This quarter's Gleanings takes an indulgent turn…

I will focus today’s Weekly Gleanings on some major news since Jon finished his tenure as Web Fellow:

As a Michigan transplant living in California, I always miss the Polish pastry Paczki on Fat Tuesday. The New York Times covers the role of Paczki in a changing Michigan community, Hamtramck, that used to be predominantly Polish Catholic but has since become majority Muslim.

There has been a mix of high profile controversies in agricultural news over the past few weeks. From Super Bowl ads criticizing corn syrup to concerns over the impact of high profile policy initiatives on agriculture, here are some of the highlights:

The government shutdown has had wide-ranging effects throughout US society (just today, air traffic across the United States was delayed due to a shortage of air traffic controllers), and as academics we know how the shutdown has disrupted our funding from the NSF, NEH, and NIH, among other agencies. In this edition of the weekly gleaning, I’ll focus on the ways the shutdown has impacted agricultural production in the United States:

The biggest news here in the United States was the passing of the farm bill. The bill makes no cuts to the food stamps program (which the Republicans threatened to defund), legalized production of industrial hemp, and extended federal farm subsidies. (Washington Post)

The biggest news from this past week is perhaps Jair Bolsonaro’s election victory in Brazil. The New York Times takes a look at the impact his victory might have on the Amazon. In sum, it’s not good.

While the problem of vast food deserts in black and Latino neighborhoods has gained attention in past decade, Modern Farmer shifts attention to ways racist policies have excluded black farmers.

The big news today is that a California court awarded Dewayne Johnson $289 million in damages after he claimed Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his cancer (The Guardian). The case will now go through a multi-year appeals process, as Monsanto contests the damages.

Our weekly gleanings present the latest happenings, research and writing along the tangled banks of culture and agriculture