To get a taste of what our friends in the big-time, mainstream media are up to, I try to keep an eye out for New York Times stories that deal with farming and agriculture. They usually run several such stories each week and I clip out (electronically) the ones that pique my interest. For better or worse, the Times takes angles on national and global ag that are often a little different than what we’re used to in traditional farm publications …

Jan. 1: Deep Roots, Oranges and a Taste of Florida’s Past — This particular story made it clear that the struggles faced by farmers in Minnesota are not unique to our fine state. A key paragraph:

Hundreds if not thousands of family citrus farms and their roadside stands have disappeared since the 1960s — victims of freezes and disease, highways that diverted customers, corporate consolidation and the relentless pressure on growers to sell their land to developers. Since 1996, Florida has lost more than 200,000 acres of citrus land, according to state figures, mainly to homes that no longer sell like the oranges they replaced.

The story ends with a quote from a 70-year-old owner of a family operation that’s been selling oranges since 1923, on how they’ve survived: “We’ve worked hard; that’s what it is. We’ve refused to give up.”

Jan. 3: A Whey With Words — How did a woman named Laini Fondiller end up in Vermont making goat cheese?

Fondiller, who is 57, has been making cheese for 22 years. She began learning cheese-making in Corsica, where she landed after answering an ad in a French farming publication. (A phys-ed major, she met a farmer in the last two weeks of college in Indiana and “that was it,” she said with a sigh. Farming it was.)

Some might disagree with her take on livestock, though: She does love the goats. “They’re very nice little animals,” she said. “Cows don’t give a damn. Sheep can’t stand ya. Pigs? ‘Just feed me!’”

Jan. 5: Australia: Farmers Protest Climate Change Policy — Angry farmers wearing broad-brimmed hats and cracking kangaroo-hide whips rallied outside Parliament on Monday as one farmer continued a hunger strike to demand compensation for Australian climate change policy.

The 61-year-old, who was on day 43 of his strike, wants to clear some of his 20,000-acre farm, but state laws restrict how much carbon dioxide-absorbing vegetation farmers can clear. You just don’t hear about farmers on hunger strikes much in Minnesota.

Jan. 9: Heavy Rains End Drought for Texas — Down in the Lone Star State, three months of heavy rains brought an end to a record drought. “It rained more in the last 90 days than it did in all of 2008 combined,” (a farmer) said. “After two lousy years in a row — one really, really bad — this year had better be a home run, or there are going to be a lot of people out of business here in the ag industry.”

The rains came too late for many ranchers in south Texas, who were forced to send to market most of their cattle, including breeding stock. Cotton farmers suffered, too. In Kleberg County, the entire cotton crop failed for the first time since 1904, The yields in two other nearby counties were barely 5 percent of normal. “Nothing grew, zero,” said Jon Whatley, who grows cotton and sorghum near Odem.

Jan. 24: Why Is a Utility Paying Customers? — Four decades ago … a string of hydroelectric plants was pumping out power faster than locals could buy it. Soon enough (farmer Sid) Erwin recalls, the utility began sending representatives to rural areas, urging farmers to use more electricity when irrigating their crops. These days, Idaho’s farmers are being paid to stop using power. Sitting at a cluttered kitchen table in his home, Mr. Erwin … waved a bill showing that last July he received a credit of more than $700 from Idaho Power for turning off his power-guzzling pumps on some summer afternoons.

Jan. 31: Satellite Feed — The most amusing ag-related story was their big city take on RFD-TV.

RFD-TV prides itself on sincerity and insularity. With cowboy hosts and insider jargon, the channel offers no translations for parochial cityfolk. Really, urban people should feel privileged to watch RFD-TV, like freshmen allowed to audit an upper-level seminar. … Terms like “glyphosate choices” and “the chutes” come fast and furious on RFD-TV — without amplification. … There’s something almost miraculous about seeing rural life represented (24 hours a day!) on television.

Feb. 2: Farm Subsidy Battles: A Fighter Looks Back — After a five-year stint as the European Union’s agricultural commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, who lives on her family’s farm in Denmark, is stepping down. Her term was noteworthy for her attempts to cut back EU farm subsidies which total more than $70 billion annually. She noted that reforms are easier to make in good economic times; making significant cuts will be more difficult now, with low prices and low incomes.

The downturn has provoked angry demonstrations in France, in Belgium and in Greece, where farmers blockaded streets with tractors last week to demand more subsidies. You see U.S. farmers doing that about as often as hunger strikes.

Feb. 10: China Report Shows More Pollution in Waterways — The Chinese government released a report stating that the nation’s water pollution in 2007 was more than twice as bad as indicated in prior reports — reports that had omitted agricultural waste.

“We believed we need to cut our emissions in half, but today’s data means a lot more work needs to be done,” said Mr. Ma (Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs). The extent of agricultural waste could prove a more intractable problem than that of the many factories dumping effluent into China’s rivers and lakes. “When it’s millions of farmers, it’s more difficult to bring it under control,” Mr. Ma said.

And here I thought the Chinese had solved their toxic waste problem — recycling it all into cheap plastic toys for American children.

Feb. 12: New Guest-Worker Rules Seek to Increase Wages — The news this day was U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announcing new rules for the temporary immigrant farm workers program, including requiring growers to prove they tried to find American workers to fill positions given to migrants. Many of the rules reversed changes made in the last days of the Bush administration and, not surprisingly, growers and workers groups were sharply divided over the new rules.

“We are very grateful to Secretary Solis for her willingness to spend the time and resources to ensure that the most vulnerable workers are protected,” said Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Farmworker Justice. … “I am not optimistic that any significant number of growers are going to be able to use this program,” said Bryan Little, Director of Labor Affair for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

And that’s all the New York ag news that’s fit to print.

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Tom Royer is the assistant editor of The Land. He may be reached at troyer@thelandonline.com.