a greater proportion involved in industry and services. The footer indicates the data source is the International Labor Organization (2025)

In low-income countries, most people work in farming; in richer countries, they work in services

Will Climate Change Really Take Away Our Breakfast? A Recent High-Profile Nature Paper Doesn’t Say What Its Authors Say it Does

I see so many articles like this on Bluesky, but not near as many like this, www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/will-clima...
I find Bluesky is a useful source of academic views and pubs on world food supply and potential risks, but for farmers seeking practical advice, X/Twitter remains much better.

Study shows that root growth is important to helping plants procure water during droughts. Most farmers have sensed this is true for a few millennia.

We are selling our 2014 John Deere 6125M Tractor with a 4-year-old H310 loader for $105,000 obo. It has 2,366 hours, 40K PowerQuad Plus transmission, closed-center hydraulics, and Cat 3 HD 3-point hitch. Wheels set to fit in 30" rows. Message for details. One owner, Wendy driven. Uxbridge, Ontario.

Is there a published reference?

Quality of scientific papers questioned as academics ‘overwhelmed’ by the millions published Mainstream mockery of AI-generated rat with giant penis in one paper brings problem to public attention It was, at first glance, just another scientific paper, one of the millions published every year, and destined to receive little to no attention outside the arcane field of biological signalling in stem cells destined to become sperm. But soon after the paper was published online, in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, it found a global audience. Not all of the readers came for the science. Continue reading...

Quality of scientific papers questioned as academics ‘overwhelmed’ by the millions published

No, it's not the case that only China is responsible for the large decline in extreme poverty over the past decades.

We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china

Many researchers also seem to have problems in making a proper adjustment for changes in soil bulk density.

FAO’s support of ag biotech begins to return | The Western Producer After 20 years, the UN's FAO is re-embracing ag biotech and gene-editing to improve food sustainability, marking a significant shift in its messaging.

⁦‪@stuartsmyth66‬⁩ writes that it was refreshing to see ag biotech receive a positive reception at a recent ⁦‪@FAO‬⁩ conference

www.producer.com/news/faos-su...

The reference is: www.ontario.ca/files/2024-1...

There are reports from ON showing both SOC increases, and not (more commonly the latter), with CC usage. The results from this 2024 survey of 500 farms (sampling to 30 cm) is very informative. On average, no CC effect. (Boundaries for categories of soil organic matter depend on soil texture.)

Do Cover Crops Increase Soil Organic Carbon Content? What do the Meta-Reviews Say? I’ll start with a definition: I think most agriculturalists take ‘cover crop’ to mean a crop grown in the same year as a primary crop such as a harvestable grain or horticultural crop, and that’s w…

Do you think 200-300 kg/ha/yr is a typical C sequestration from cover crops in a northern climate, Thomas? My review of relevant literature was less optimistic. tdaynard.com/2021/02/17/d...

Corn should be knee high by July 1 in Canada!

The flawed interpretations continue:
x.com/BjornLomborg...

AI summaries kill search traffic. This has been an obvious consequence of Google's AI summary strategy since its inception.

Apparently the training data is so valuable that Google is willing to risk the neck of the goose that lays golden eggs.

Screenshot: thebullshitmachines.com/lesson-9-blu...

Lots of gray issues for sure.
When does "moderate" become "extreme"?
I seem to recall that what Environment Canada terms as "extreme heat" in Guelph (32C) is a typical summer day in St. Louis.
I think if one talks about climate change effects, cold is as significant as hot.

I seem to recall authors, including Bjorn Lomborg, who have presented data showing many more deaths each year because of extreme low versus high temperatures, but I don't have these data readily at hand.

Yes.

Any thoughts on how climate change may reduce exposure to temperatures below the limit of human tolerance?

Every #CanadaDay, we celebrate George Atkins, the founder of Farm Radio International.

Today would have been George's 109th birthday. We are so proud to continue his legacy at Farm Radio International

Happy birthday George!

As we've written, technology has historically continued increasing global crop yields even in the face of climate change. Wheat yields have increased 218% since 1961, relative to a hypothetical 235% w/o climate change. thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-...

So many misleading headlines. The new Nature paper doesn't predict that crop yields will *fall*. It finds that climate change will slow growth in yields, but that thanks to innovation and other factors, yields will "probably" continue rising above today's levels.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Here’s How Interplanetary Missions Slingshot around the Solar System Spacecraft can get a significant boost by stealing energy from planets

You know that "gravitational slingshot" thing they always use in scifi movies and TV shows?

Yeah, that's real*. Here's how it works.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

* though they usually get it wrong in movies and TV shows

🧪 🔭

When we think about money flowing from richer to poorer countries, foreign aid is one of the first things that comes to mind.

But another major channel receives far less attention in mainstream conversations: the money that migrants send back to their families or bring home after working abroad.

Pairwise Licenses Gene Editing Tools to CIMMYT to Fast-Track Smallholder Farming Systems’ Transformation Global Fulcrum™ license spans 20 countries for trait development in maize, wheat, sorghum, millets, pigeon pea, and groundnut

CIMMYT is licensing gene editing tools from Pairwise- gaining access to tech normally only available to very large private sector players- to speed development of new varieties of key crops for global food security.

No mention of future genetic improvements.
Consider that climate has been warming for many decades and yet yields of most major crops have increased.
Why so?
Mostly because of genetic improvements.

It's interesting that Canada has a king and it seems to be working OK.
Perhaps it's more critical how much power he holds (or she, when a queen is our head of state).

When will the popular press stop falling for the EWG fearmongering noise?

There is little evidence to support this framing. And it does real harm.

Reality: a yearly PR stunt that, alas, always works...

A bar chart titled "We could save 275,000 women from dying in pregnancy or childbirth if we achieved low maternal mortality rates everywhere." It compares three scenarios: "The world is awful" shows 286,000 maternal deaths in 2020. "The world is much better" estimates 1.2 million deaths if maternal mortality rates were as high as in the past (900 per 100,000 live births, like Finland and Sweden in 1750). "The world can be much better" shows that deaths could drop to 11,000 if global rates matched those of the best-performing countries (8 per 100,000 live births, like Europe in 2020).

For most of human history, pregnancy and childbirth were very risky; mothers would die in at least 1 in 100 pregnancies.

Since the average woman would have at least four or five children, the lifetime risk of dying from maternal causes would be at least 1 in 25. This was true everywhere.

The problem compounds if/when nitrates absorbed by autumn cover crops are released if/when cover crops die over-winter, providing a ready feedstock for N2O formation in early spring.