2011 Drought

Here is a story I've been following all year.

Quote :

The worst droughts in decades are wilting wheat fields from China to the US to the UK, overwhelming Russia’s return to grain markets and driving prices to the highest levels since 2008.
Parts of China, the biggest grower, had the least rain in a century, some European regions are the driest in 50 years and almost half the winter-wheat crop in the US, the largest exporter, is rated poor or worse. Inventory is dropping 8.8 per cent, the most in five years, Rabobank International says. Prices will advance 20 per cent to as high as $9.25 a bushel by December 31, a Bloomberg survey of 14 analysts and traders shows.
Wheat as much as doubled in the past year as crops failed, spurring Ukraine and Russia to curb shipments and increasing the US share of global sales by the most since 2004. Russia ending its export ban on July 1 and Ukraine lifting quotas may not be enough as crops wither elsewhere, fuelling gains in food prices which the United Nations says are already near a record.
“In 32 years, I’ve never seen so many problems in so many places,” said Dan Basse, the president of AgResource Co., a farm researcher in Chicago. “We’re concerned about the world story now,” said Basse, who has been studying agricultural markets since 1979 and expects prices as high as $10 this year.

It's interesting that the media is giving so little coverage to this issue. I did hear a good piece on NPR about ranchers in Texas who have to sell their entire herds because they can't get water to them. However, I've haven't heard anyone saying that this is the start of things to come as the impact of AGW is felt. It's a shame that corporate America censors our news to help their bottom line.

According to some of our farmer friends, they can have some of our rain!

KarenT wrote:

According to some of our farmer friends, they can have some of our rain!

Rain that floods my mom and dad's private lake in Michigan..farmers know the cycles. The rain that extends until June, every year. The lake that never warms up until July.

The stupid snow we get every year. Ship the Chicago area snow to the ice caps that are supposedly melting. Climate change, according to my 85 year old mother never changed. It has cycles.

Tey call it the 7,100 yr. cycle up in Michigan. One year we had to put the piers in haf way out or, double the length. Lot of years when it rose above level, sand had to be replaced. The brick wall between the front of the yard and between the beach had to be realigned and re-cemented only once, two years ago.

There are countries like China who contribute more pollution than many countries combined. You can only change the things you can change. You can't control China, for starter. They own us.

It's pretty bad, affecting 14 states here in the US, and will probably impact food prices even more.

Add in however many (hundreds of) thousands of acres flooded to keep the Mississippi from spilling over its banks.

[quote="Heretic"]It's pretty bad, affecting 14 states here in the US, and will probably impact food prices even more.

The produce at local farmers market isn't even close to what it normally is at this time. Sweet corn is just now coming to market and the quality would best be described as anemic. Beans were late and tomatoes will be too.

Heretic wrote:

It's pretty bad, affecting 14 states here in the US, and will probably impact food prices even more.

Great links,Heretic.Have you considered the possibility that the drought will have an upside? As ranchers in Texas send entire herds to slaughter because the pastures that feed them are drought stricken, there will be lower levels of methane warming our atmosphere. Since we seem unwilling to make changes to lower greenhouse gases on our own, it looks like climate change will make the choices for us.

Sparks, you sound like a vegetarian!

I'm glad it's dry because my lawn doesn't grow as fast and I can get a break from mowing.

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/23/138618976/massive-heat-wave-could-cause-corn-prices-to-pop
The heat wave we are experiencing in the midwest is estimated to increase corn prices 20%-30% or higher. We are going to start paying higher prices at the grocery stores as the impact of AGW effects our industrial crop production.

sparks wrote:

We are going to start paying higher prices at the grocery stores as the impact of AGW effects our industrial crop production.

We already are. Beef prices alone have gone up 20-25 % in the last year.

Add in the fact that they are taking corn away from the food supply to make ethanol, and you have another reason prices are going up so much.

It rained last night; suddenly, my grass needs mowing already!

KarenT wrote:

It rained last night; suddenly, my grass needs mowing already!

The green beans we're nice and plump today at Scheeringa Farmstand. Corn? Not so much

KarenT wrote:

Add in the fact that they are taking corn away from the food supply to make ethanol, and you have another reason prices are going up so much.

Exactly:

Quote :

Demand shocks help drive 2011 commodity, food price increases

A new report from Farm Foundation, NFP finds that while some of the same factors that drove commodity and food price increases in 2008 are at work today, new and very different factors have also emerged. The report, What’s Driving Food Prices in 2011?, cites the role of two persistent demand shocks—corn for biofuels production and soybeans for China—in the mix of factors pushing commodity price increases in recent months. Other factors include weather-related production shortfalls, changes in cropping patterns and a weak and volatile U.S. dollar.

No surprise to anyone familiar with the topic and one of the many reasons I was against ethanol from the very beginning.

Ethanol from sugar cane is a much better idea. Hubby fumes every time the pro-ethanol commercial interrupts his NASCAR.

On what exactly do you base that statement?

Robin Banks wrote:

I'm glad it's dry because my lawn doesn't grow as fast and I can get a break from mowing.

I guess some people don't get my "dry" sense of humor.

It uses more energy to make ethanol from corn than you get from the ethanol. Sugar converts more easily and cheaply.