I am a current Microsoft employee, and I found them somewhat informative but entertaining. It's mostly the ho-hum regarding basic security principles that every employee ends up having to take at most organizations. It's nice to see some effort put into keeping it engaging.
Much of the Midwest is corn and soybeans, both garbage since a good portion of them are synthesized into corn/soybean oils. We should make better use of the farmland but Big Agro would rather torch their fields than stop their government handouts.
https://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4565275/crop_value.png is likely a better approach that looks at the value per acre in food and the percent of animal products vs vegetable product. You can see Wisconsin dairy there, but there is a significant amount of green from North Dakota through Illinois and then down the Mississippi river valley.
The products can be seen at https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/assets/4565283/crops_by_county.png showing that the Missippi and the Central Valley are fruits and nuts while Iowa is certainly Soybean and Wisconsin is corn... and wheat shows up too.
As to government handouts... that's an interesting thing to bring up.
> In fact, in setting up the prevailing system of dairy price supports and marketing orders in the late 1930s and 1940s, the U.S. Agriculture Department decided that the most efficient place in America for milk production was Eau Claire, Wis.
> Government officials then measured the distance dairy farmers in states such as Connecticut or Florida were from Eau Claire and, using a complicated formula, calculated their premiums and subsidies.
The further away you are from Eau Claire, the more the government helps the dairy industry.
So that California cheese? That's about as far away from Eau Claire, WI as you can get.
This changed a bit in recent times - https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2004/got-milc - but if you want to campaign against government subsidies and big ag, get rid of California cheese (and its associated water use).
You are correct. the author clearly missed the mark with their lack of a DEI statement. We should file a complaint with the Thought Police, then start a social media campaign to ruin his career.
