Quick hits: Dairy farming with a robot; CSA debate; Farmers' Almanac ends; rural hospital success; goodbye penny

A robotic milker takes the place of a hired hand as dairy
farmers face labor shortages. (Farm Progress photo)

Marlane Williams always dreamed of owning her own farm and milking her own dairy cows. Now she has both, along with a robot that helps out while she's at a day job that provides income stability. "Williams has held several jobs while trying to be a dairy farmer," reports Chris Six of Farm Progress. "She's owned a dairy farm in southwest Missouri since 2002 and says balancing both is tricky, but she feels blessed to have achieved her dream." Instead of trying to hire part-time labor, Williams purchased a Lely Astronaut milking robot to make sure her growing herd is milked twice a day.  

The debate over whether the Community Supported Agriculture model is dead or alive continues, with a fresh perspective from Ruth Katcher, who runs a thriving CSA for city folk in Brooklyn, New York. "I’ve been mulling over Lauren David’s thought-provoking article on whether we’ve outgrown the CSA model," Katcher writes for Offrange. "I have to admit she made some excellent points, especially about the appeal of models that offer more choice to consumers than traditional CSAs. . . . But the traditional CSA model has features I would hate to give up . . ." Read Lauren's essay here, and Katcher's full counter here.

Pecan trees don't have to be planted every year. 
(Photo by Elizabeth Hewitt, Reasons To Be Cheerful)

In a drastic turn from traditional row-crop agriculture, some Midwestern farmers are planting nut trees that are reviving soil depleted by corn and soybean plantings. "In 2017, Josh Payne planted 20 acres of chestnut saplings, growing commodity crops in wide rows between the trees," reports Elizabeth Hewitt for Reasons To Be Cheerful. "Payne is among a growing number of farmers looking to supplement or even replace common crops planted annually — like corn and soy — with various types of nut trees. . . which can provide a type of multi-generational resilience because they can generate income for decades."

U.S. Mint photos

The U.S. Treasury Department laid the U.S. penny to rest on Nov. 12 in Philadelphia after producing it for 232 years. Victor Mather of The New York Times reports, "Top Treasury officials were on hand for its final journey. No last words were recorded. The cost to mint the penny had risen to more than 3 cents, a financial absurdity that doomed the coin. The American penny was preceded in death by its smaller sibling, the half cent (1793-1857), and its cousin, the Canadian penny (1858-2012)."

Internal medicine residents at Billings Clinic 
in Montana. (Photo by Colton Adams via the Yonder) 

A community hospital in Billings, Montana, is bucking trends with its successful medical residency programs, which train new doctors who often decide to stay in the state and practice. "As rural areas across the country face worsening provider shortages and reductions in health care services, Billings Clinic is celebrating the success of two new residency programs training," reports Madeline de Figueiredo for The Daily Yonder. "Since launching its internal medicine residency program in 2014, Billings Clinic has graduated 75 physicians, with half now practicing in rural communities. The program’s outcomes stand out amid national trends, where only 11% of physicians work in rural areas."

After more than two centuries of publication, the Farmers' Almanac from Maine announced that 2026 is its last print run. "The 208-year-old, Maine-based publication that farmers, gardeners and others have relied on for planting guidance and weather predictions will publish for the final time," report Patrick Whittle and Kathy McCormack of The Associated Press. "The Farmers’ Almanac, not to be confused with its older, longtime competitor, The Old Farmer’s Almanac in neighboring New Hampshire. . . . The almanac cited the growing financial challenges of producing and distributing the book in today’s 'chaotic media environment.'" The first Farmers' Almanac was published in 1818.

Opinion: AI doesn't make writing better. 'Letting a robot structure your argument. . .is dangerous.'

Photo by Robert Rieger, Connected Archives
via The New York Times

Nobody ever asks me about language. They ask the DeLillos and the Updikes and the Styrons, but they don’t ask popular novelists. Yet many of us proles also care about the language, in our humble way, and care passionately about the art and craft of telling stories on paper.
-- From On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Now ask yourself: Could artificial intelligence ever make that observation? What does a robot know about language? Very little, and yet, no matter who is writing, a robot is reworking words and removing human originality from the page. In her opinion essay for The New York Times, Margaret Renkl eschews AI as a better way to write. Edited portions of her essay are shared below.

"Letting a robot structure your argument, or flatten your style by removing the quirky elements, is dangerous. It’s a streamlined way to flatten the human mind, to homogenize human thought. We know who we are, at least in part, by finding the words — messy, imprecise, unexpected — to tell others, and ourselves, how we see the world. The world which no one else sees in exactly that way.

"Sure, there’s a difference between writing a poem and cleaning up a garbled email, between writing a love letter and a Google ad. For some tasks, employing an A.I. assistant might save time without levying a commensurate cost in humanity. Maybe. . . .I’m still not sure."

Sometimes the need for a perfect word can send a writer on a deep dive for the exact word a phrase or verse needs. Renkl shares, "I was outside. . . sitting with my thesis director, the poet James Dickey. I remember that particular meeting because of one ill-chosen word. In a poem that was otherwise finished, a single adjective was clearly wrong. We batted alternatives back and forth across the desk, but none was right.

"Hours later, the right word came to me, popping up out of the depths while my mind was occupied with something else. It was so apt. . . I opened the phone book, and looked up Mr. Dickey’s number. When he answered, I said, ‘Pale.’ The word is ‘pale.’. . .Mr. Dickey was overjoyed about that word, every bit as jubilant as I was. If only for a moment, the world made a kind of sense it hadn’t made before."

''No robot may harm a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm' reads Isaac Asimov’s first law of robotics. But what if the existence of robots itself is what robs us of our humanity? Is that not a way of bringing humans to harm?"

Bots scrub local news created by other journalists to publish newsletters in 355 towns; one 'editor' oversees them all

Photo via Nieman Labs

Matthew Henderson might be the most productive "journalist" in the country. The busy publisher of Good Daily newsletters "operates in 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S.," reports Andrew Deck of Nieman Labs. Henderson's newsletter empire is fueled by busy bots scrubbing local news created by real humans to create newsletters. The publication is emailed to unsuspecting residents who have no idea machines wrote their news by taking the real work at other publications.

Deck uses Good Day Fort Collins as an example. The newsletter "appears to be a standard local news round-up. One recent edition of the newsletter includes short blurbs and links to over a dozen stories about the mid-size Colorado city — a restaurant opening, a record-breaking snowfall," Deck writes. "It turns out Good Day Fort Collins is just one in a network of AI-generated newsletters. . . Not only do these hundreds of newsletters share the same exact seven testimonials, they also share the same branding. . . "

Newsletter recipients are unaware of "who" generated their news or how un-local its creation is. "Separate website domains and distinct newsletter names make it difficult to connect the dots. There is Good Day Rock Springs, Daily Bentonville, Today in Virginia Beach," Deck explains. "The newsletters do all name the same founder and editor: Matthew Henderson, who a serial internet startup founder and software engineer."

In an interview, "Henderson didn’t shy away from the fact that each newsletter is produced using near full automation," Deck reports. "These automated agents 'read the news' in every town where Good Daily operates, curate the most relevant stories, summarize them, edit and approve the copy, format it into a newsletter, and publish." Henderson told Deck, "“At a high level, [the system] operates much like an editorial team" -- except, of course, for the fact that his publications do no original reporting and only take from others doing the real work.  

Henderson touts his bot news as "boosting the work of struggling local news outlets," Deck writes. Henderson told him, "Local news providers appreciate our work promoting their best local content for free, and often seek out ways for us to promote even more of their content.”

The news outlets Henderson's AI brains are using don't share Henderson's "rosy" view. Rodney Gibbs, the head of audience and product at the National Trust for Local News, told Deck, "His claim is, frankly, horses---. The suggestion that he’s helping news deserts is absurd." Deck adds, "Gibbs points out that, in order to operate, AI newsletters rely on human labor at existing local news publishers."

Since the Paleolithic era, honey bees pollinated apple trees and humans picked the apples. That's about to change.

A robot inspects apple blossoms for possible pollination.
(Washington State University photo via WSJ)

Human apple harvesters must scale ladders, fend off bugs, balance on branches and twist stretchy stems to get the job done. For farmers, hiring experienced apple pickers is difficult and expensive, which is why several "universities and startups are developing specialized robots for each stage of apple production," reports Jackie Snow of The Wall Street Journal. The bots will handle everything from "pollinating the trees to fertilizing them, pruning them and harvesting the fruit."

In areas where there aren't enough honey bees to pollinate apple blossoms, "researchers have developed robotic pollinators," Snow explains. Cameras help robots find apple blossoms, and then "a mechanical arm moves in close and releases a precise burst of pollen through a nozzle. Early results are promising."

Robots used to fertilize apple orchards base their application on individual tree's needs. Snow writes, "They consider multiple indicators, including trunk diameter, canopy growth patterns and fall leaf-color changes, and use AI models to determine precise nitrogen requirements. . . . Researchers believe precisely targeting individual trees could significantly reduce overall fertilizer."

Researchers are working on robots that can also prune. "The robots must evaluate the entire structure of each tree, analyzing branch length, angles, thickness and spacing to determine which cuts will promote ideal growth patterns."

To harvest apples, robots need to be gentle and nimble. "Researchers at Washington State are testing inexpensive, fabric-based robots that have three silicone fingers that close around apples," Snow explains. So far, their research has been in a lab "with fake trees and fruit. . . The system will face its first orchard trials during the next harvest season, in the fall."

AI news: Humans write the news only to have bots steal and repost it 'under stolen or assumed identities'

AI "reporters" plagiarize stories from real publications
written by humans. (Graphic by AI robot, Adobe Stock)

Artificial intelligence bots revived a closed small-town newspaper site using culled stories and stolen reporters' names. "The defunct Daily Tidings was alive and kicking, sending out fresh stories again," reports Danny Westneat of The Seattle Times. "The site’s masthead showed eight reporters — a ton for tiny Ashland, Oregon. . . . As Oregon Public Broadcasting revealed this past week in an investigation, the entire site now is reported and written by artificial intelligence bots, under stolen or assumed identities."

"One 'reporter' they tracked down actually lives in the United Kingdom and had no clue he was practicing journalism in southern Oregon," Westneat explains. "The site pumps out about five stories a day — most of them cribbed from real publications, such as Ashland News or The Oregonian, and rewritten by AI programs." The site boasts ads and videos from "big ad-streaming companies such as Google."

The Daily Tidings past owner "told OPB he looked into suing the AI operation — whoever or whatever it is," Westneat reports. "His lawyers though said it’s coming from outside the United States, likely China. It would be 'pursuing a phantom.'"

Ashland's robot news spot isn't unique. "Sites are popping up everywhere using AI bots to create the vague appearance of journalism, usually by rewriting or repurposing articles culled from the real local media," Westneat reports. "AI tools have been developed, such as one depressingly called Spin Rewriter, that can digest an article and convert it into 1,000 'human-quality' facsimile articles."

In Seattle, the "Hoodline" news site produces stories by bots. A former human Hoodline employee, who lost her job to AI, told Westneat, "Old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting has been replaced by fake people who’ve never set foot in any of the neighborhoods they write about — because they don’t have feet."

The editor of the Ashland News, Bert Etling, "says that in Ashland, the scam journalism has been mostly just annoying," Westneat reports. "It’s a plagiarism operation, so the real town news source, his Ashland News, isn’t at much risk of getting scooped. . . . But it isn’t helping that gnawing sense that nobody believes anything anymore."