Petri pork promises pigless meat. There's a consortium of of publicly funded research institutions in the Netherlands that are working on turning pig stem cells directly into meat without the bother of that whole raising-the-pig-feeding-the-pig-hauling-manure-slaughtering-the-pig-and-cutting-up-the-pig thing. According  to Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University who is involved in the In-vitro Meat Consortium, their nascent technology has produced a meat-like substance that's more like a scallop than a pork chop. It's firm, but a little squishy and wet.
  The stem-cell technique could also be used on other meat animals - chickens, turkeys, cattle and sheep, for example. Or you could grow your own tiger meat. Maria Cheng, a medical writer for the Associated Press wrote a story about petri meat for the Seattle Times. She aske dPost what the artificial stuff tastes. Actually, he said, nobody's eaten it yet. Cheng's story is here:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010802371_apeumedpetripork.html



     Milk price up $4/cwt this year? Could be, according to Dr. Mark Stephenson, a Cornell University dairy economist who sees hopeful signs of an industry turnaround. But good news in the milk check might be partially offset by bigger numbers in the feed bill. Early indicators were that corn annd bean harvests were hindered by bad harvest season weather, but the USDA on Tuesday said total harvest volume was considerably higher than expected. So, who knows? Stephenson made his comments in a conference call with farmers, lenders and academicians all over the Northeast. Front page news for Lancaster Farming readers, of course, and you can check it out in the edition due in your mailbox tomorrow. Or you can read it here:  http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2748


     Udder nonsense. Or: one more reason Woody Allen is no longer relevant.
 http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/01/18/100118sh_shouts_allen