Free Republic

These are dark days for KFC's once-dominant chicken empire. After five years of crumbling sales, the extra crispy mega-chain, which in 2012 lost its throne as America's top chicken seller to Chick-fil-A, now makes less money than eateries half its size, like Applebee's and Panera Bread. Now, 75 years after "Colonel" Harland Sanders first served his original recipe at a six-seat dining table in rural Kentucky, the chain is betting $185 million on a massive, bizarre turnaround campaign in hopes of winning a seat again at the fast-food table. The chain is blasting out TV ads, offering new Southern-style grub...

When it comes to farming, there is no better time than now to get into the field. Thanks to technological advances ushered in by the green movement, farming has evolved from a traditional means to sustain a personal living to a science with the potential to feed millions. The Inquisitr previously reported on how technology-assisted farming has become a blessing to others. Former NFL football player, Jason Brown, watched DIY videos on Youtube to learn how to grow 46,000 pounds of sweet potatoes and 10,000 pounds of cucumbers, which he donated to pantries and kitchens. In Irvine, California, an entire...

The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.” — Henry Hazlitt, “Economics in One Lesson” One of the greatest fallacies of recent generations is the argument that free market capitalism has failed and that said failure is responsible for America’s moribund economy, the ongoing destruction of the middle...

EPA claims that it’s simplifying regulations and making them easier to follow, but the fine print tells another story. Business owners around the country have joined with farmers and ranchers in speaking out on the Waters of the U.S. rule. More than 30 states also oppose the rule. Yet, even in the face of mounting opposition, the EPA still isn’t listening. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has unveiled her latest, campaign-style WOTUS spin, calling the effort the “Clean Water Rule” – as though a bumper-sticker approach to a complex regulation would change anything for people so profoundly affected by her agency’s...

Mona Lee Brock went into the office early that morning, as she always did, when she received a panicked phone call. The telephones in the crisis center were lighting up all over the place, as was common. This particular call was from a farmer’s wife. A day prior, the farmer had spoken to Brock and agreed not to hurt himself, but now his wife couldn’t find him. And she was afraid. Brock asked where the farmer kept his .410 shotgun. It was the height of the ’80s farm crisis, one of the greatest economic turmoils since the Great Depression. Drought...

Pasadena city officials recently signed a letter of intent to develop a vertical farming facility and education center in north Pasadena through an agreement with Indoor Harvest Corp., a Houston-based company that designs and sells hydroponic systems and specializes in high-tech urban farming techniques. “We were looking for low-impact development projects for north Pasadena and came up with the idea of vertical farming, which seemed to be a perfect fit for that area,” Pasadena Publications Manager Wayne Holt said. “We also hope to eventually add a farmer’s market and educational programs in partnership with Pasadena ISD. This type of project...

Efforts to protect the greater sage grouse in its 11-state territory are multiplying, according to a report from the Western Governors’ Association released Thursday, and Northwest Colorado’s sage grouse population is seeing significant growth as a result. The report is a comprehensive inventory of public and private conservation initiatives in 2014 throughout the bird’s range in 11 western states, including Colorado. Northwest Colorado is home to about two thirds of the state’s greater sage grouse population, which grew by 30 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to Senior Wildlife Biologist Brad Petch with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. ... Moffat, Routt...

Eric Holthaus March 22, 2015 As California limps through another nearly rain-free rainy season, the state is taking increasingly bold action to save water. On Tuesday, the California state government imposed new mandatory restrictions on lawn watering and incentives to limit water use in hotels and restaurants as part of its latest emergency drought regulations. On Thursday, California Gov. Jerry Brown announced a $1 billion plan to support water projects statewide and speed aid to hard-hit communities already dealing with shortages. Last month federal water managers announced a "zero allocation" of agricultural water to a key state canal system for...

The World Health Organisation’s cancer agency has declared that one of the UK’s most widely used weedkillers is “probably carcinogenic to humans”.Amateur gardeners and professional farmers have been urged to “think very carefully” about using the popular herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate. A summary of the International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) report, published in The Lancet Oncology, said that the herbicide had been detected “in air during spraying, in water, and in food”.It had also been detected “in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, indicating absorption”....The IARC's report said that its use has increased sharply with the...

Scott Walker is killing it with Republicans. The Wisconsin governor is one of his party's rising stars—thanks to his ongoing and largely successful war against his state's labor unions, a fight that culminated Monday with the signing of a controversial "right-to-work" bill. Now (for the moment, anyway), he's a leading contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. At the Conservative Political Action Conference a couple weeks ago, he polled a close second to three-time winner Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), beating the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by a significant margin. It probably won't...

When people discuss business uses for drones, they tend to jump to the novelty end of the consumer market—from the drone hobbyist with a GoPro camera to a complete overhaul of delivery services. “In the press, you always hear that Amazon will deliver a book, or pizzas will come to your house,” says Amar Hanspal, senior vice president at Autodesk, during a recent discussion on drones at Gigaom Structure Connect. “That is a cute thing to talk about, but the real action is in B2B industrial applications. That is where we’re watching the democratization of a broad use of drones...

Mesa County commissioners on Tuesday directed Mesa County Attorney Patrick Coleman to draft a notice of intent to sue the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s listing of the Gunnison sage-grouse as a threatened species. Gunnison County filed its own notice of intent in December to bring civil action against the Fish and Wildlife Service for, the county believes, improperly listing the bird as a threatened species and naming Gunnison County and acreage in a handful of other Colorado and Utah counties, including Mesa, as critical habitat for the sage-grouse. Mesa County decided to follow with its...

Net income for farmers is expected to fall by nearly 32 percent this year as corn and soybean prices remain low and expenses creep higher, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report. While some farmers renting land at higher prices will find it an unprofitable year, the statistics are not as dire as they may sound for farmers in general, since just two years ago income was at a record high, farm economists said. "It's neither happy times nor is the sky falling in terms of agriculture incomes," said Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of...

Last spring, for the first time in 20 years, Indiana farmer Jim Benham planted his fields entirely with soybean seeds that hadn’t been genetically modified to withstand herbicides. It wasn’t because the 63-year-old suddenly had embraced the anti-GMO movement. Instead, he was drawn to a nearly 14% per-bushel premium for non-GMO soybeans offered by a local grain terminal, which sells them to Asian feed processors. Mr. Benham is among a small but growing number of Midwestern farmers moving away from biotech seeds developed by Monsanto Co. , DuPont Co. and other companies in response to lower crop prices over the...

In a black and white photo snapped in the early 1940s, a young, central Ohio farm girl beams from beneath a straw hat. Around her neck is a small scarf; she wears a pair of overalls. The photo arrived with a simple but joyfully blunt note from the subject, now a 77-year-old farmer in rural Ohio: “Here’s me, butch Gael!”Only age 9 when it was taken, she already had a faint understanding that she was a lesbian. Aware of her differences, Gael buried a lack of love for frills in acceptable rural tomboyishness. For more than a decade she hid...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Choice of Ernst about personality, not policy. Congressional correspondent Luke Russert said on MSNBC Tuesday that freshman Sen. Joni Ernst was a pig farmer this time last year and marveled that she is now she is giving the rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union address. “That is an extraordinary rise in politics right there,” Russert told Joy Ann Reid. Russert said that Ernst is emblematic of what the GOP wants to be. “That is what you’ll see her do tonight, sell her personality as a war veteran and somebody who was a pig farmer around this time last...

Expert says western yellow-billed cuckoo may be more prevalent than first thought. Paonia ornithologist Jason Beason likes to say that there are a lot of cuckoos out there. The line is good for laughs at presentations like the talks he gave in the Roaring Fork Valley last week, and it accurately reflects the fact that dozens of species of cuckoos populate the Earth in both the Old and New Worlds. These include birds people might not immediately think of as being cuckoos, such as the greater roadrunner in the southwestern United States. But in the case of the cuckoo of...

The statistics for this incredibly successful indoor farming endeavor in Japan are staggering: 25,000 square feet producing 10,000 heads of lettuce per day (100 times more per square foot than traditional methods) with 40% less power, 80% less food waste and 99% less water usage than outdoor fields. But the freshest news from the farm: a new facility using the same technologies has been announced and is now under construction in Hong Kong, with Mongolia, Russia and mainland China on the agenda for subsequent near-future builds. In the currently-completed setup, customized LED lighting developed with GE helps plants grow up...

A new study released from Michigan State University found substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions due to ethanol fuel use in Michigan. To reach this conclusion, however, the study’s authors simply and admittedly decided not to take into account the number one reason critics of ethanol fuel use argue that it is bad for the environment. Justification for the study leaving out what may be the most significant negative aspect of ethanol fuel use is partially explained in a statement offered by MSU spokesman Jason Cody. “The study was not directly about whether ethanol is good for the environment,” Cody...

If eggs are a staple in your family’s diet and you’d like to keep it that way, now would be a good time to get a few laying hens. Next month, beginning January 1, 2015, the chicken-and-egg production in the United States is in for a big shock. That’s when California’s new regulations on egg-laying hens goes into effect. And the effects of those regs on eggs will be felt nationally, even globally. The incredible, edible, prolate spheroid-shaped poultry product, which has long been one of the most affordable sources of high-quality protein, is certain to become significantly more expensive.In...