FERN’s Friday Feed: Got soda? Plenty.
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
The drink Americans can’t quit
The Atlantic
“For much of the past two decades, soda was … suffering a bit of a reputation problem. This is because soda is really not good for you: It generally contains a ton of sugar and no vitamins, and also the bubbles are bad for your teeth. So it was shunned, taxed, and villainized, likened to cigarettes and made a synecdoche for America’s broken food system, in which empty calories are easier and cheaper to obtain than nutritionally dense foods,” writes Ellen Cushing. “The coalition of nutritionists, public-health experts, legislators, and consumer advocates who took on Big Soda did win—to some degree. After climbing steadily starting in the 1960s, sales of full-calorie soda decreased by about 25 percent from 1995 to 2015. But in gross terms, Americans were still consuming a lot of sugary drinks. … Now the second-wave sodas have come for us.”
Can climate-resilient chickens help fight poverty?
The New York Times
“These are not just any chickens. They are Zambro chickens, birds specifically bred to thrive in the toughest climates. A dual-purpose chicken — more on that later — that needs less water and feed, grows faster and fatter and lays more eggs. A chicken that is more resistant to disease and costs less to raise than many of the village chickens found in backyard coops,” writes Patricia Cohen. “Such a chicken is important in countries like Zambia, which is increasingly battered by extreme weather. Last season, the worst drought in four decades devastated crops and livestock. Food shortages in rural areas were rampant in a country that already had one of the highest rates of malnutrition and stunted children in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Extreme weather cost farmers billions last year; but federal aid is going to the wrong farmers
Grist
“Farmers and ranchers across the country lost at least $20.3 billion in crops and rangeland to extreme weather last year, according to a new Farm Bureau report that crowned the 2024 hurricane season ‘one of the most destructive in U.S. history’ and outlined a long list of other climate-fueled impacts,” writes Ayurella Horn-Muller. “So in December, Congress authorized nearly $31 billion in emergency assistance to help struggling producers. Last week, the USDA opened those disaster aid applications and said it was expediting disbursements. But there’s a catch: The funding pot the agency is gearing up to distribute makes up just a third of the assistance Congress approved. That $10 billion is intended for farmers growing traditional commodities, such as corn, cotton, and soybeans, and is available to those who experienced most any kind of loss, not just those stemming from extreme weather.”
How microplastics get into our food
Scientific American
Research shows “that wear and tear generates high levels of microplastic particles. Take cutting boards: in one study, when plastic boards were used to cut meat, up to 196 microplastic particles were incorporated into each ounce of meat, while none were found in meat that had been prepared on a bamboo board,” writes Marta Zaraska. “Slicing ingredients and pushing a knife along the board to move them may also be worse than simply pressing with a knife to chop them, another study showed … Friction is also the mechanism by which blenders with plastic jars can release large amounts of microplastics. When scientists in Australia used a blender to crush ice blocks, the way you might when making, say, a frozen margarita, they found that billions of plastic particles were released in just 30 seconds of blending. ‘If the ice block has a sharp edge, like some hard food, it can peel off lots of plastic,’ says Cheng Fang, a chemist at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and the study’s senior author.”
The coyote next door
bioGraphic
“The experiment is part of an expanding field of animal behavior research aimed at understanding how, when urbanization is threatening so many species, some animals—such as coyotes, racoons, and crows—are surviving, and even flourishing, in cities and towns. ‘You can think of the urban environment as a bit of a problem to solve relative to the environment that coyotes evolved in,’ [wildlife biologist Sage] Raymond says.” As Betsy Mason writes, “She’s hoping her research will provide clues to how coyotes are learning to solve that problem in Edmonton, where reports of bold behavior around humans are on the rise. ‘Understanding that might help us better understand certain trajectories that lead to human-coyote conflict.’ With more habitat lost every year to growing cities, and two thirds of the world’s population expected to reside in urban areas by 2050, up from just over half today, people and animals are increasingly sharing space.”