Crops are struggling to grow – and produce the same yields – as they would under normal weather conditions
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/01/climate-crisis-us-food-system-five-crops
Cecilia Nowell Tue 1 Nov 2022 09.00 GMT
From Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, to flooding in eastern Kentucky and a record dry summer as the western US entered its 22nd year of a once-in-a-millennium megadrought, the US has already seen more than two dozen major climate disasters with losses exceeding $1bn (£864m).
On top of this economic toll, extreme weather is also upending the food system in the US and much of the world. As the climate crisis causes temperatures to rise, precipitation patterns to shift and drought conditions to lengthen, many crops are struggling to grow – and produce the same yields – as they would under normal weather conditions. In some parts of the country, crops that require dry conditions are getting too much rain, while in others, they’re not getting enough.
Changes to growing seasons, limitations on water rights and increasingly powerful storms are all forcing growers to consider whether to shut down, relocate or otherwise alter their operations. Extreme weather events are also disrupting the shipping of food across the country and world.
These five crops tell the story of the havoc the climate crisis is already causing.
Florida’s oranges torn off trees
After Hurricane Ian ripped through Florida’s Gulf coast counties in late September, citrus growers in the state’s main agricultural counties began reporting that 50% to 90% of their fruit had been torn off the trees by high winds and rain.
The hurricane “came right up through the heart of the citrus belt”, said Ray Royce, executive director of the Highlands Citrus Growers Association. Royce reports that in some counties growers have lost as much as 80% of their fruit. Florida orange growers were already facing a challenging year as greening disease, an invasive bacterium that thrives in warm climates and can kill trees and cause fruit to drop early, hit their plants.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicted that the state will produce 28m boxes of oranges this season, down 32% from the previous season. This would be the smallest harvest since 1943. And the impact of Hurricane Ian may not yet be over, Royce said. In some areas, the storm didn’t just cause fruit to fall, but entirely uprooted or flooded trees.
Although this storm was particularly devastating, he adds that Florida citrus growers have weathered difficult hurricane seasons before, such as Hurricane Irma in 2017. “We’re an industry that’s at the mercy of the weather.”
Rice left unplanted amid drought
Just three crops – rice, wheat and corn – provide nearly half of the world’s calories. And this year rice had a particularly tough growing season.
In California, rice farmers sowed the lowest number of seeds since the 1950s. According to the California Rice Commission, only 250,000 acres of rice will be harvested this year, about half of a typical season.
“Reservoirs were so low and the snowpack was so bad that literally half the crop was unplanted,” said Daniel Sumner, professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis. Although rice growers generally have very senior water rights, which means they’re the first ones entitled to any available water, there just wasn’t enough water for growers to make it through a season, he said, so many opted not to plant. This past year marked California’s fourth in a row facing drought.
According to a report published by Sumner and his colleagues at UC Davis, California’s Sacramento River valley – which usually exports about half its rice to China and Japan – is facing a $1.3bn (£1.1bn) economic loss, with 14,300 agricultural jobs lost.
California’s tomato crop dwindles
In August, the USDA forecasted that California would only grow 10.5m tons of tomatoes, down 10% from its estimates at the beginning of the year, as drought causes them to dry up on the vine.
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Hurricane Ian Shrinks Florida Orange Crop to Lowest Levels Since WWII
Orange may be the new black, but the industry finds itself in the red in Florida.
In the wake of Hurricane Ian’s devastation, the Orange State will produce just 28 million boxes of its marquee agricultural export, according to a report published Wednesday by the US Department of Agriculture. That marks the lowest harvest since 1943.
Pulp Friction
In all, the remaining crop will make up just over two-thirds of what the state produced last year. But the loss marks more of an accelerant of a trend than a catastrophe-induced hiccup. Florida is now in the midst of a four-year annual decline in orange production, and the slump isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
While Hurricane Ian is most responsible for squashing any chance of a harvest comeback this year, competition way to the west and a killer tree disease have long threatened to sunset the sunshine state’s status are the top dog of orange production:
- Florida ruled orange production in the US as recently as 2005, when it still grew over 80% of the country’s orange crop. But in that same year, scientists discovered a crop-destroying bacterial disease that’s ransacked the state’s farms; Florida now produces around 42% of the nation’s non-tangerine citrus fruits, according to Department of Agriculture statistics.
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