Today’s quick hits, March 5, 2019

Amazon’s next grocery move (Wall Street Journal): Amazon is planning to open dozens of grocery stores in major U.S. cities, starting with one in Los Angeles as early as the end of this year.

The consequences of bad prison food (Mother Jones): Prisons often serve the lowest possible quality food to their inmates. But the tactic, as well as being degrading and dehumanizing, may cost taxpayers more in the long run as inmates’ healthcare needs rise.

Asking for salmonella names (CSPI): The consumer group CSPI filed a freedom of information act request asking the USDA to identify the poultry processing plants whose products tested positive for strains of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella bacteria. The bacteria were tied to two recent outbreaks of food-borne illness.

Trying to avoid trade war losses (Sacramento Bee): So far, California growers have avoided the trade war wallop that hit Midwestern farmers but prices for specialty crops, California’s forte, are down substantially.

Count on it, bees do math (CBS News): Honeybees are able to add or subtract, according to an experiment by researchers from Australia and France that used visual cues — yellow for subtraction and blue for addition — and gave a reward for the correct answer.

Immigrants spur rural growth (The Politic): Immigrants accounted for 37 percent of rural population growth this decade, whether it’s farm labor or healthcare professionals, and “inarguably helped revitalize dying towns, even saving some from collapse.”