Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
What can be learned from Michigan’s failed privatized prison food system?
Civil Eats
The Michigan Department of Corrections’ decision to privatize its prison kitchens led to rotten food, illness, high costs, and possibly a riot. “The stated purpose of Michigan’s privatization plan was to save the state money on operating costs,” writes Tom Perkins, but between legal costs and systemic abuses, the savings dwindled and the state is returning to its prior food service model (with unionized employees). But thousands of institutions, from prisons to hospitals to public schools, still contract with Aramark and other private companies with spotty records.
Way too much whey
The New Food Economy
The country’s dairy glut has driven down milk prices, but it’s also created a conundrum: what do farmers do with all their whey? “A pound of cheese generates nine pounds of whey,” writes Tove Danovich. “Pound for pound, then, dairies produce much more whey than they do anything else—you might more properly call them whey-making machines. From the biggest producers to small hobby creameries, the dairy industry is putting on its thinking cap to find new ways to contend with the onslaught of the whey tsunami.”
Send FERN to SXSW!
We’ve submitted two panels to next year’s SXSW—one on reporting on rural America under Trump, and another on the future of Big Food. Both feature our staff writer Leah Douglas, as well as an excellent lineup of FERN reporters and friends. But we need your help to get there! Vote for our panels here and here to help bring our big ideas to Austin in March 2019.
Study finds more trees on earth, but the news isn’t all good
Pacific Standard
A new study, published in the journal Nature, found that “the planet’s total area of tree cover increased by 2.24 million square kilometers, or 7.1 percent, from 31 million to 33 million square kilometers” between 1982 and 2016. This is mostly due to “agricultural abandonment in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America; warming temperatures that are enabling forests to move poleward; and China’s massive tree planting program,” writes Rhett A. Butler. “But the research also confirms large-scale loss of the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems, especially tropical forests.”
Finding home in H Mart
The New Yorker
“Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart,” begins Michelle Zauner’s moving essay on finding a taste of home in the Asian supermarket chain. “H Mart is freedom from the single-aisle ‘ethnic’ section in regular grocery stores. They don’t prop Goya beans next to bottles of sriracha here. Instead, you’ll likely find me crying by the banchan refrigerators, remembering the taste of my mom’s soy-sauce eggs and cold radish soup.”
Alaska’s vanishing salmon
The New York Times
This year, unlike every other year nearly in a generation, few red salmon returned to Alaska’s rivers. Native Americans and others who depend on subsistence fishing came back without a catch, pointing to a long, tough winter ahead. Not only are the prized red salmon nearly absent in many rivers, but the ones that are caught are smaller and don’t taste the same. “It’s not as clean and not as rich in a way — a little bit briny,” said the manager of one Anchorage restaurant. Scientists aren’t sure about the cause, but they suspect warming ocean temperatures play a role, making life tough for the fish.