According to the USDA, million-dollar farms—those with annual sales of at least $1 million—accounted for about half of U.S. farm sales in 2002, up from a fourth in 1982 (with sales measured in constant 2002 dollars).

By 2006, the USDA said million-dollar farms, accounting for 2 percent of all U.S. farms, dominated U.S. production of high-value crops, milk, hogs, poultry, and beef.

“The shift to million-dollar farms is likely to continue because they tend to be more profitable than smaller farms, giving them a competitive advantage,” according to the USDA. “Most million-dollar farms (84 percent) are family farms, that is, the farm operator and relatives of the operator own the business. The million-dollar farms organized as nonfamily corporations tend to have no more than 10 stockholders.”

The National Weather Service in Hastings is reporting that December 2008 brought Grand Island and Hastings their coldest average minimum temperatures for the month since 2000.

At Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island, NWS said the average low for the month was 11.3 degrees, or 4.6 degrees below the normal December average low of 15.9 degrees.

Eight days during the month, NWS said, lows dip to zero or colder. The last time a colder December average low occurred was in 2000, which registered 8.5 degrees, according to NWS. The all-time coldest December average low temperature was 0.9 degrees in  1983. Climate records for grand island date to 1895.

At Hastings Municipal Airport, the average low for the month was  12.5 degrees,or 4.7 degrees below the normal december average low of 17.2 degrees. eight days during the month saw lows dip to zero or
colder, the NWS said. The last time a colder December average low occurred was in 2000, which registered 8.5 degrees. the all-time coldest December average low temperature was 1.7 degrees in 1983.

Aquaculture production of seafood will probably remain the most rapidly increasing food production system worldwide through 2025, according to James S. Diana of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in an assessment published in the January 2009 issue of BioScience.

According to Diana,  despite well-publicized concerns about some harmful effects of aquaculture, the technique may, when practiced well, be no more damaging to biodiversity than other food production systems. Moreover, he said, it may be the only way to supply growing demand for seafood as the human population increases.

Total production from capture fisheries has remained approximately constant for the past 20 years and may decline, according to Diana. He said aquaculture, in contrast, has increased by 8.8 percent per year since 1985 and now accounts for about one-third of all aquatic harvest by weight.

Finfish, mollusks, and crustaceans dominate aquaculture production; seafood exports generate more money for developing countries than meat, coffee, tea, bananas, and rice combined, Diana said.

Among the most potentially harmful effects of aquaculture, according to Diana, are the escape of farmed species that then become invasive, pollution of local waters by effluent, especially from freshwater systems, and land-use change associated with shrimp aquaculture in particular. Increased demand for fish products for use in feed and transmission of disease from captive to wild stocks are also hazards.

Nonetheless, he said when carefully implemented, aquaculture can reduce pressure on overexploited wild stocks, enhance depleted stocks, and boost natural production of fishes as well as species diversity.

Some harmful effect, Diana said, have diminished as management techniques have improved, and aquaculture has the potential to provide much-needed employment in developing countries.

Diana points to the need for thorough life-cycle analyses to compare aquaculture with other food production systems. Such analyses are, however, only now being undertaken, and more comprehensive information is needed to guide the growth of this technique in sustainable ways, he said.