TLR Newsletter

The problem of food waste is starting to get more mainstream press as of late.  Last Week Tonight 's John Oliver even highlighted food waste in our own Salinas Valley in his 2015 episode on food waste: Entire blogs and YouTube channels are dedicated to people who sustain themselves by pulling perfectly good food out of the waste stream, to feed themselves for free. Although there is no one cause of food waste, and therefore no "quick fix", Turning Leaf Ranch is happy to have partnered with Drew Massa Transportation, to collect human-grade produce that would otherwise go to waste.  We have fed our animals with Salinas Valley produce for years, and this year, given the steep increase in processing fees we recently experienced, we will increase our efforts in this area, to help offset our feed costs. We are highly selective of the produce we feed to the animals.  We only feed leafy greens, not including brassicas, which can influence the flavor of the meat.  Although th...

 

 Although the winter of 2020 - 2021 was exceedingly dry, it is really part of a larger story that has been building for many years.  The image shown here zooms out to show the recent dry years in perspective, showing the nearly continuous low rainfall, punctuated by the occasional heavy year.  An animated map showing drought areas and their severity may be found here: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/drought/historical-palmers/ While things are already getting somewhat dire in some areas, it is worthwhile to consider some historical perspective.  The past 20 years may be the beginning of what some call a "mega drought".  Just how "mega" can a mega drought become?  Based on tree ring analysis, researchers have determined that droughts in the past have gone on as long as 90 years .  What's more, these patterns do not occur on a time scale of tens of thousands of years, and instead occur every couple of hundred years.  One such event da...