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Farm Dinosaur, $105 Snail Eggs & Fungus Robots—Plus Columbus | Daily Farm Brief · Farm Tales Unplugged - Daily Farm Brief

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Farm Nation, and Hello Truck City.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is FarmTale's unplugged daily farm brief for Tuesday, October 13th.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Brought to you by World TradeX empowering farmers.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rick Portanova.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Today, a teenager goes out to help round up livestock.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: His family ends up uncovering a dinosaur nearly a hundred feet long.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're heading to a New York farm where a little jar of snail eggs carries a$105 price tag.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: We'll check the grain markets, then wait until you hear what scientists let control a robot.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they grew it.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll finish with something you might see floating across your pasture this fall.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: There could be a spider riding it and electricity helping it fly.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if you enjoy our show, give us a follow, a like, or a share.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: That would be fantastic.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So grab your coffee, fire up whatever you're driving, and let's find out what was happening while you were busy actually working.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine finding out your livestock had been walking over the remains of an animal almost as long as a basketball court.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the scale of this story from the Mackenzie family's property in Queensland, Australia.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It started back in 2004.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: 14-year-old Sandy McKenzie spotted an unusual rock while helping round up livestock.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: That sent the family looking for more.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Two years later, his parents, Stuart and Robin, discovered the dinosaur nicknamed Cooper.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: The museum estimates this giant plant eater stretched close to 100 feet long.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Its hips alone stood more than 20 feet off the ground.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: These bones are 95 million years old.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Picture trying to explain the discovery when somebody asked you how things are going at the farm.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the family's story kept growing.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: The discoveries helped lead to the Ural Magna Natural History Museum, where those remarkable fossils could be studied and shared.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: A teenager stopped to look at a rock.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: His family helped open a window into an entire prehistoric world.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, from something enormous to a farm product you could carry in one hand.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: A little jar, less than two ounces,$105.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Inside, snail eggs.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Taylor Knapp runs Peconic Escargo on New York's Long Island.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: He started as a chef who wanted fresh local snails for a restaurant dish.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: He couldn't find the supply he wanted.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: A former chef suggested raising them himself.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That suggestion became a business.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Today the farm raises snails in a greenhouse in Kuchog.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: They eat greens such as clover and dandelion.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Before processing, they get herbs including basil, mint, and tarragon.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I guess to make them taste better.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So even the menu for the livestock, livestock being snails, sounds like something right out of a restaurant.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And alongside the escargot, there's snail caviar.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: The farm's online shop lists a 50-gram jar at$105.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: A chef needed one ingredient.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up building a farm that sells the snails.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the next generation of snails, one little jar at a time.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: A quick market check.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Monday morning, corn and wheat were higher while soybeans slipped.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Traders were still working through Friday's USDA supply report.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: The pressure on beans carried into the new week.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And now the high-tech moment.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Living fungus controls a robot.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Researchers at Cornell grew living fungus into its electronics.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And signals from that fungus help make the machine move.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: But let that sink in.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: They grew part of the control system.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The work reported in 2024 used mycelium, the fine branching threads that make up the growing body of the fungus.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Those threads produced tiny electrical signals.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: The researchers built equipment that read those signals and turned them into commands for a robot.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: They tested two machines, one walked, one rolled.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then they shone ultraviolet light on the system.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The fungus responded, and the robots changed how they moved.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the farming connection.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: The researchers hope that future versions could sense soil conditions and help determine when crops need fertilizer.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: They have shown that living fungal tissue can respond to its surroundings, and that response can help control a machine.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And now a belated day in farm history.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday was Columbus Day, and here's the part of that history you can still see in a farm field.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, he got to the Americas on Sunday, but he had to drop anchor because holidays only come on Mondays.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Back to the story.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Before 1492, there were no cattle ranches in Texas, and nobody in Ireland was digging potatoes.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Columbus reached the Caribbean on October 12, 1492.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: A Monday, I think.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: The voyages and colonization that followed opened an enormous exchange of crops and livestock across the Atlantic.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Corn, potatoes, and tomatoes developed by indigenous farmers in the Americas spread overseas.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wheat, cattle, pigs, and horses came to the Americas.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Historians call it the Columbian Exchange.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It changed farming and food around the world.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: That history sadly also brought devastating disease and displacement to Native communities.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when you see a wheat field, a herd of cattle, or a truck hauling potatoes, you're seeing part of a story that crossed oceans and reshaped what the world grows and eats.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's step outside for the old farmer's almanac.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: October has plenty of plastic spiders hanging from porches.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The real ones have a trick that's hard to believe.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: They can leave the ground and travel through the air.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you've noticed fine threads drifting across a field in the fall, you may have seen part of that journey.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Young spiders release silk that catches air currents.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's called ballooning.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: A tiny spider climbs to a launch point, lets out silk, and can be carried away to a new home.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the wild part: electricity can help provide the lift.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: University of Bristol researchers put spiders in carefully controlled electric fields.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: They use field strengths found in the atmosphere.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: The spiders could become airborne even without moving air.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Switch the field on and the spider could rise.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Switch it off and it could come down.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Wind still matters outdoors, scientists are studying how those forces work together.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: So when the low autumn sun lights up those drifting strands, you're looking at something more interesting than just a few loose cobwebs.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: You may be watching a tiny traveler's way out into the world.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if silk collects along the garden fence, there's usually no reason to reach for a spray.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Spiders eat plenty of insects that damage plants.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Brush a strand away from the doorway if it bothers you.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Out in the garden, give those little hunters some room.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: So today, a farm family uncovered a prehistoric giant.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: A Long Island chef turned snail farming into a business with a$105 jar of eggs, snail eggs, corn and wheat started Monday higher while beans stayed under pressure.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Living fungus helped control robots, and a tiny spider showed us that even the air above a pasture holds a few surprises.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And if you'd like more information about any of the topics we cover on our show, there's a matching blog for every episode we release.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find it on our website, farmtailsunplugged.com.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: To farm nation, have a safe and productive day.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: To Truck City, keep the shiny site up.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: The future of food starts with the people who grow it and depends on the people who move it.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And there you have it.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's your FarmTales Unplugged daily farm brief for Tuesday, October 13th.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Brought to you by World Trade X, empowering farmers.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rick Portonova, and I'll see you Wednesday morning.