January 8: Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week

Monsanto is still having a hard time wooing Syngenta, reports say. Monsanto’s Chief Exec Hugh Grant sees Syngenta, the world’s biggest pesticide company, as Monsanto’s perfect partner, but Syngenta execs just aren’t calling him back.

The USDA released their new food guidelines yesterday and some people are pretty pissed. More veggies? Check. Leaner meats? Check. But what’s missing is any mention of sourcing food locally, which is best for the environment. Screwed up environment = screwed up agriculture. WIRED explains in detail.

The farmhouse murder investigation of an octogenarian New York socialite has had locals in a tizzy for two months, and it just got a little weirder. Although no one has been arrested for her killing, two of her employees were arrested this week for stealing $30,000 of hay from her property over the course of three years. That’s a lot of hay.

Texas’s crazy weather a few weeks back had some heartbreaking results, killing 22,000 cattle. Without proper four-walled structures to retreat to, which typically don’t make much sense in places that get as hot as Texas, cattle were buried in snowdrifts or literally froze to death.

Lastly, meet the Canadian farmer keeping the long-forgotten Montreal melon alive. A hundred years ago, the variety used to sell for the equivalent of $24 a slice at posh restaurants. Although Burpee dubbed it “the best melon we’ve ever eaten,” its hard-to-grow nature inspired industrial ag to leave it behind. Part history lesson, part treatise on the important of diversity for food security.