The Agrarian's Alcove

Thanks to the great responses I got from my poll, this week’s post is on none other than lab grown meat! First, we’ll discuss why lab grown meat was even a thought. Then, we’ll discuss a little about how it works. And finally, we’ll discuss what it could mean for our future. Ready to dig in? We all know PETA is against the animal agriculture industry as well as literally any other industry that has anything to do with animals. It isn’t a surprise that they offered a reward for the first person to develop lab grown (sometimes called cultured) meat and market it successfully. This is a project that has been in the making for several years. By 2012 more than 30 research teams worldwide were trying to make it happen. PETA wanted to be able to prevent animal “cruelty” by removing the animal entirely (although...this would require stem cells from animals, and lab tests so I’m not really sure what they were thinking.) Others saw test-tube meat as a means to satisfy the food source for a...

*this is not a sponsored post. all content is original* If you follow The Agrarian’s Alcove on Facebook you know that we recently visited New Orleans! Let me assure you: coming from Texas, you can just tell when you cross the state line. It’s an amazing change. The entire atmosphere is different. If you’ve ever been to Louisiana you probably know that New Orleans is known for the mansions in the Garden District, the amazing above ground cemeteries, and the old plantations. We didn’t get to take a tour of the plantations this time since the tours were between 5 and 8 hours long, and our short trip just didn’t allow for that. But we did have a lot of fun and learned tons!! When we first got into Louisiana we saw lots of fields with standing water. Sticking out above the water were these little orange things, and several blades of stuff that looks like grass. In doing further research, these fields were rice fields. Not just any rice fields, though. The orange things sticking out...

Good morning Agrarians!! Happy Earth Day ! Hopefully you are out celebrating with fun Earth Day crafts and free activities! I always loved Earth Day activities as a kid. So when I started hearing about the activities this year, I wondered how this all got started. It’s a huge event that happens each year, and is celebrated in more than 190 countries! More than one billion people celebrate Earth Day. If we go back to the very first Earth Day, in April 1970 we see lots of protesters with their signs held high. The 70’s were a time of great protests. If you look at pictures of the first earth day, you will see children wearing shirts that say “Let me grow up!”, large handmade signs with snappy slogans, and people doing generally weird things...like walking around in gas masks. So obviously this was a classic grassroots protest. If you think our world is dirty now, you should have seen it before Earth Day. Rivers were LITERALLY catching fire when someone tossed a cigarette into them...

I have had some people ask me about GMO’s, and to clarify some things. I have written a post about being #ProGMO and about the Non-GMO Project , but they’re from when I was first getting the blog started, and I feel like I can do better. So in researching more, I have found about a million articles on how GMO’s are bad… but guess what? All of the articles are from 2010-2015. It’s 2018 yall!!! They clearly have no new cases to make. If you go through the articles they often mention studies that are vague or seemingly biased; that say more research needs to be done, and other things that are ambiguous. I will say, I was actually impressed with this WebMD article . It was on point, unbiased, and told you to make your own decisions. So let’s take a look at what others have to say. The Natural Society website had some awful, awful things to say about GMO’s. They claim that GMO’s are linked to more than 22 diseases. The study they use is from the Journal of Organic Systems. While ...

Last month we celebrated Black History month here at the Alcove, and this month we are celebrating Women’s History in agriculture! So I was thinking about who the most influential women in the ag industry are, and in my opinion Temple Grandin is at the top of the list. You could say I’m biased since I’m an animal science major and she works directly with animal ag, but she’s still my favorite. Anyways, since I’ve already done two posts about Temple Grandin and her work, I figured I needed to focus on some other women. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know how I feel about GMOs. If you’re new, read this post. So, you can understand why I’m a huge fan of Alison Van Eenennaam and her assistant’s research on GMOs. Together, these women conducted a study that involved reviewing 29 years of livestock health and productivity data. They studied groups livestock both being fed genetically engineered livestock feed, and being fed regular feed. Their study found that GE feed...

When you’re at the grocery store, do you ever feel like all you see is greenwashed logos and brands? It’s hard to find anything that’s not “all natural” or non-GMO. We’ve talked about labels before, and how they can be misleading. For example, meat is always gluten free, but now tons of meat products have a gluten-free label on them. Some consumers likely don’t realize that all meat has always been gluten free, and they pay extra for that little banner. One of the most misleading labels-in my opinion at least-is the “uncured” label on processed meats. What do you think of when you see that label on your lunch meat or bacon? I assume  most people, when they see this label, think Oh, there’s not as many chemicals! It’s gotta be better. More natural. Maybe even healthier! The good news is, I was really impressed with how accurate the first few Google results were when I looked up the differences between uncured and cured bacon. I saw only a few statements that uncured bacon ...

Here at the Agrarian’s Alcove, we absolutely love to celebrate ag. I mean LOVE to celebrate it. It’s the basis for life and the world’s economy. February is Black History month and so we’d like to dedicate our celebration to the amazing contributions that African Americans have made to our industry. First thing’s first-does anyone here like potatoes?(Read our post about the best potatoes here ) What about potato chips? The salty, savory, crunchy snack that we all fall for was created by George Crum , a half African American-half Native American chef. After a customer’s complaint in 1853 that he cut his fried potatoes too thick, Crum responded by slicing the potatoes as thinly as possible, and fried them until they crunched. The restaurant goer (not surprisingly!) ended up loving the crispy potatoes and Crum ended up opening his own restaurant. Crum never marketed his snacks, but snack food junkie William Tappendon began putting these chips on the shelves of grocery stores in 1895...

This post contains affiliate links. In America, Valentine’s day is one of the biggest holidays for agriculture. We search and search for that perfect gift for our significant others. Kids look for the best Valentine cards and candy to exchange. If you read Holiday Horticulture or my post about Christmas Trees you know how much agriculture can impact a holiday. With all the chocolates, wine, flowers, and greeting cards Valentine’s day is one of the biggest days for agriculture. According to the NFR, last year Americans spent over $18 billion on Valentine’s day gifts. An average of $1.7 billion is spent on candy, over $8 million on wine, $2 billion on flowers, and $1 billion on cards. Now that we’ve got those statistics, lets dig in to those fun facts! Chocolates and Candies Americans spend a lot on candy each year, for many different occasions. Valentine’s candy though, is my favorite. Anyone else like those cordial cherries? Or how about conversation hearts? All candy is ful...

The Agrarian’s Alcove HOW TO GET INVOLVED WITH SMALL AG: PERMACULTURE WHAT IS SMALL AG Small ag is agriculture on a smaller, non-commercial scale. Today, many people are trying to incorporate backyard farming. A lot of people have chickens and sell farm-fresh eggs. There are a lot of small goat farms where they sell meat goats and goat-milk, and utilize the goat-milk to make cool products. Many farmer’s markets sell small locally farmed produce and canned products. All of this can be considered small ag. Some people consider doing small ag for a hobby, and others think that small ag is better for our environment than big ag or commercial farms. While there can be pros and cons to small ag as opposed to conventional ag, there are some ways you can implement small ag in your own backyard-even if you live in the suburbs! Permaculture is a great way to start. WHAT IS PERMACULTURE Permaculture is a coined term which comes from the words “permanent agriculture.” Permaculture...

I went on a field trip recently to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) with the sixth graders that I tutor. I honestly thought it was going to be the most boring field trip ever, but it was actually really cool! We got to watch videos of crash testing, the kids got to use a distracted driving simulator, and we learned how the stoplight systems work. You may be wondering why we’re talking about roads and transportation on a blog devoted to agriculture. We talk a lot on this blog about environmental friendliness and the transportation institute actually has a department devoted to solving environmental problems with the construction of roadways and bridges. I’m going to give you the highlights of what this field trip taught me about erosion, hopefully give yall some insight on a career path you may never have associated with agriculture, and some cool facts about our Texas roadways. TTI have several focus areas regarding environmental research and improvement. The swe...

Visit a Farmer’s Market We all talk about the need to support local farmers, but how many times did you go the farmer’s market last year? I planned to go several times… but HEB sells “locally” grown food, and they sell a lot of items that are certified Go Texan. It was more convenient to go there, however “local” to a grocery store can mean anywhere in the state, rather than what you might think of as local. Farmer’s markets usually only sell food that are in season. Grocery stores generally sell foods all year around because larger farms can afford to grow fruits and vegetables indoors in a greenhouse. Dedicate your time once a season to visiting a farmer’s market and seeing what foods are in season. The sellers at a market love to talk about their products, how they grow them, or their favorite recipes to use them in. If you visit a farmer’s market, ask that farmer about their product! It can be a great learning experience, and it’s just a lot of fun. Plus you’re helping out your ...