Finally Friday's quick hits: The resilient Mississippi River; pizza and sunscreen's shared ingredient; a new ice cream

In the fall of 2022, the Mississippi River was drying up and commodity shipping was an expensive struggle. "Dropping water levels in the Mississippi River have caused shipping costs to rise just as harvest season approaches for many Midwestern soybean and corn farmers," reported Keely Brewer in a story for the Daily Memphian." By 2023, things had not improved. "Historic low flows turned the Mississippi River into a construction area in 2023 as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged huge quantities of sand to keep the channel open for barge traffic," reports Chloe Johnson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Earlier this year, "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that the drought that plagued the Mississippi River basin since 2022 was officially over." Despite this glorious improvement, here's how to keep caring for the mighty Mississippi.  
 

On a dairy farm where not everyone speaks the same language, confusion and frustration can impede good animal care. "Great animal welfare is only achievable when a dairy has a strong employee welfare focus," writes Dr. Kaitlyn Lutz for Lancaster Farming. "Consider these practical ideas to improve management as a step toward a culture of care for your employees and cows: 1. Use WhatsApp -- Your Hispanic workers are using it. If you're not, you miss a huge opportunity to connect. 2. Connect over family -- Ask employees about their families. Language barrier? Check out the PONS Translate app's conversation mode. Or, share pictures. 3. Build trust -- Trust is built through small and consistent actions over time."

Adding sunscreen to your frozen pizza sounds disgusting. And yet, "If you have heard of titanium dioxide at all, you probably know it as an ingredient in sunscreen. But it is also used in lots of foods, from pizza and salsa to frosting and candy—and now, there is growing concern about the potential health risks of eating it," reports Andrea Petersen of The Wall Street Journal. "Some research, mainly in animals, has suggested that eating it might be linked to immune system problems, inflammation and DNA damage that could lead to cancer. . . . The European Union has banned titanium dioxide in food since 2022."

U.S. consumers continue to grapple with high grocery prices, which drain their budgets and leave some families struggling to make ends meet. "Results from the most recent wave of the Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey demonstrate that consumers perceive inflation and high food prices to be persistent problems," reports Brenna Ellison for Farmdocdaily. "Consistent with this, a recent Gallup poll found that 41% of households identified inflation as the most important financial problem they are currently facing. . . . Some retailers like Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Walgreens have announced they will be cutting prices on thousands of items." 

Crop insurance helps provide income stability for food and animal producers who must make a living despite unpredictable weather, hungry pests and insidious weeds. This year marks the biggest acreage for U.S. crop insurance coverage. "Farmers and ranchers bought crop insurance policies on more than 500 million acres of land last year, the largest amount ever, driven by the surging popularity of forage policies," reports Successful Farming. "Overall enrollment in crop insurance was up 85% in the seven years from 2016, according to Department of Agriculture data."

A creamy, cool, delicious ice cream cone is one of summer's simple delights -- until your dip starts dripping and your cone starts crumpling. Then the slurp and smear battle ensues. Could there be a less-melty way? "Cameron Wicks, a student at the University of Wisconsin, is working on a new technology that adds naturally occurring compounds [polyphenols] to ice cream," reports Elise Mahon for University of Wisconsin News. Wicks told Mahon, "We learned that adding polyphenols to ice cream can create a product that holds its shape for over four hours at room temperature. That's pretty close to a no-melt ice cream."