The symbiotic relationship between livestock and the microbes in their stomachs generates methane gas, a potent greenhouse gas.  Dairy farms modify the diets and digestion of livestock in order to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas.

From Food, Inc. to Michael Pollan’s novels, in recent years, the public at large has criticized agriculture.  Often, the public portrays farmers as villains. Busy farmers frequently remain unheard in the media. Recently, ABC ran a special with the headline, “Got Milk? Got Ethics? Animal Rights v. U.S. Dairy Industry.”

When you buy strawberries at the grocery store, do you think about the last person who touched them? As a food safety expert, Prof. Robert Gravani, food science, does.

My mother, like mothers everywhere, is a very sneaky woman.

One day I sat down to dinner and found in front of me a perennial, all-Italian- American favorite: spaghetti and meatballs. Since it was the summer and, most importantly, time to eat, I could not help but sniff eagerly at the wafting aromas of basil and Parmesan while waiting impatiently for dinner to start. So far, so good. As I scarfed down my first plate of spaghetti, I had only a vaguely disquieting sense that my mother had an unusual glint in her eye. Only after I had finished reluctantly pushing my spinach around my plate and finally eaten it did I realize what had just happened. My mom had used me as a lab rat.

A few months back a friend and I were walking through the farmer’s market and taking in the beautiful autumn weather. As we reached the end of the market near the Gimme! coffee shop, a guitar and cello-playing duo was performing Weezer’s “Holiday” with a folk twist. Aside from grabbing my attention by covering an unlikely Weezer song, the duo was singing with so much emotion and love in their voices that this version of “Holiday” was a completely new listening experience. Only the lyrics remained the same. In fact, having no thought that they were anything more than band mates, I mentioned to my friend ‘how in love’ the musicians acted. Much to my pleasure, at the conclusion of the song, the duo announced that they had just been married two days earlier.

Even though the University has had to deal with its own internal problems brought on by the current recession, the Cornell Cooperative Extension is still making a concerted effort to help New York dairy farmers cope with the downturn of the dairy market.

“The milk market over the last 10 years has developed a pattern of spikes and valleys in prices,” said Carl Tillinghast, executive director of the Franklin County branch of CCE. “This is our fourth cycle; we had experienced higher prices over the last year or two and now we’re bottoming out. Time will tell if the price goes back up and to what extent.”