Flora & Fauna: Considering Waygu cattle; bot swims like a fish; maple syrup debates

Mallie Shuster checks on his Wagyu cow-calf herd.
(Eleven Oaks Farm photo via Lancaster Farming)

Want a better steak or burger? Cattleman Mallie Shuster recommends filling your wallet with cash and choosing a restaurant with Waygu beef. "Shuster remembers how he got the idea to raise Wagyu cattle. He was out to dinner with friends and ordered a cut from this Japanese breed known for producing highly marbled, uniquely flavored beef," reports Dave Lefever for Lancaster Farming. "But it wasn't the flavor that got his attention." It was the price tag. Read how Shuster convinced his father to raise Waygu cattle to add to their company's bottom line.

The cinnamon in morning oatmeal, rolls and any number of baked treats is not true cinnamon. Instead, most cinnamon on U.S. grocery store shelves comes from a cheaper source -- the cassia tree. "Ceylon cinnamon is often called 'true' cinnamon and is native to Sri Lanka. Today, some 80% of Ceylon cinnamon is produced on the island," reports Olivia Peluso of Ambrook Research. "Cassia [cinnamon] is a ground, reddish-brown powder with a strong, spicy-sweet flavor. . . . While the Food and Drug Administration acknowledges them as distinct substances, it doesn't require they be packaged as such."

This clownfish bot looks and swims like a fish as it
collects water research. (Aquaai photo via CNN)

The world's water sources face so many stresses from climate change, multiple pollutants and urbanization that they can't rebalance their ecosystems. Water research offers a path to explore how humans can help these precious resources recover. The technology company Aquaai has developed a fishlike drone to "collect data from underwater environments," reports Amy Gunia of CNN. "Powered by batteries, they are designed to look and swim like fish, with a body and tail that swish from side-to-side as they cruise through the water. With their orange, white, and black neoprene skin, they resemble the clownfish star Nemo."

While Quebec dominates the global maple syrup market, determining which region makes the best-tasting syrup is a stickier dispute with Vermont. "Vermont is about 9,600 square miles and boasts more than six million sugar maple and red maple trees on tap. Quebec is a 595,000-square-mile province. . . hosts a maple syrup cartel. Its 50 million syrup-producing maple trees yield around 72% of the world's supply," reports Vipal Monga of The Wall Street Journal. "Without much argument, Quebec is known as the Saudi Arabia of maple syrup. Vermonter Pat Leclaire isn't particularly impressed. . ." 

As summer farmer's markets and local gardens start to produce luscious fruits and vegetables, consumers can rejoice in all the options but then wonder which ones are the best. Laureate professor in nutrition and dietetics Clare Collins shares in The Conversation her top four plant-based foods to eat.

Tomatoes and pumpkins are packed with nutrition.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Tomatoes: "A review of six trials asked people to consume tomato products equivalent to 1-1.5 large tomatoes or 1-1.5 cups of tomato juice daily for about six weeks. . . . Researchers found people who did this had reduced blood levels of triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood that increases heart disease risk), as well as lower total and 'bad' cholesterol levels. . . .These people also had increased levels of 'good cholesterol".

Pumpkin: "Pumpkin is rich in beta-carotene, which is also a carotenoid (plant pigment). It gets converted into vitamin A in the body and is used in the production of antibodies that fight infection. It's also needed to maintain the integrity of cells in eyes, skin, lungs and the gut."

Mushrooms and oats also top Collins's list. Click here to learn what benefits fungi and oats have to offer.

Perhaps a sign of the times: Airbnb rentals generate more income for Vermonters than does maple syrup

Just over a decade after its launch, Airbnb now makes more money for Vermonters than maple syrup production, John Lippman reports for the Valley News in West Lebanon, N.H., and White River Junction, Vt. According to Airbnb's numbers, Vermont residents brought in $68.8 million in 2019 from renting out their homes through the popular app, up from $48.4 million in 2018.

Meanwhile, maple syrup brought Vermont $54.3 million in 2018, according to USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. "Maple syrup production numbers increased 7 percent in Vermont in 2019, but the value of the crop has not been announced," Lippman reports. If the price of maple syrup hasn't gone up since 2018, a 7% production increase would mean a $58.1 million value.

"Call it a healthy sign in how digital technology is reshaping Vermont’s economy. Or call it another dispiriting example in how making a real product just doesn’t count as much anymore," Lippman writes. "Either way, I don’t see it as something to cheer about . . . Call me a sap, but I believe that Vermont maple syrup deserves some of the credit for Airbnb’s success in Vermont. Come for the foliage, stay for the nectar of the gods."

Warmer winter temperatures in Michigan causing problems among state's maple syrup producers

Maple syrup released into the final stage of the
process (Detroit Free Press photo by Elaine Cromie) 

An unusually warm winter in Michigan is wrecking havoc on the state's multi-million dollar maple syrup business, Ken Palmer and Ann Zaniewski report for the Lansing State Journal and Detroit Free Press. Warmer weather has shortened the season, making it difficult for maple sap producers to decide on the best time to tap trees. If they do it too early they "miss the best flows if conditions are better later." If they wait too long they could miss the best sap. "Once trees start budding, the quality of the sap quickly declines."

As a result of the warmer winter, "some producers are collecting less sap than in previous years, or having to use more to make the same amount of maple syrup," Palmer and Zaniewski write. Temperatures in Michigan in February were well above normal, averaging in the high 30s for most of the state for the month, with record-breaking temperatures reaching in the 60s and 70s on same days. "Ideal weather for sap flow is when temperatures are below freezing at nighttime and above freezing in the 30s and 40s during the day. When the weather is well above freezing both day and night, the sap can run to tops of the trees."

Michigan produced between 90,000 to 148,000 gallons a year over the past four years, Palmer and Zaniewski write. "The season typically lasts four to six weeks. March is usually the sweet spot. This year, some producers in southern Michigan tapped as early as late January."

Rise of 'Big Maple' is striking fear into small maple-syrup producers in Vermont

The rise of Big Maple has small producers worried that this could be the beginning of the end of the mom-and-pop maple-syrup businesses. "Sweet Tree Holdings—distant subsidiary of a huge Massachusetts-based insurance company—has turned an abandoned furniture factory" on the outskirts of Island Port, Vt. (Best Places map), "into the nation’s largest maple syrup production facility," Colin Nickerson reports for The Boston Globe. The company has invested tens of millions of dollars in the operation, said chief executive Michael Argyelan, "and is still researching possible products and potential markets—even as its boilers steam full-tilt."

Argyelan says small producers should not be worried. He told Nickerson, "We’re not threatening anyone. We should be good for everyone. We’re expanding maple production, turning timberland into sustainable sugarbush (the term for semi-wild, groomed maple woods). We’ve created jobs. We’re looking to devise new products. We’re natural, we’re organic; we’re non-GMO; we’re kosher and halal.’’

Small producers are not buying that logic, Nickerson writes. Adam Parke, a Christmas-tree grower who also makes syrup from 1,800 trees in Barton, Vt., told Nickerson, “This is a big corporation intruding on a traditional way of life. The Vermont maple syrup business has always been about individual producers—you can put a name and face to most operations. Growth is great. What’s not great is watching a beloved local industry hijacked by suits sitting in a boardroom somewhere." (Globe graphic)

"The transformation in Vermont’s maple sugar industry since the start of the new century has been seismic," Nickerson writes. "What once was an essentially rural sideline—strictly a part-time affair carried out by dairy farmers looking to make extra cash in the slow spring season—is now a fast-expanding, well-financed industry in which the heaviest volumes of syrup are harvested by a fairly small number of full-time operations with tens of thousands of taps. And loan lines to the banks."

Sweet Tree "workers have already tapped 200,000 maples on 26,000 acres of forest purchased or leased in the backlands of Essex Country," Nickerson writes. "More than 6,000 miles of vacuum tubing—enough to stretch from frigid Island Pond to sunny San Diego and back—siphon the sap from tree taps to a reverse osmosis plant, where water content is reduced with high-tech equipment. Next it is transported to the gleaming, state-of-the-art sugar factory for boiling in four mammoth, steam-fired evaporators capable of turning out 2,400 gallons of Grade A per hour. By comparison, the average producer in Vermont has 3,451 taps and makes 1,221 gallons per year—and even the state’s mega-producers run to only about 100,000 taps."