Crop Failures On The Horizon?

I am no better at predicting the future than the UN IPCC dopey computer models, but I am unencumbered with an agenda. The cold winter of 2006 and now 2007 has left farm lands reeling under the pressure. You can find out what is going on with the google news search string "+late +crop +planting +2008". When you do that, you find a long list of news stories pertaining to crops and the late planting in spring 2008 -- That's right now. Here is one such news story from Saskatchewan Canada.

One per cent of Saskatchewan crops seeded

According to Bedard, one of the biggest concerns for farmers right now is the current cold snap.

"Besides getting the land warmed up for seeding, the hay and pasture lands really need that warm weather. If they don't get growing in late April or early May, they just don't do as well," she said.

If you pay attention to the weather, we live in hurricane country so it becomes a natural for us, you find the steady stream of late season cold front to be an interesting anomaly. They just keep coming, as old man winter refuses to go away this year. The northern hemisphere growing areas of North America, and presumably the rest of the world, are simply not warm enough and not dry enough for crop plantings. The season is delayed. How long can it go before trouble? It varies with latitude so it depends. We may not know until the fall when the crops come in how it went. Then it will likely be too late.

But early indicators are it's not going to be all that good of a growing season. The futures markets are reacting by bidding up commodity prices for food staples, and of course we have the nutty ethanol craze siphoning off food for fuel. Food panic is slowly creeping into the news worldwide as shortages begin to show in many third world countries and now some in the US. Rice, a world staple crop, is becoming in short supply worldwide. Wheat and corn prices are sky-rocketing as supplies tighten.

A word to the wise with all the nuttiness about the global warming hoax going around, cold is much much worse than warm. It effects crop yields and eventually the world the food supply for one thing. Crops don't grow well under glaciers or in cold wet ground. So stay tuned, it's going to be interesting.

The above example might be a good search term to keep an eye on in the coming months. The final results should come in around election time --- HeHeHe ....

UPDATE: For the wine crowd comes word

Chilly nights leave vineyards frozen

Subfreezing temperatures overnight in the Mother Lode and some areas of the San Joaquin Valley damaged vineyards with tender growing shoots and flowering buds, growers and farm officials reported Monday.

There's no way to tell immediately how extensive or costly the overall damage might be, experts said.

But potentially heavy damage was reported in foothill vineyards in areas where overnight temperatures dropped into the mid-20s and even as low as the high teens, by some reports.

Stephen Kautz, president of Ironstone Vineyards outside Murphys, said he saw damage in all grape varieties on 30 to 40 acres of grapevines he had examined, except perhaps cabernet sauvignon vines, whose buds had not yet fully emerged.

"I'm seeing from anywhere between 60 and 75 and up to 80 percent damage, and I'm hearing the same reports from numerous other vineyards in the area," said Kautz, who is also president of the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance.

Maybe this will get some attention. If it weren't that the current left's cause-du-jour were warming, this would be front page news. Liberals got to have their wine. Hey, at least they won't starve.