California farmers facing drought choose not to plant crops
California grows a third of the nation’s vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. Some farmers are choosing to leave fields empty.
(Darryl Bush / Associated Press)
Bloomberg
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In some areas of California it’s so dry that farmers aren’t even bothering to plant crops this season.
Growers north of San Francisco have begun pulling out of local farmers markets and produce-box programs.
County Line Harvest, which farms more than 30 acres in Petaluma, doesn’t have enough water to grow all the peppers, lettuces and other produce that normally go into its subscription boxes, according to a video on its Instagram page. Nearby farms are saying the same, underscoring the effect of the extended dry spell.
January 29, 2021
IARN Allendale’s annual Ag Leaders Conference Webinar Series got underway this week with the opening session providing a 2021 weather outlook for many different areas of the world.
Drew Lerner of World Weather Inc. led the Wednesday weather discussion, which included a breakdown of upcoming forecasts for South America. Lerner says the next 30 days don’t look too bad for South America’s major crop areas.
“For Brazil in February, I still expect to see near above average precipitation in most of those major crop areas,” Lerner said. “It will be a little drier in parts of Argentina, but we’re going to see most of that country seeing a much more normal distribution of precipitation. So, February will be a not-so-bad month. February is when most of Argentina’s crop reproduces. It’s a good environment from that perspective. Temperatures will be seasonal for the most part in Argentina, and Brazil mostly seasonal with maybe a little cooler tendency in
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Fifty-five may not sound like a huge number, but with more than 100 in our hospitals, the health care system is being stretched rather tight, and were numbers to spike even higher, perhaps after people risk gatherings for the holidays, a health system wreck could be in the offing. As bad as COVID-19 has been, nearing 300,000 dead in the United States, and more than 12,000 in Canada, it could be worse. The disease is hardest on the aged, if the death toll were among children the effect of our public psyche would be much greater. So everyone, the farm community included, is looking forward to the end of 2020, forever to be known as the ‘Year of COVID’ with hopes 2021 will be better.