Flora & Fauna: Celebrity goat; pest-resistant tomatoes; eye-popping foliage; grizzlies on the move; pawpaw popularity

Crisco hasn't let stardom go to his head. He enjoys hiking
and roaming just like not-famous goats. (Facebook photo)

For people needing novel bucket-list items, adding a visit to see Crisco, the roaming goat turned celebrity, might be an excursion. "For nearly a decade, Crisco, who escaped a roundup, has ruled the bluffs overlooking this reservoir straddling Arkansas and Missouri," reports Jim Carlton of The Wall Street Journal. "His legend exploded after a Facebook page began chronicling his exploits three years ago. Now some 14,000 followers eagerly await Crisco updates."

It may seem unbelievable, but after 30 years of lab work, "Researchers finally completed a new line of tomatoes, bred with natural pest-resistant qualities, reports Shea Swenson for Ambrook Research. "Plant breeder and geneticist Martha Mutschler-Chu is about to successfully hand off new lines of pest-resistant tomatoes to any interested seed company, where they can ultimately be bred for commercial sales. . . . As far as Mutschler-Chu’s tomato is concerned, the process of creating it is considered traditional cross-breeding, not genetic modification."

The Midwest is predicted to have 'electric' fall colors. (Adobe Stock photo)

Fall is leaf-viewing season, and the country's heartland is the place to gawk. "Some of the most colorful displays could be in the Midwest. AccuWeather, the commercial forecasting service, said in early September that it expects especially vibrant foliage in states such as Michigan and Illinois," reports Patrick Whittle of The Associated Press. "The service also said powerful, popping colors are expected in upstate New York and parts of Pennsylvania, while New England will follow a more typical color pattern."

Ambrook map, from ArcGIS data,
click to enlarge

Grizzly bears haven't lived on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island for 10,000 years, but that may be about to change. Brian Payton of Hakai magazine writes, "There they were. . . a grizzly sow and two cubs browsing in the grass. As the cubs rose onto their hind legs, Joyce Ellis raised her camera, capturing a portrait of a family poised to change the course of natural history."

Fall bird migrations are in full swing and while there are lots of ways to follow favorite feathered friends, Birdcast has some incredible tracking tools, including real-time predictions of bird migrations, a migration dashboard and local bird migration alerts. To show birds more love, CornellLab offers seven simple actions to help birds thrive.

The charming hoiho (A.S. photo)

Delightful, shy and a little bit stinky, the "hoiho," or yellow-eyed penguin won New Zealand's 2024 Bird of the Year election," reports The Associated Press. Although the country's avian elections are "fiercely fought," there's little talk of "interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls," instead campaigners start "meme wars, seek celebrity endorsements and some even [get] tattoos to prove their loyalty. . . . Hoiho supporters hope that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the endangered bird."

The pawpaw’s green skin, and its 'custardy'
interior (Photo by Kat Arazawa, Civil Eats)

For farmers and fans, September means a delicious trip to the pawpaw patch. "Pawpaws are America’s largest edible native fruit, and their ineffable mystique will bring thousands of visitors to the farm’s annual pawpaw festival in late September," reports Ben Seal of Civil Eats. "Festivals in several states give people a chance to taste the fruit for the first time. . . a blend of banana, mango, and pineapple, so soft it’s eaten with a spoon. . . . Research and plant breeding efforts are underway to explore and expand its potential as a sustainable low-input, high-value crop that could figure into the future of small farms throughout the eastern U.S."

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.

Produce is getting a makeover: Branded veggies and fruit hit grocery store shelves and e-commerce sites

Even apples were sent to the 'stylist's chair.'
(Yes! Apples photo via The Wall Street Journal)

What's better than the most perfectly shaped, webbed, orange-spotted fresh watermelon? The same watermelon in splashy packaging. "More farmers and produce companies are now moving to a business model they've seen work in other product categories: differentiate even the plainest products with fun packaging and an interesting back story, gain customers' loyalty and sell more units at higher margins," reports Katie Deighton of The Wall Street Journal. "Branding the previously unbranded helps companies use marketing tools that had been unavailable."

Is it possible to pick out bananas and look trendy? Maybe. Across the United States, branded fruits and veggies are popping up on e-commerce sites and grocery store shelves wrapped in fresh marketing designs that "promote their provenance and sustainable credentials," Deighton writes. Previously, most fruits and veggies were marketed based on price and quality.

This shift has occurred partly because Americans started taking a closer look at where their groceries came from, particularly in the produce aisles. Online grocery sales also increased, as "buyers can't examine the products in person, making brand names a more useful signal of consistency," Deighton reports.

"[Shoppers] also showed a growing tendency to shell out for cool food brands that say something about their lifestyles and tastes, even during a time of food price sensitivity."

So far, produce marketing is growing more slowly than other sectors because its product changes from year to year. Michael Perdigao, president of advertising and corporate communications for the Wonderful Company, told Deighton, "We don't know from year to year how big the crop is going to be. We may have committed to a media buy or bought in the upfront market or something and then don't need it."

Appalachian greenhouse-farming firm re-engineers its finances but needs more cash flow, and maybe political help

UPDATE, Feb. 16: The company netted $37.1 million by selling 40 million shares at $1 per share, Rick Childress of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. It issued a prospectus saying, “We believe that net proceeds from this offering, together with our current cash and cash equivalents and other potential sources of financing, will be sufficient to enable us to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements through the end of calendar year 2023.”

The AppHarvest 15-acre farm just north of Berea, Ky., grows salad greens. (Photo from AppHarvest Facebook page)

AppHarvest, a publicly traded startup that is trying to bring commercial farming back to the Appalachian foothills on a huge scale, sold one of its hydroponic greenhouse farms this week and leased it back to its marketing and distribution partner, "freeing up more funds for the financially struggling fruit and vegetable grower," reports John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The company also announced the opening of its fourth farm, all in Kentucky, and said it is "focused on operations to ramp up production and revenue." That is an existential challenge, according to its earnings report for the third quarter of 2022, which said, “Absent additional sources of financing, we expect that our existing cash and cash equivalents will only allow us to continue our planned operations into the first quarter of 2023.”

The sale-and-leaseback deal of the 15-acre farm near Berea, the company's smallest, provides cash, but it has production problems. "AppHarvest’s chief financial officer, said that the low numbers were due to crop health issues," Liz Carey reports for The Daily Yonder. The company will change the tomatoes it raises to varieties that bring higher prices, a spokesman told Carey.

But James Branscome, a Yonder supporter who started as an Appalachian journalist and ended up evaluating companies for S&P Global, has issues with the firm's business model: “The best high tech in agriculture will not overcome a bad business model based on selling a commodity product – tomatoes – in a highly competitive market,” he told Carey. “AppHarvest does use the highest tech in greenhouse production from the Netherlands, and its commitment to Appalachian Kentucky has rightfully given it a very high profile. The strategy of moving beyond the tomato market to vegetables and berries is a good business strategy; however, the company is in a race against the oldest challenge in business: Can it execute that strategy when the business cash flow is so dismally poor?”

Branscome seems to think not: “At this point their future depends more on financial engineering than agricultural engineering,” he said. “There is value in what they have constructed, but the cash flow from operations is so small that there is no way sales can bail them out over the next few years.”

There could also be some political engineering. Company founder and CEO Jonathan Webb said at the groundbreaking for the firm's 30-acre berry farm in Somerset in July, "Where AppHarvest goes from here is going to be dependent largely on the communities around us." Gesturing to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, he said, "Where we take it from here, I turn to our political leaders, I turn to our community leaders, I turn to our university leaders; we want to partner with you."

Scientists say modern farming methods and climate change have made modern produce and grains less nutritious

The advent of modern farming methods has caused fruits, vegetables and grains become less nutritious over the past 70 years, Stacey Colino reports for National Geographic. Multiple scientific studies show that many current crops have "less protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than those that were grown decades ago," Colino writes.

Climate change and rising carbon-dioxide levels are partly to blame, but the biggest problem is "modern agricultural processes that increase crop yields but disturb soil health," Colino reports. "These include irrigation, fertilization, and harvesting methods that also disrupt essential interactions between plants and soil fungi, which reduces absorption of nutrients from the soil."

Nutritional decline could make it harder for people to get the nutrients they need to fight off chronic illnesses, said David R. Montgomery, a professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington and co-author with Anne Biklé of What Your Food Ate. It's increasingly important to grow nutritionally dense foods, he told Colino: "We can’t afford to lose arable land as population grows. We need to prevent further damage and work to restore fertility to already degraded lands."

Montgomery and other experts still encourage people to eat more fresh produce and less-processed foods, but told Colino they hope this knowledge will inspire more people to care about how their food is grown.

The Economist asks: Do farm subsidies sustain the decline of rural America, by encouraging larger and larger farms?

Nearly a decade of high crop prices and record farm subsidies from taxpayers isn't necessarily good news for rural America, says The Economist, a London-based global magazine that still calls itself a newspaper.

"Despite all this cash, rural America is in deep decline," says The Economist, which generally doesn't name its reporter/writers. "Two-thirds of rural counties lost population from 2010 to 2020, and the total population of rural America fell for the first time in history. The counties that grew were mostly not farming ones but pretty places where people go to retire, near mountains or the ocean, or those with lots of oil. The Midwestern areas which grow most of America’s food are shrinking fastest."

The population is shrinking, but the farms are not. As they are sold or merged into larger operations driven by mechanization, fewer people are needed to tend them. "Just 6 percent of jobs in rural areas are directly linked to farming, and "Most farms, even small ones, 'are highly capitalized agribusinesses growing one or two commodity crops and employing very few people'," says Anne Schechinger, an agricultural economist for the Environmental Working Group," a research-and-lobbying group that dislikes farm subsidies.

"Subsidies, largely in the form of crop insurance, help to ensure the food supply continues, and protect farmers from going bust during downturns," The Economist notes. " But they also determine what America farms—incentivizing farmers to grow vast amounts of soybeans and corn, as well as wheat, which is mostly exported. . . . Fresh fruit and vegetables, which Americans ought to eat more of, are more expensive to grow, and require more labor, but farmers receive almost no subsidies for them."

As farmers get wealthier, "The communities they live in are not," the Economist says, using as its object example North Dakota wheat farmer Phillip Volk, who "says that when he went to school, there were 40 children on his school bus. Today his youngest son goes on the bus with fewer than 10 classmates. His eldest son is likely to take over the farm, but future children may have to go to a boarding school. It is harder to find people to serve as voluntary officials on the school board and county government. Many young people end up moving to places where the job opportunities are more exciting, if not necessarily more profitable. Over half of the churches that used to serve the community have closed. . . . Helping out farmers is politically popular, not least because rural communities are over-represented in Congress. Yet the subsidies may in fact be sustaining the decline of rural America."

Fresh veggie imports up 200% in past two decades; USDA digital magazine Amber Waves has more data-rich reports

Increasing consumer demand for year-round access to fresh produce has driven a 200% increase in fresh vegetable imports over the past two decades. That brings a host of challenges to U.S. farmers.

The top two sources of imported fresh veggies are Mexico (77%) and Canada (11%), thanks to favorable trade agreements, a stronger dollar, and those countries' ability to cater to Americans' tastes with affordable organic and greenhouse-grown produce, Wilma Davis and Gary Lucier report for Amber Waves, a digital Agriculture Department magazine.

Extended market-window creep is another reason for Mexico and Canada's increasing dominance of imported vegetables: The U.S. once imported vegetables mostly when they were out of season domestically, but vegetables grown under greenhouses or in much warmer climates make it easy for American wholesalers or grocers to buy imported produce even when it's in season in the U.S. For example, "Summer is historically the primary market window for U.S. producers; however, fresh vegetable import volumes from Mexico during the summer months have shown substantial increases in the past 15 years," Davis and Lucier report. (The proliferation of imported, greenhouse-grown produce helped spur AppHarvest, a start-up building huge greenhouses in Kentucky.)

Amber Waves has other excellent reports from USDA's Economic Research Service that can inform rural reporting. Here are a few others from this month's edition, and from ERS's home site:

Food pantry use increased from 2019 to 2020 for most types of U.S. households. "Data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement sponsored by the USDA Economic Research Service shows that use of food pantries increased from 2019 to 2020. In 2020, 6.7 percent of all U.S. households reported using a food pantry, an increase from 4.4 percent in 2019," Alisha Coleman-Jensen and Matthew P. Rabbitt report.

Free meal sites expanded rapidly to provide meals to children during the early months of the pandemic, Saied Toossi reports. A working paper provides more details, and notes that free meal sites are more prevalent in urban areas, leaving many rural communities underserved.

Off-farm organizations are responsible for bringing 40% of total irrigation water applied to croplands. Several federal agencies collaborated on a survey of such organizations in 2019, the first federal attempt to collect nationwide data on such organizations since the Census Bureau's 1978 Census of Irrigation Organizations. The report highlights broad trends, including how much water is lost to seepage because of unlined irrigation canals. Considering the massive drought in the West, that data matters. Read more here.

EPA to ban chlorpyrifos (Lorsban), pesticide linked to brain damage in children, from most agricultural use

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday a ban on the use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that has been linked to neurological damage in children, on food and feed crops. 

The new rule, which will take effect in six months, follows an order in April by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that directed the EPA to halt the agricultural use of the chemical unless it could demonstrate its safety," Coral Davenport reports for The New York Times. "Labor and environmental advocacy groups estimate that the decision will eliminate more than 90 percent of chlorpyrifos use in the country."

Chlorpyrifos has been widely used since 1965, under the brand name Lorsban, but increasing safety concerns and state-level bans have made it much less so in recent years and its leading manufacturer, Corteva, stopped manufacturing it last year. Advocates for farm workers, health, and the environment have long called for a ban after studies linked exposure to the pesticide with developmental problems in children such as low birth weight, reduced intelligence, and more. "The Obama administration began the process of revoking all uses of the pesticide in 2015 but, in 2020, the Trump administration ignored the recommendations of EPA scientists and kept chlorpyrifos on the market. That set off a wave of legal challenges," Davenport reports. In April, a federal court ordered the EPA to either ban the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops or prove that it doesn't hurt children by Aug. 20. The EPA beat the deadline by two days.

"In an unusual move, the new chlorpyrifos policy will not be put in place via the standard regulatory process, under which the EPA first publishes a draft rule, then takes public comment before publishing a final rule," Davenport reports. "Rather, in compliance with the court order, which noted that the science linking chlorpyrifos to brain damage is over a decade old, the rule will be published in final form, without a draft or public comment period."

Agricultural groups such as the Agricultural Retailers Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation criticized the decision, saying the EPA is taking away an important pest-control tool, and should have followed normal regulatory procedures.

It's unclear whether imported foods treated with chlorpyrifos will also be banned.

High-tech rural Ky. produce grower AppHarvest plans big expansions in Central Appalachia, founder/CEO tells CBS

One of the two AppHarvest tomato greenhouses near Morehead, Kentucky

AppHarvest, a company bringing fresh produce and high-tech agriculture jobs to Eastern Kentucky, has big plans for the future, according to a "CBS This Morning" profile  Tuesday. "Everybody watch out for Central Appalachia," AppHarvest founder and CEO Jonathan Webb, a native of the region, said in an interview with environmental correspondent Ben Tracy. "We’re absolutely going to be one of the largest fruit and vegetable suppliers in the U.S. in the decades to come."

AppHarvest, which shipped its first tomatoes four months ago and began public trading in January, aims to capitalize on geography, weather trends, and smart farming practices to produce more food with fewer resources. Its farms are designed to use 90 percent less water than usual and yield up to 30 times more than traditional open-field agriculture. Its 2.76-million-square-foot flagship farm in Morehead is expected to produce about 45 million pounds of tomatoes annually, AppHarvest says in a press release.

Tracy, who spent the day at the Morehead farm, said such efforts are critical: "Re-inventing farming on a changing planet is crucial because the United Nations says the world’s farmers need to grow 60% more food by 2050 to feed the estimated 9.3 billion people that will be living on the planet." And, Tracy noted, much of the nation's produce comes from California and Mexico, which are frequently hit with droughts. 

"It makes so much sense when you think about it,” said CBS This Morning’s Anthony Mason. "Those are some good-looking tomatoes."

Quick hits: milk production increasing too fast; EPA tells Amazon to stop selling illegal pesticides (again)

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

West Virginia students are some of the first in the nation to connect with the new satellite Starlink internet service. Here's how it's going. Read more here.

School gardens are linked with kids eating more vegetables. Read more here.

Milk production is increasing faster than demand is recovering. Read more here.

Federal aid is finally coming to a Washington town wiped out by wildfire last year. Read more here.

The Environmental Protection Agency has again ordered Amazon to stop selling illegal pesticides. Read more here.

Towns in the Deep South are counting on President Biden to keep his climate promises. Read more here.

A newly published research paper compares rural-urban disparities in deaths among low-income Medicare beneficiaries. Read more here.

High-tech rural Ky. greenhouse AppHarvest, which shipped its first tomatoes last month, begins public trading Monday

AppHarvest tomatoes are prepared for shipping. (Photo provided by AppHarvest)

AppHarvest, a company that aims to bring more high-tech agriculture jobs and fresh produce to Eastern Kentucky, is on a roll. The start-up, which Fast Company says may transform Appalachia into an "agricultural powerhouse," shipped its first tomatoes a few weeks ago, got a plug from Martha Stewart, and now it's set to make its stock-market debut.

Novus Capital Corp. completed its merger with AppHarvest this week, and on Monday the freshly-minted entity (which will be called AppHarvest) is expected to begin trade on the Nasdaq. AppHarvest CEO and founder Jonathan Webb will continue to lead, Jayson Derrick reports for Benzinga.

Direct federal aid to farmers predicted to more than double in 2020, driving forecast of 41.3% rise in net farm income

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service has published the last of three 2020 Farm Sector Income Forecasts. The forecast is updated three times a year, usually in February, August and November. ERS released a webinar Wednesday discussing the findings. The recording is not yet available, but will be posted here soon. Here are some of the report's top findings:

• Direct government farm payments (excluding USDA loans and crop-insurance payments) are forecast to total $46.5 billion, a $24 billion (107.1%) increase from 2019. That's mostly because of supplemental and disaster assistance for the coronavirus pandemic.
• Net farm income, a broad measure of profits, is projected at $119.6 billion, a $36 billion (41.3%) increase from 2019. That figure is not adjusted for inflation.
• In inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars, net farm income is projected to increase $35 billion, also up 41.3% from 2019.
• Net cash farm income (a more precise measurement of profits) is predicted to increase $24.7 billion (22.6%) to $134.1 billion from last year. That figure is not adjusted for inflation.
• In inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars, net cash farm income is predicted to increase $23.4 billion, or 21.1%, from 2019. 
• Overall farm cash receipts are forecast to decrease $3.2 billion, or 0.9%, to $366.6 billion.
• Total animal and animal product receipts are predicted to decrease $9.7 billion, or 5.5% from 2019.
• Total crop receipts are forecast to increase $6.4 billion, or 3.3%, from 2019. Receipts for fruits, nuts, soybeans, vegetables, melons and sugar beets are projected to increase, while receipts for corn and cotton are expected to decrease.
• Total production expenses are predicted at $343.6 billion, a $5.2 billion (1.5%) decrease from 2019.
• Interest expenses are predicted to decrease $5.4 billion, or 25.9%, from 2019.
• Spending on livestock, poultry, oils and fuels is also expected to decline, but fertilizer spending is forecast to increase $1.1 billion, or 5.1%, from 2019. 
• Net rent to landlords is projected to increase $1.3 billion, or 7.6%, in 2020.
• Farm sector equity is projected to decline by 0.1% after adjusting for inflation.
• Farm sector assets are forecast at $3.12 trillion, a 1.5% rise from 2019, following increases in farm real estate assets and other investments and financial assets.
• Farm sector debt is projected at $435.2 billion, a 4% increase from 2019.
• Real estate debt is projected to increase 6.1% from 2019.
• Farm sector debt-to-asset levels, which have been trending higher since 2012, are predicted to increase again in 2020 to 13.95%. 
• Working capital is projected to increase 6% this year, after an 11.9% increase last year.

Here are the top findings from the September 2020 update and from the December 2019 update.

Agribusinesses got 1.5% of Paycheck Protection Program's forgivable loans; among them, dairy was the top sector

The 10 agribusiness sectors that got the most PPP funding. (Part of a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting chart; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the complete and interactive version.)

"A very small percentage of businesses in the agriculture industry received Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loans, which were intended to help keep people employed as the economy convulsed during the coronavirus pandemic," Samuel Trilling and Pramod Acharya report for the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. "Of the agricultural companies that did receive loans, dairies received the most."

But even though the dairy sector won out among agribusinesses with the PPP, agribusinesses received only 1.5% of PPP funds. About half of the program's loans went to four industries: construction (13%); health care and social assistance (12.7%); professional, scientific, and technical services (12.7%); and manufacturing (10.4%), Trilling and Acharya report after analyzing federal data released in July.

Quick hits: Podcast explores being Black in Appalachia; why some Tennessee tomatoes have worldwide fans

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

New podcast explores what it's like to be Black in Appalachia. Read more here.

Three Appalachian women tell their stories in new book about what makes Appalachian people "tick." Read more here.

Why the tomatoes grown in a rural Tennessee county attract fans from all over the world. Read more here.

Vermont bucks the trend of rural covid-19 growth. Read more here.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will hold a webinar Tuesday, Aug. 18, to discuss its new pilot program for rural health-care providers. Read more here.

Study finds that rural children with autism can be productively treated via telehealth. Read more here.

As food goes to waste in pandemic, agricultural economists offer USDA unorthodox solution: buy it, pack it, distribute it

The pandemic hit during a vulnerable time for farmers and ranchers, creating a "perfect storm" that has made it difficult for them to get their products to people who need them.

"While there are organizations from Second Harvest to local independent food pantries working to address the issue of hunger in the U.S., they currently do not have access to the resources needed to handle the massive amount of food that is being destroyed," Harwood D. Schaffer and Daryll E. Ray of the University of Tennessee write in their latest "Policy Pennings" column.

The Department of Agriculture has set aside $3 billion to buy agricultural products to distribute to food banks and other community organizations that feed people. But though that aid was promised in mid-April, USDA didn't begin making the purchases until this week. That meant tens of millions of pounds of produce went to waste during harvest.

Schaffer and Ray have a solution that they say will likely be expensive, but ultimately more effective.

"Rather than compensating farmers for their losses, we are suggesting that Congress should empower the USDA to use that money—and more if needed—to purchase the crop and have it packed in household-sized packages. We have not read of vegetable-packing facilities being shut down for the coronavirus, but as they are used, we should make sure that they are operated in ways that provide a safe working environment for those involved," Schaffer and Ray write. "Once the vegetables are ready for fresh or frozen distribution, rather than reinventing the wheel, we should use the commercial food-distribution systems that normally would be carrying those vegetables. They would then transport the vegetables and any affected fruits to their local facilities, with the federal government covering the costs. At that point the commercial food-distribution services can then make these food products available, free of cost, to various food pantries in their normal distribution area."

Dairy products should be treated much the same way as produce, write Schaffer and Ray. Meat is more complicated. Read more here.