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Bird Flu May Be Driven By This Overlooked Factor
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BY GREY MORAN • May 15, 2024
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As federal officials grapple with how to contain the highly contagious strain of avian flu that has infected chickens, turkeys, and dairy cattle on farms across the U.S., a number of scientists are pointing to one factor that could be driving the spread of its virus and its spillover from wild birds to farm animals.
Waterfowl—ducks, geese, and swans—are the primary host of the viruses, and large animal agriculture facilities are often found in close proximity to their remaining wetland habitats. For instance, California’s Central Valley and the East Coast’s Delmarva Peninsula are both critical wintering grounds for waterfowl, along major North American bird migration routes, and epicenters of U.S. poultry production.
As a result, some scientists who track waterfowl question whether this geographic overlap—alongside the shrinkage of waterfowl habitats—creates more opportunities for the virus to spread between infected waterfowl and the animals in agricultural facilities.
The ongoing
destruction of wetlands may lead the birds to concentrate on the remaining “small postage stamps of habitat,” potentially driving the spread of the virus between birds too, said Michael Casazza, a research biologist who tracks waterfowl at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Ecological Research Center. Read the full story.
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Mayor Eric Adams Scrapped NYC’s Compost Project. Here’s What Will Be Lost.
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BY ANGELICA ANG • May 14, 2024
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Since 1993, the New York City government has funded composting projects across all five boroughs—including seven host organizations, which provided compost for NYC’s community farms and gardens, and for the parks department, which used it for the care of street trees.
Last November, with no warning, Mayor Eric Adams announced
budget cuts that eliminated all government funding for the NYC Compost Project. All of the project's seven host organizations, as well as smaller, local ones, were forced to cease or downscale their operations. With community composting being scrapped, Civil Eats visited some of the projects to help understand what is being lost. See the photo essay.
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Nik Sharma Offers His Top Tips for Home Cooks to Fight Recipe Fatigue
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BY MATTHEW WHEELAND • May 13, 2024
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Whether you’re a chef, cookbook author, recipe developer, or home cook, the act of cooking— not to mention preparing to cook and cleaning up after—can sometimes be a slog. Whether you’re trying to cook with the seasons and facing yet another market basket of leeks and spinach, or you’ve hit a rut with recipes, cooking can become exhausting.
Cookbook author Nik Sharma is no stranger to the challenges of recipe and cooking fatigue: His latest cookbook, Veg-Table, is focused on
putting produce at the center of the menu, which can require more prep and clean-up, two of the more time-consuming aspects of cooking.
Recognizing that, we spoke to Sharma recently about his approach to keeping cooking interesting, engaging, and joyful. Here are some of his favorite tips. Read the full story.
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