Capitalism exploits cheap labor everywhere around the world. It’s a feature of the system.

Mexico and Canada have been investing in agricultural infrastructure for decades now. The only reason that the U.S. farmer can compete is due to shenanigans in import requirements. Imports are held to a much higher standard than domestic production. It’s why the majority of foodborne outbreaks are from American production.

American farmers have been conditioned to rely on cheap labor and expensive equipment. There’s been only been minor infrastructure investment since the 1970’s.

Without government subsidies and cheap labor, the majority of the farmers business models in the us is not sustainable.

The grass can be grown with minimal runoff. Unfortunately everyone tries to follow the recommendations of sports fields/golf courses in their yards. All their methods are designed to meet the requirements of the sport, not the needs of the grass.

Farmers in the Midwest are by far the worse offenders. They frontload their nitrogen application using anhydrous ammonia in the fall or early spring. The ammonia is converted to nitrate by bacterial activity. Part of it then runs off early in the season with snowmelt or rain (that’s when the tile systems are usually draining water from the fields).

The solution is well known. Use of polymer coated slow release urea at planting or side dressing with straight urea at V4/V5. It’s more expensive per lb apllied but it takes up to 50% less N applied to achieve the same result. Especially compared to fall applied anhydrous ammonia.

Combined with winter cover cropping nutrient runoff can be significantly mitigated.

It’s a relatively easy fix but it costs more money… So the pollution keeps running off.

I work for myself now and late June early July is the slow season. I have 2 days of work to do in the next 6 weeks.

I have the very important task of getting my fishing boat out today.

Hmmmm… Maybe I should supplement my income with the pikeminnow bounty.

https://www.pikeminnow.org/

Good dishwashers have a heating element on the bottom. . It turns on and dries the dishes in a cloud of steam. There is also a button on mine that’s for high heat (sanitize) that I leave on. This ensures that the dishes get completely dry.

FYI - What you just experienced is cultural sexism. It’s extremely common in many cultures around the world.

It used to drive my coworkers nuts when we were traveling internationally. They would enter a meeting and everyone would still be speaking their native language. I would enter a few minutes later and everyone would switch.

The only place they didn’t switch languages at all was France. They don’t give a fuck equally.

Think positively, ejecting doesn’t mean the pilot survived. Historically around 10% pilots die. That number is lower for newer aircraft, but not for the old Soviet ones.

Just like the airplane in WWI, drone warfare is evolving rapidly. We are going to see all sorts of new drones and drone defenses invented over the coming years.

I wouldn’t say it’s ineffective, it’s does give the vehicle a chance to escape a drone attack.

From the videos, Ukraine is knocking out equipment by sending multiple drones. The first few take out the drone defenses, clearing the way for later drones to hit the armor and destroy the vehicle. If the vehicle can escape before the drone defenses are breached the defenses are definitely worth it.

In 2025 it would be anything above 3.6 million. It’s a ton of money but here’s a list of a few people that hit it.

https://aflcio.org/paywatch/highest-paid-ceos

Now if they added in a progressive tax rate for corporate taxes as well… Say anything over 500 million in net profit is taxed at a 90+% rate. That would solve all sorts of issues. Suddenly investors of all these mega corps would be pushing hard to divide up the companies into smaller entities.

Wealth tax in the modern age could be an inheritance tax. Anything over the median life earnings of individuals could be taxed at 100%. So median earnings in my area is $65K * 45 years (20-65k) = $2.93 million.

Taxes can go either way. It depends on how they were written.

The tax code after the Great Depression allowed for massive expansion of public projects in the U.S. It was 63% for the top earners. During WW2 the top tax bracket was at 94%.

When the boomers were all born the tax bracket was above 70% for the top earners. This high tax bracket is what fueled the creation of a large middle class, public infrastructure, schools, research, space exploration, and the massive military buildup and wars. It also acted as an effective anti-minopoly/oligarchy system because the tax system discouraged it.

Then in the 80’s Reagan slashed the taxes for the top earners down to 28%. its never gotten above 40% since then. Most high earning companies have so many exeptions today that the real tax rate is often 0%.

Because of it the infrastructure built during the 50’s-70’s is degrading and falling apart. Public services are declining and the middle class is shrinking as people become more impoverished.

Brings back a fun memory. On a business trip in France, I was driving and with my coworker (French national).

I had the GPS set to English pronunciation of the signs etc. My coworker spent most of the two hour drive a complaining about the pronunciation and begging to change the settings. I spent the trip laughing my ass off at him and refusing to change it.

It’s not that small of a target either. The AN-196 has a wingspan of 6.7m and carries a 50-75kg warhead.

Pepper seeds begin to mature when the pod turns color. Green peppers are immature peppers and the seeds are not viable. Red or yellow, the seeds may be viable.

The largest issue with using store bought fruit is the seeds need to be treated with TSP (Trisodium phosphate) when they are harvested. This treatment kills tobacco mosaic virus. TMV and other tobamovisues are common in production areas.

The plants will also be a segregating F2 plant. So the fruit/plant will look a little different from the parent (F1). Not a big deal in my opinion.

https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esw058

He did a little massaging of the data.

If you pop the plant up and look at its roots right now you’d answer your own questions. Cucumbers roots grow very rapidly at that stage. They are all over that pot chasing nutrients. If it is a nutrients issue, it’s from that potting soil.

https://feddit.org/post/13774497

I had one I planted not come up the first year.

The second year it sent up a small shoot.

The third year it sent up 4 shoots but 3 of them were smashed by my older sons basketball.

The 4th year it grew 5 shoots.

It finally bloomed for the first time on the firth year

6 years later it’s a large bush with tons of flowers.

ZYMV mainly infects species in the cucurbit family (squash, pumpkin, melons, cucumbers etc). I don’t recall if it bothers tomatoes.

The only way to know for sure is with an ELISA test strip.

Of course multiple nutrient deficiencies like Mg, and K can also cause mosaic like symptoms. A heavy infestation of fungus gnats in the soil can also damage the roots and cause similar symptoms.

So give it some fertilizer and wait a week. If the new growth improves it’s nutrient related. If not, it’s a virus.

The first few leaves normally don’t express. It takes a little while for the virus to replicate. If I had to guess it could be ZYMV. It is seedborne in cucumbers and is spread by aphids. ZYMV is endemic to all seed production regions. So it pops up with regularity.