Young Generation of Farmers

The average age of the American farmer is 57, and getting older. Farms used to be kept in the family and passed from generation to generation. In this age of large–scale industrialized farming do we need family farms anymore? What type of young person gets into farming these days?

This week, we look at an emerging young generation of farmers.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same." - Carlos Castaneda (American author, 1925 - 1998)

Young Generation of Farmers

VTT to study one of world’s oldest beers

We've talked about beer and it's mineral content, as well as how beer was one of the six drinks that shaped the world. Feel free to insert your favorite quote on beer from Homer Simpson or Norm from Cheers here.

This week, a look at some really old beer and a geography lesson.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Life will bring you pain all by itself. Your responsibility is to create joy." - Milton Erickson (American psychiatrist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy, 1901 - 1980)

VTT to study one of world’s oldest beers

The Bug That Poisoned the President

President Obama's busted lip from an errant elbow during a recent basketball game was just the latest scrape suffered by a commander in chief. President Gerald Ford was notorious for his slips and trips, once taking a tumble down the steps off Air Force One in 1975 in Salzburg, Austria. There was also President George H.W. Bush's embarrassing food sickness incident in 1992 in Japan, caught caught on camera vomiting on the Prime Minster of Japan's lap.

President Zachary Taylor was less fortunate, dying in office from what was likely Salmonella poisoning. This week, a look at the bug that poisoned a President.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust (French novelist, critic, and essayist, 1871 – 1922)

The Bug That Poisoned the President

The Six-Legged Meat of the Future

In the U.S., we're more accustomed to exterminating insects than to eating them, but in scores of countries around the world, including Thailand, where food markets are stocked with commercially-raised water beetles and bamboo worms, bugs have long been a part of a well-balanced meal.

This will take some getting used to. It may be a while before someone on a television cooking show ends with "Bug appétit!"

This week, a look at the six-legged meat of the future.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security." - John Allen Paulos (professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia, 1945 - )

The Six-Legged Meat of the Future

Researchers find the cause of food poisoning

We've talked about salmonella before and, well, before again. Now we find out salmonella is like the Borg, assimilating individuals (cells) and turning them into mindless slaves.

Tying a Star Trek reference to salmonella...today is gonna be great!

This week, a look at the science behind food poisoning.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do." - C. S. Lewis (Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist, 1898 - 1963)

Researchers find the cause of food poisoning