Times on Local Slaughterhouses

It's official: both the Post and the Times have now written about a shortage of local slaughterhouses, particularly in Vermont.  I'm waiting for all those farmers to beat a path to Walt Jeffries' door, either to ask him to slaughter for them or to show them how to build their own.

Good News for Dairy, at Least in China

From CAP Health Check

A couple years ago, while in Taiwan, I was amazed at the impressive increase in the demand of dairy products. At the time the existing statistics revealed that the Taiwanese per-capita consumption of dairy products was something like 50 times the figure for mainland China.

I thought Asians tended to be lactose-intolerant, but apparently that's not true, or at least it doesn't prevent a big increase in dairy consumption when standards of living rise.  

Creeping Pollyannaism

I've a tendency to be optimistic which can lead me into errors. There's enough good news in the world that I can become Pollyanna.  In this respect, I want to link to a post on Barking Up the Wrong Tree which summarizes several different studies on various aspects of discrimination, leading off with a reminder that it still exists, based on using job applicants matched as to characteristics, except for race.

The White House Garden

I don't know when they harvested their winter garden but the video is dated 3/24.  (Warning: at least on my DSL connection it's a jerky one.)  Some comments:

• the hoops did survive the snow.  I wonder how deeply the ends were buried to withstand the lateral forces exerted by the snow load. (The time lapse photography is interesting--looks as if the snow slid off very quickly.  Maybe the WH hoops are higher than the ones used by a fellow gardener in our community garden who had problems with them.)
• the ground looked a bit dry.  The covering was plastic sheeting, presumably impervious to water so I wonder if they ever rolled back the plastic to water.
• as the caption says, the harvest exceeded expectations.  My impression is they seeded in early November so they did better than I expected.  Although one harvest for 4 1/2 months time should put a damper on dreams of locavore sustainability. Plants need the sun, and the sun goes south in the winter.  That's a fact difficult to work around.
• I still think they would have done better to do as my wife does, plant earlier in the fall to get some growth and use the hoops to extend the harvest season.  That I think would maximize the output from the land.
• they seemed to be harvesting all the beds, so I don't know where the winter rye which Obamafoodorama mentioned is growing.  It wasn't mentioned in the narration.  Maybe she got confused.
• Sam Kass did the narration, and he did mention some peas being planted.  When and where wasn't clear, so it's possible the Obamas did beat me and my wife to the sowing this spring.
• he also said Michelle wants to expand the garden, adding a couple more sets of beds.  That's a point where I segue into being somewhat critical.

Where were Michelle and the girls in the harvest?  It looked like the kitchen staff were doing the harvesting.  If Michelle and the daughters were really gardeners, they would have been curious to see how it had done.  (It's possible, but I think unlikely that the girls are really into it, but because their parents want to shield them from the press it wasn't appropriate for them to be on camera.)  The 1-year anniversary strengthens my early suspicion that it is very difficult for residents of the White House to be real; despite their best intentions what they do is more symbolic than real.

[Updated: A subsequent post on the White House blog reports the winter harvest was about 50 pounds.  Compare that to 750 pounds or more during 2009.  Also, the expansion is to be about 500 square feet.)

Cherry Blossom Time

I'm a skeptic of Gov Gab, but this post on cherry blossom time is worth reading, if you ever plan to visit.

International Aid Is Like Piano

Via Chris Blattman, an interesting discussion of international aid and development, with a nice comparison of the whole effort to the universe of piano lessons and recitals. A cynic says we don't know what works; a wise person says if we stop trying, nothing works.

David Mamet Is a Troglodyte

He writes his rules for drama in all caps.  Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.  Though I hate the way he says it (all caps), I agree entirely with what he says.

Someone Has a Secret Savings Plan

Pollster.com has a post reporting a Pew poll, showing 53 percent of people had lost some or all of their savings in the recession.  That implies, I guess, 47 percent of the people didn't lose any savings, which seems incredible. Or 47 percent don't have any savings, which also seems incredible.

Farmers Are Sexy

So says John Phipps in this post.

USDA's People's Garden

Remember last year when Michelle Obama made a big splash with her White House garden?  Well, Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack wanted his garden, or at least a "People's Garden" (he's too young to remember the 1950's China).  His loyal troops tore up some ground near the ivory tower, as Chet Adell used to call the Administration Building back in 1968, although I don't remember whether it was lawn or parking lot.  They blogged about it last year and posted better records than the White House on production.  But the blog has been quiet.  Since I tweaked the White House about getting our peas in the ground earlier than they, I wondered how the USDA garden was doing this year.

The bad news--you can't see much.  At least not much if you don't tweet. (As I don't.)  But they are using Twitter to update on progress and I gather they planted their peas last Friday.  Congratulations to them, both for beating Michelle and for getting into Web 2.0. And for their disgusting raised beds,