What in the farm-data mess is this? …It is a map to providing pathways for turning wastes into revenues. This is Part 4 in stepping through the impact of technology on making the world better economically and ecologically. Recall: Outputs … Continue reading →
Once again, strolling back to the future, this matrix of biomass products was created 20 years ago. It still relevant and ties together the preceding themes nicely on a different level. Outputs are dependent on the inputs, or, y = … Continue reading →
Karen Maguire, Sophia J. Tanner, Justin B. Winikoff, and Ryan Williams USDA, Economic Research Service, May 2024 The following findings were reported in this interesting report. This study examines land cover surrounding rural solar and wind installation sites from 2009–20. … Continue reading →
My career has been defined as y = f(x). Technology, and in this case, Outputs, y, are (created from,=,) a function of, f(), inputs, x. In other words, how inputs are combined determines the technology. Corn can be grown with … Continue reading →
The previous post, The Price of Food Dominates Alternative Use Markets, sparked a desire to map out the farm-level activities into feed, fuel, and food. This was an innocent effort and was not successful. The transformations that occur on a … Continue reading →
This chart was created in 2011 to illustrate the US. price of fuel relative to the US. price of food. The debate back in those days was whether to produce food or fuel (food vs. fuel). It was the politics … Continue reading →
Outer space is now open for business. On February 22, 2024, a private company space vehicle, Intuitive Machines landed on the Moon. The first manned U.S. lunar landing occurred in 1969 and was completely government funded. The 1960s U.S. space … Continue reading →
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the definition of a U.S. farm for the purposes of collecting data in the Census of Agriculture, was set at $1,000 of farm value of production. This includes gross sales or potential sales. The Ag … Continue reading →
In the old days, agribusiness referred to a business providing farm inputs. This broadly impacted everything involving goods and services connected to agricultural commodities. Commodities are the raw products from crops and livestock that cannot be differentiated on product quality. … Continue reading →
Local and global markets for ag and biomass products are two distinct markets that are interdependent. They are two parts of the same system. It is a ‘both and’, rather than ‘one or the other.’ One of these unique markets … Continue reading →
