Bits ‘n pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

The median farm income was negative $1,569 annually between 1996 and 2017, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. To keep their land, many farmers take outside jobs. In 2016, farmers received 13 cents for each dollar’s worth of food sold. From the 1960s to the 1980s they received 33 cents. The squeeze on farmers can largely be attributed to weakening of anti-monopoly laws, and how corporations have taken advantage of them, according to The Nation.

World Beyond War shared figures from the U.N.: 3 percent of the U.S. military budget could end world hunger; 1 percent could provide clean drinking water for the world, and 7 percent could wipe out U.S. poverty.

In Eugene, Ore., non-police first responders go to disturbances where crimes are not being committed, freeing officers for other duties. Trained responders can include medics and mental health workers. They show up to listen, empathize and discuss ways to access resources with people facing issues like mental health crises, substance abuse problems and homelessness. Less than 1 percent of calls to Crisis Assistance Helping Out On the Streets (CAHOOTS) need police assistance, according to a report in High Country News. No guns or uniforms are used. The organization is funded at what amounts to 2 percent of the police department’s budget. CAHOOTS addressed 24,000 calls last year.

Heat kills farm workers at rates 20 times higher than the average of all other occupations, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Heat stress also increases health risks from exposure to pesticides.

Politico reported the Republican National Committee filed suit against Priorities USA, an organization working to prevent voter suppression by helping voters submit absentee ballots or transporting them to polling places. The RNC says their organization aims to stop fraud and thinks transport should only occur when voters are unable to walk to vote. Voter access has become a priority issue for Democrats since COVID-19 raises the issue of avoiding polling places to prevent infection.

The Government Accountability Project has received regular whistleblower calls from meat inspectors. GAP said the calls revolve around both the public’s safety and safety of meat plant workers, who work in crowded conditions and have high rates of COVID-19 infection.

A 2013 study from Penn State College of Medicine found that the postpartum depression rate for new mothers is around 6 percent; postpartum anxiety rates are around 17 percent. Author Sarah Menkedick explores the topic in her book “Ordinary Insanity: Fear and the Silent Crisis of Motherhood in America.”

Brazil is filing homicide charges against Vale company executives and auditors over the world’s deadliest mining disaster last year, Earthworks Journal reported. A tailings dam at Vale’s iron mine gave way and killed 300 people, destroyed a community and flooded the Paraopeba River with toxins. The disaster resulted in a group of investors with $10 trillion in assets, led by Church of England’s pension fund, to ask 680 mining companies to disclose their dam failure risks.

According to a 2016 investigation by In These Times, police kill Native Americans more than any other racial group and Native Americans are 3.2 times more likely to be killed by police than are whites. Those with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by police, as compared to others.

The Supreme Court recently ruled that birth control can be denied if one’s employer is opposed to supplying it as part of health care coverage. Alternatives for birth control access include the organizations Free the Pill, Twenty-Eight Health, The Pill Club and Alpha Medical.

It was once firm science that calories alone controlled our weight. But new research indicates a person’s gut micro-biome influences metabolism. Infants that undergo frequent micro-biome-disturbing antibiotic treatments are more prone to weight problems later in life. Add in a fiber-deficient diet, and the gut really gets thrown off balance. For details, see Martin Blaser’s “Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues.” Blaser is a professor of medicine and microbiology.

Blast from the past: 17 years ago the World Health Organization sounded a global alert about SARS (Acute Respiratory Syndrome), a coronavirus strain never before seen in humans. It was an unusual pneumonia and symptoms resembled the flu. By July it was declared “contained” after killing 800 and infecting 8,000.

The infection rate from that virus was 4 percent to 10 percent, as compared to 3 percent from the Spanish Flu (which likely began in Kansas as opposed to Europe.) SARS’ quick demise is attributed to both international cooperation and fast moves to track and isolate those infected. George W. Bush was president in 2003.