Separating otherwise safe, concurrent uses of chemicals is as wrong a strategy as the Maginot Line. Organic matter is chemical matter at its base. Chemophobes Win After being pilloried in the social media by activists, the Subway sandwich chain announced it would stop using azodicarbonamide as a bleaching and conditioning agent in its bread. The complaint was that the chemical is also used in making yoga mats. Actually, it is used in the manufacture of many plastics, but the sweaty yoga mat provides a graphic image to chemophobes. One could make this ever grosser: benzoic acid is used to fight fungus in food as well as athlete's foot in humans (food odor is caused by isovaleric acid, also found in foods). Additionally:
Sodium benzoate...
Key Takeaways: Milk alone has not covered the full economic cost in any year since 2021: milk revenue fell short by $4.50, $2.15, $6.50, $1.27 and $2.34 per hundredweight in 2021 through 2025. Calf and cattle prices decided whether dairies cleared cost: cattle and other income lifted total rev...
Key Takeaways: Dry bulk markets are mixed with Capesize rates seeing solid gains while Panamax values slipped on a growing tonnage list. Supramax and Handysize vessels were stronger, though all sectors remain vulnerable to the seasonal dip in rates through Q4 and into Q1. Falling water l...
What You Need to Know Today: The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at 3.75 to 4.0 percent Wednesday, with two officials dissenting in favor of a 25-basis-point increase. The Fed upgraded its assessment of economic growth from "solid" to "strong" but adopted a more patient approa...
