"I Can't Say We've Experienced Anything Like This Since I've Been Working In Agriculture"

[hatrack]

US corn planting progress, 1981-2019. The USDA announced that 58 percent of the U.S. #corn crop has been planted as of 26 May 2019, compared to the 5-year average pace of 90 percent. This is the slowest pace in recorded history. Data: USDA. Graphic: Grain Perspectives

The angst on farmer Twitter is palpable. Across the Midwest, torrential rains have soaked the fields, leaving the sodden soil unsuitable for planting millions of acres with corn, soybeans, and other crops, presaging a terrible harvest. Seeds are usually in the ground this time of year. But thanks to floods, unrelenting rains, hail, and scores of tornadoes—nearly 200 more than average (paywall) by this point in the year—the season is off to one of the worst starts in history. #NoPlant19 is trending on Twitter.

In Oklahoma, every county is in a state of emergency. The Midwest is having its wettest 12 months ever (paywall). These extremes follow on a blistering 2018, the fourth hottest year on Earth, just behind “2016 (warmest), 2015 (second warmest), and 2017 (third warmest),” according to the 139-year climate record of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.


U.S. corn and soybean acres to be planted, 1980-2019. As of 19 May 2019, there are 116 million corn and soybean acres remaining to be planted in the U.S., the highest on record for both crops at 47 million acres and 69 million acres, topping the prior high by 26 million acres. Data: USDA, NASS, Farm Bureau calculations. Graphic: Farm Bureau

EDIT

“The frequency of these disasters, I can’t say we’ve experienced anything like this since I’ve been working in agriculture,” John Newton, chief economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, told the Washington Post (paywall). [more]

EDIT/END

Ed. - please note that this is a guy from the Farm Bureau - as reactionary a nest of climate liars as you're ever likely to meet.

https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/06/flooded-farms-in-the-u-s-midwest-cant-plant-crops-corn-and-soybean-acres-not-planted-at-record-high-the-frequency-of-these-disasters-i-cant-say-we.html

[Auggie]

1. Hey, climate change deniers:

we told you so.

[Achilleaze]

2. republican lies about climate change are radically dangerous

republican lies about climate change are radically dangerous republican lies about climate change are radically dangerous
republican lies about climate change are radically dangerous

[Farmer-Rick]

3. Holy sh*t

It's the end of spring the beginning of summer. If you don't have it in the ground now, you don't have anything. What you plant today you wont get until August at the earliest, and October at the latest, if you have no frost. I checked the planting map and TN has 95% of it's crops planted. That's good for TN.

I had no idea how bad it was. Here in east TN we have moved away from the excess rains into normal dry spells.

[angrychair]

9. Silly

Just go to the grocery store and by it...who needs stuff from dirt...yuk.



In case I need it

[3Hotdogs]

4. Not quite in the same topic.

My daughter bought a house in western New Jersey. That was in December. Septic system is going south and needs to be replaced and replacement cost was factored into the sales price.

Anyways, can't replace it until there are two weeks of no rain so that the equipment doesn't sink into the ground. They've been waiting since March.

N.J. had the most April rain in record.

[hatrack]

5. Well, look on the bright side - at least it's not Florida, and you can use gravity

So little relief in the landscape that Florida residents with septic tanks (millions) have to use electric pumps to move blackwater out of the house and into the tank.

One of the things that makes hurricane season down there so . . . . pungent when the power fails.

[pazzyanne]

6. Talked to South Dakota friends this past weekend.

They have been trying to get their crops in with days here and there, but they have stopped planting corn and are looking at soybeans and alfalfa instead. The market for soy beans isn't looking good, nor is pork which they also have. And you are right if you are thinking they voted for tRump. I asked my friend if they were worried about prices for their soybeans this fall. She didn't even know what I was talking about. Both she and her husband are college educated. Apparently being educated doesn't stimulate curiosity in the pursuit of your profession?

[Perseus]

7. The question they need to ask themselves is

What are the people farmers voted for going to do about it?

I can answer that...NOTHING!

[Botany]

8. Melt the north pole and shit happens

From wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_sea_ice_decline

Sea ice and climate feedbacks[edit]
Arctic Sea ice maintains the cool temperature of the polar regions and it has an important albedo effect on the climate. Arctic Sea ice melts in the summer, and more of the sun is being absorbed by the ocean. The fast rate of the sea ice melting is resulting in the oceans absorbing and heating up the Arctic. The decline in sea ice does have a notable potential to significantly speed up global warming and the climate changes.

[WhiteTara]

10. Maybe they should be growing food instead

of HFCS and GMO soybeans for cows.

[NickB79]

11. This is how nations, and civilizations, collapse

Imagine if crop failures were occurring in most of the world's breadbaskets at once, or one after the other. If the Midwest flooded, Australia and Brazil had droughts, Europe flooded, India had a drought OR massive monsoon rains. Just a few of these are enough to jack global food prices.

In short order, you'd see rioting from food shortages and eventual civil war or steel-fisted dictators.

[Finishline42]

12. In the movie Interstellar it was crop failures due to blights.

Corn was one of the last food sources.

[hatrack]

13. Or imagine spring 2020 playing out much as spring 2019 is playing out . . . .

Then combine that with a hypothetical collapse of the Old River Control System on the Mississippi.

Presto - instant global food crisis.