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Category: Business/Technology

Wisconsin farmers protect potatoes with weather forecasting tool, help from UW researchers

The Badger Herald

Farmers may prevent blight by spraying their fields with fungicides, but if overdone, this practice has its drawbacks, University of Wisconsin professor of plant pathology Andrew Bent said. To prevent blight and overspraying, professor and Department of Plant Pathology Chair Amanda Gevens uses a tool called Blitecast to communicate to farmers the appropriate time to spray fungicides.

Killing a nuclear watchdog’s independence threatens disaster

Scientific American

Co-authored by Paul Wilson, the Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering and the chair of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s department of nuclear engineering and engineering physics, and Michael Corradinia, a former member of the U.S. Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, a former president of the American Nuclear Society and a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

How new tariffs on Mexico and Canada affect Wisconsin industries

Wisconsin Public Radio

“I’m looking at whether we’ll get into a tit-for-tat type of trade war,” said Steven Deller, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies Wisconsin’s agricultural and manufacturing economy. “One of the things the Canadian Prime Minister was talking about is cutting off the electricity supply to the U.S. If we get into that kind of tit-for-tat, then things are going to start to deteriorate rapidly. So I’m just going to be watching how our trading partners respond.”

US egg prices are expected to rise by more than 40% in 2025. What’s in store for Wisconsin?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

So far, Wisconsin’s bird flu outbreaks have been among turkey flocks, not hens, according to University of Wisconsin-Extension poultry specialist Ron Kean. Still, the state has felt the strain of egg shortages, with some Milwaukee grocery stores even setting egg purchase limits in recent weeks.

“Unfortunately, I don’t see prices improving in the near future,” Kean said. “We still don’t have a handle on stopping bird flu.”

Farmers fear more pain from Trump’s trade war

Time

About 20% of U.S. milk production is exported annually, with about 40% of that going to Canada, Mexico, and China, according to Chuck Nicholson, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. If the domestic dairy industry gets only a little more milk than traders were expecting, prices drop as a result, Nicholson says. So if the dairy industry started trying to sell that 20% domestically instead of exporting it, prices would plummet, making it difficult for farmers to continue to operate.

U.S. dairy farmer says Trump’s mass deportation plan would put him out of business

CBS News

John Rosenow, a fifth-generation farmer in Waumandee, Wisconsin, owns more than 900 acres and over 600 dairy cows. He said about 90% of the work on the farm is done by immigrants.

Those immigrants include Kevin, who was born in central Mexico and crossed the U.S. southern border illegally when he was 18. Now 21, Kevin, who did not provide his last name during an interview with CBS News, is among the 11 million undocumented migrants living in the U.S. More than 10,000 of them work on Wisconsin dairy farms, according to a report by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

America is about to enter an apartment crunch

Business Insider

Apartment prices surged most this month in college towns like Syracuse, New York; New Haven, Connecticut; Lexington, Kentucky; Madison, Wisconsin; and Lincoln, Nebraska. Those towns, all of which were in the top 10 of year-over-year rent growth in August, are home to Syracuse University, Yale University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, respectively.

2 GOP state lawmakers pushing to advance nuclear energy in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Public Radio

Two Republicans who chair state legislative committees on energy and utilities say they want to bring more nuclear power online in Wisconsin in the coming years.

To start that effort, they introduced a resolution calling on the Legislature to publicly support nuclear power and fusion energy.

Restrictions on CDC communications, Concerns about bird flu, An album inspired by Wisconsin’s landscape

Wisconsin Public Radio

We learn how new restrictions on communications by federal health agencies could affect public health. Then, we look at how the ongoing bird flu epidemic is affecting farmers and whether it could surge. Then, we talk with a pianist inspired by Wisconsin’s landscape.

Wisconsin farmer groups feel impact of Trump administration’s funding freeze

Wisconsin Public Radio

Soybeans is one of the major commodities purchased by USAID, according to agricultural economist Paul Mitchell at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

But Mitchell said foreign food aid also includes shelf-stable foods that may be produced by Wisconsin farms and food processors. With the agency’s website largely down, he said it’s almost impossible to determine what products could be affected.

The winners and losers of Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs

The Washington Post

It’s unclear how long it will take for consumers to feel the impact and to what extent. That’s in part because it depends on how much steel or aluminum is used to make the product, said Lydia Cox, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

It’s also on the businesses to decide what added costs they should pass along to their customers, she said: “If you had a 25 percent increase on 50 percent of your costs, that’ll be a pretty sizable [potential] increase” in prices.

‘It infuriates me’: why the ‘wages for housework’ movement is still controversial 40 years on

The Guardian

Callaci, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has written a book, Wages for Housework, which chronicles the radical 1970s feminist campaign that argued for recognition of the economic value of domestic labour. In truth, she explains, it was a recipe for revolution, designed to smash capitalism and its underpinning myth that women just love keeping house so much they’ll do it for nothing.

‘Built to burn.’ L.A. let hillside homes multiply without learning from past mistakes

Los Angeles Times

People continued to move into fire-prone foothills and valleys. Between 1990 and 2020, the number of homes in the metro Los Angeles region’s wildland-urban interface, where human development meets undeveloped wildland, swelled from 1.4 million to 2 million — a growth rate of 44%, according to David Helmers, a geospatial data scientist in the Silvis Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This first-of-its-kind plant discovery could help boost pantry-staple crop yields — here’s how it works

The Cool Down

Improving crop productivity is on the United Nations’ list of Sustainable Development Goals for the 21st century, and a recent discovery by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers may be able to help.

“For the first time, we realized that the effect of these photoreceptors is not everywhere along the stem and that different photoreceptors control different regions of the stem,” as Edgar Spalding, a professor emeritus of botany at UW–Madison, explained in the piece.

Tom Still: Federal support for academic R&D helps people, economy in many ways

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison is one of the nation’s leading research universities in terms of receiving federal grants — and levering those dollars with private and other external funds that make it possible to move ideas from the lab bench to the marketplace.

It’s not just about Madison, which is the sixth-leading federal R&D campus in the country. Every campus in the Universities of Wisconsin receives some federal R&D dollars, as do major private institutions such as the Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

What would a trade war mean for Wisconsin?

Wisconsin State Journal

But UW-Madison Donald Hester Professor of Economics Charles Engel told the Wisconsin State Journal “the overall effect on the cost of living would be relatively small” because the price consumers pay doesn’t only cover the cost of the good itself.

“If you think about when you buy a t-shirt, say that’s made in China,” he said. “The actual t-shirt is really a relatively small part of the cost that we pay, and a much bigger part is the cost of the design, which is probably done in the U.S., and then the cost of bringing the shirt from the port to the store where you get it.”

Here’s how tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico may impact U.S. consumers

MSNBC

Indirectly, U.S. producers might raise their prices because they face less foreign competition for certain goods, Lydia Cox, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said during a recent webinar.

U.S. companies that use tariffed goods to manufacture their products might also raise prices for downstream goods, Cox said. For example, steel tariffs might lead to higher prices for cars, heavy machinery and other products that use steel.

The World’s Largest Rubber Plantation is About to Go on Strike

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/01/the-worlds-largest-rubber-plantation-just-went-on-strike/

“Early on, Firestone sold itself on corporate social welfare,” said Gregg Mitman, an environmental history professor at the University of Wisconsin and the author of Empire of Rubber. It provided free housing, education, and medical care, and sold rice and palm oil to workers at subsidized rates.

Housing Inventory Report: Madison leads Midwest, Texas leads nation

Wisconsin Public Radio

From 2005 to 2023, Madison stands out as a top performer in the Upper Midwest in addressing the housing shortage, according to a new analysis. Yet, Texas has 15 cities out-pacing the nation in housing stock growth. Kurt Paulsen, a UW-Madison urban planner, examines the report and offers takeaways.

Kohl’s appoints third CEO in 3 years as sales continue to decline for Wisconsin chain

Wisconsin Public Radio

Nancy Wong is a professor of consumer science at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said department stores are grappling with multiple types of challenges at the same time, including demographic changes and economic pressures affecting America’s middle class.

“Given the economic turbulence and challenges that we’ve been facing in this country, the segments that are most financially squeezed are the middle class — the core segments of the customers that most department store chains used to enjoy,” Wong said.

How do Trump’s executive orders affect climate and clean energy funding in Wisconsin?

Wisconsin Public Radio

Greg Nemet, energy expert and public affairs professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the president doesn’t decide what to do about spending that Congress has authorized.

“This could end up just being more of a power struggle between Congress and the president,” Nemet said. “But in the meantime, it does reduce some confidence in the funding and the expectations that would go to our state.”

The perfect storm: why did LA’s wildfires explode out of control?

The Guardian

Since 1990, more than 1.4m new housing units in California have been built in wildlife-urban interface areas, which have a higher fire risk, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As of 2020, they found, there were more than 5m housing units in these areas across the state. In Los Angeles, a real estate data company identified nearly 250,000 homes “with a moderate or greater wildfire risk”, according to a 2024 report.

Rocks, crops and climate

Scientific American

For enhanced rock weather (ERW) to have a large impact by 2050, it will need to expand quickly, says Gregory Nemet, an energy scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Last May he and his colleagues published a study analyzing the combined potential of novel CO2 removal methods such as ERW, direct air-capture machines and the use of biofuels with CO2 captured from smokestacks. Between now and 2050 these methods need to grow “by something like 40 percent per year, every year,” Nemet says.

Madison bakery ahead of the curve as FDA bans Red No. 3 food dye

Spectrum News

Audrey Girard is a food scientist and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Girard explained why the effort has taken a long time. “We have other natural additives, but a lot of times they’re more expensive and not as stable,” Girard said.

Girard explained that a scientific study on rats — completed more than 40 years ago in the 1980s — first raised health concerns about the dye. “At high ingestion levels, rats can have adverse effects, like growing tumors,” Girard said.“At high ingestion levels, rats can have adverse effects, like growing tumors,” Girard said.

How layoffs at local TV news stations affect Wisconsin communities

Wisconsin Public Radio

Mike Wagner, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told “Wisconsin Today” that these types of reductions are becoming more common in local television across the state and country.

“We’re seeing local television stations experience less investment from their owners,” Wagner said. “Reporters are tasked with doing more stories for more newscasts, plus do stuff for the web, plus do stuff for social media, all in the job of also trying to chase down the verifiable truth about important matters for their audience.”

How California’s wildfires could lead to higher insurance costs for the rest of the country

Barron's

Expect more increases ahead. “If you are thinking about housing expenses, you probably shouldn’t rely on historical data on premiums and don’t assume that this is a high point that will be a flash in the pan,” says one of the paper’s authors, Philip Mulder, a University of Wisconsin professor of risk and insurance.

Why are egg prices rising in Wisconsin? Here’s what’s behind the egg shortage

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Of course, $3.65 is just an average. Egg prices are similar across most U.S. states but can vary slightly, said University of Wisconsin-Extension poultry specialist Ron Kean.

“I would say the Midwest tends to be a little bit cheaper, but, by and large, prices are pretty similar, because we can ship eggs pretty easily,” Kean said. “So, if they’re a lot cheaper in one place, people will probably ship (those) eggs to the more expensive areas.”

After three collapsed mergers, Sanford CEO shares why fourth time’s a charm

Newsweek

Multiple health systems have abandoned merger and acquisition plans in recent years following FTC interference—but only about 1 percent of hospital mergers are flagged by the government agency, according to an April 2024 study from the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Yale University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That study—and others—associated health system mergers with rising costs amidst dampened competition.

Public charging tax now in effect for electric vehicle owners in Wisconsin

FOX 11, Green Bay

Others like Chris McCahill, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and managing director of the State Smart Transportation Initiative, point out one negative to the tax — is electric vehicle owners already pay more than those with gas powered vehicles when registering their vehicle each year.

“So now with this new surcharge, the folks will be paying the state twice to try and compensate for those lost gas tax revenues,” said McCahill.

Tom Still: Getting more business ‘starts’ for Wisconsin requires action on several fronts

Wisconsin State Journal

As the 2024 “Empowering the Wisconsin Idea” report noted, UW-Madison is sixth in the nation in research and development spending but not as vibrant in fostering startups. Other universities with R&D budgets comparable to Madison are the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington. All four generate far more startups

In fact, all but three of 14 universities examined by the report were tied to more startups — including some with a fraction of the UW-Madison’s research budget.

Three-fourths of homeowners may not have enough insurance to fully cover losses after a disaster, study says

Fortune

Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at insurance contracts, focusing on nearly 5,000 policyholders who filed claims after the fire.

They found that 74% were underinsured, meaning they weren’t fully covered for total losses. And of that share, 36% of them were severely underinsured, meaning they were covered for less than 75% of their home’s replacement cost.

First human death from avian flu sparks calls for stricter hygiene, more testing

Wisconsin Public Radio

Tom Friedrich, professor of virology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, said more details are needed to understand what led to the patient’s death. But he pointed out that other countries have already seen deaths caused by similar H5N1 viruses, especially in people who are sick enough to be hospitalized.

“There’s over 50 percent case fatality when people have these severe infections,” Friedrich said. “So it’s not unheard of in other parts of the world, even though this is the first time it’s happened in the United States.”

Some Texas business leaders are apprehensive about Trump’s pledged deportations

The Texas Tribune

A recent paper from researchers at the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin-Madison explored the aftermath of the deportation of more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants nationwide from 2008 to 2013. In the places where deportations happened, the study found, homebuilding contracted because the local construction workforce shrank and home prices rose. The researchers discovered that other construction workers lost work too because homebuilders cut back on new developments.

Student loan debt: How to pay off loans faster

Newsweek

Dr. Nick Hillman, school of education professor and director of the Student Success Through Applied Research Lab (SSTAR) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek: “Leaving college with debt but no degree is one of the biggest factors that makes it hard to repay loans. Say a student borrows $10,000 for college but then has to leave before earning a credential. They don’t have the degree to show for it, but they have the debt. This can make it really hard to get established in the labor market and, as a result, to stay on top of monthly loan payments.”

Fewer men in rural Wisconsin participating in the workforce, citing lack of respect on the job

Wisconsin Public Radio

A lead researcher on the study, Sarah Halpern-Meekin, who’s a professor in the School of Human Ecology and director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said at the end of the day, people want to feel like the work they’re doing is meaningful.

Why you shouldn’t ‘heat up’ your car’s engine in cold weather

Mental Floss

In 2016, Business Insider spoke with former drag racer Stephen Ciatti to get to the bottom of this widespread myth. Ciatti has a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has worked on combustion engines for nearly 30 years, so he knows a thing or two about how to best treat your car. According to Ciatti, idling your machine in the cold only leads to a shorter lifespan for your engine.