UK: "Worst harvest in 40 years".

[bhikkhu]

UK's sodden farmers struggling with a changing climate
John Vidal, Guardian
... According to the National Farmers' Union (NFU), 2008 was expected to be one of the best harvests ever, but it is now shaping up to be the worst in 40 years. Nearly a third of all wheat is still uncut and heavy harvesting machines have been barely able to get on to the sodden land for weeks. Thousands of acres of oil seed rape have been ploughed back into the ground, and the pea and outdoor-grown fruit crop harvests have been largely ruined. Meanwhile, potatoes and other root crops are in danger of rotting and UK honey harvest is expected to be half its usual size.

... Farmers say they have been hit by four things at the same time. The torrential, non stop rains have led to lower yields and quality; good harvests around the world this year have seen cereal prices dropping; and high fuel prices mean they are paying more to dry their crops. In addition, many have been unable to prepare the ground and plant seed for next year.

"The UK is the only country with all these problems", says Rachael Gillbanks, an NFU spokeswoman in York.
(12 September 2008)


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/12/flooding.food

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Not to be spreading agricultural-doom porn, and all good wishes to those in the UK struggling with weather and economic problems, but the one things this brings to mind is the vulnerability of large scale mechanized agriculture to climate change. I think those who grow for their own table can be much more resilient and successful in what and how they plant and harvest.

In my own neck of the woods this is a banner year for farmers. Guys who have complained for years about their rotten luck to be farming, even in the odd year of making a semblance of a profit - busted up old farmers with busted up old farm equipment on busted up old farms - are currently and cautiously embarrassed about making more money than they thought possible.

[hippywife]

1. But those making

more money than they thought possible are just at the crest of a wave in an unending cycle of ups and downs that have destroyed many farms that have spent big bucks on fancy heavy equipment in an effort to grow bigger and bigger.

I mention this book a lot, I know, but there's really no equal I've found so far that so succinctly outlines the ups and downs of farm policy in this country over about the past century than Diet for a Dead Planet by Christopher D. Cook. It explains so much I never understood or even knew before.