sarahtaber.bsky.social
Ex-farm worker & crop scientist. Here to talk food, agriculture, and money.
patreon.com/farmtotaber
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"don't get lit on fire at work" guy is the only kind of parasocial relationship worth having tbh
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pro-ERA demonstration
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pro-ERA demonstration
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pro-ERA demonstration
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I posted this prior to Walz's press conference -- the point stands. The legislature doesn't meet again until 2026, so the *legislative balance* is a non-issue.
That is separate from the fact that the assassinations/assassination attempts were politically motivated.
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We... we already domesticated aurochs
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next time:
-Titanotylopus? (giant extinct camel from the Yukon)
-Steller's sea cow?
-any suggestions from the floor
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And they weren't exactly helpless. The first few dodos were easy to catch, bc they weren't scared of people yet.
But they caught on quick, ran real fast, & packed a solid bite. Their beak was hooked & strong enough to crack open nuts & crabs.
So, not quite the slow stupid critter of legend.
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So it's tough to get a proper breeding flock going.
That's also part of why dodos went extinct so quickly. They just don't reproduce very fast.
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Another problem: dodos only laid one egg per year.
That's pretty standard for flightless island birds! If you're on an island with no predators, there's no point in having lots of little babies so you can play the "don't get eaten by predators" odds.
They tend to raise one HUGE chick at a time.
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Another complication: dark meat. Dodos are probably mostly dark meat. Lots of walking muscles, no flying muscles.
And demand for white breast meat is what drives most of the global chicken trade. So dodo, no matter how farmable it is, wouldn't replace chicken.
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Did dodos actually taste good? Turns out, reviews were mixed.
Some of that may have been down to poor cooking (they got tough & stringy if overcooked).
Partly due to that, it seems dodos may not have been hunted into extinction by humans. It was probably the feral hogs that got them.
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The dodo: A big, flightless pigeon that weights 20-40 lbs.
This should be a slam dunk! We farm doves & pigeons for meat. Some dodos were kept in captivity before they went extinct, & seemed to be pretty omnivorous.
Conclusion: Farm the dodo.
But wait
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(pls do not take this very seriously. I am not out here tryin to bring back extinct animals so that we can farm them. This is just a good non-boring way to talk about agricultural logistics & also conservation logistics. And boy do we need that sometimes)
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Herr-bnb 😬
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yeah I mean Manhattan's just not that big, everything's kinda close to everything else
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Ok that's it that's the tea on Ballerina Farm
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SIL was like.... Promising career on Broadway? When? You got 1 callback for a yogurt commercial
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A SIL who did law at Columbia reported a lot of single Mormon women she knew struggled for years to make their big break; never did; got engaged; & suddenly their life story became all about how they "gave up a promising career on Broadway to become a wife & mom."
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So you wind up with a lot of single women with highly prestigious arts training, mountains of debt, & nowhere to go.
And lots of men with budding careers in finance & a need for a wife!
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But! The Mormon singles scene in Manhattan (where Juilliard is) does help explain the ballet thing!
Most of the men are there for finance, & most of the women are there for fine arts/Broadway.
The arts are incredibly competitive. Most people trying to make their big break there, just won't.
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Pro ballet dancers even leave high school early- so they can join an academy or ballet company training corps.
Ballet is hard on the body. Doesn't pay well. And careers can be short.
So spending your late teens/early 20s racking up Juilliard debt? You can see why it's not the main pro ballet path.
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Juilliard is a university.
Most professional ballet dancers are *already dancing professionally* when they hit college age.
"I went to Juilliard to train for a career in ballet" is kinda like "I did college gymnastics to train for the Olympics."
Technically possible! But not the usual track!
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Anyway, I promised ballet gossip so here it is.
One of BF's big claims to fame is "I was at Juilliard and left a promising career in ballet to have a family."
Uh...... if you're on track to dance ballet professionally, you *can* go to Juilliard for that. But people don't that often.
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BF's really not unique. They're doing what every other family with land & ambition is doing right now.
They just happen to have billionaire money as well. So they've got an advantage when it comes to building a platform.
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The farm sector is extremely image-conscious.
Every farmer business conference has at least 1 seminar on how to use social media to sell a wholesome family image.
"Ballerina Farms does the wholesome family branding bc... they're Mormons!" is really not the razor-sharp insight people think it is.
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This also helps explain why places like BF lean so hard on Nice Mommy branding.
If you're gonna build a multimillion dollar business on overcharging people for mediocre product, you need an air-tight reputation management strategy.
"Awww I'm just a hardworking mommy" is about as good as it gets.
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This is part of why direct-to-consumer food sales are booming!
Sometimes farms want to avoid grocery stores bc they take too much of a cut.
But sometimes, they want to avoid grocery stores bc they have quality standards & know when they're being overcharged.
The general consumer doesn't. 💀
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Having a USDA Prime, Select, or Choice seal means you can charge a lot more. That's why USDA offers that service!
If your meat qualifies for it, odds are you're going to get it.
Sooooooo meat that doesn't come with a USDA grade seal... sometimes there's a reason.
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Why would I say that?
BF's meat is butchered at nearby USDA-inspected facilities AFAIK. But Ballerina Farm's meat appears to not be graded for quality.
(Health inspection is mandatory. But quality grading- for marbling, juiciness, flavor, tenderness, etc- is optional.)
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I wanted to say "it's the same meat you'd get at the grocery store" but then I realized that's probably not even true.
It's quite likely that BF's role in the greater northern Utah meat ecosystem is "selling the meat that the grocery stores won't take, to suckers on the internet."