Last week’s column was about growing your own vegetables and herbs in containers. But did you know that, globally, there is some dire news for the future of our crops?
Georgia is known for its peaches, but the “Peach State,” which usually produces more than 130 million pounds of fruit every year, will have a 90 percent loss for the coming year. February was one of the warmest on record and cooler temperatures, below 45 degrees F, are needed to set the bloom. Due to climate change, many trees did not produce this year. Researchers working with growers are now experimenting with new varieties that need fewer chill hours.
As we think of Georgia peaches, we also think of Florida oranges. But this year, Florida will have one of their worst citrus harvests since the Great Depression. Many families have been citrus farmers for generations but for the past 17 years their trees have been suffering from a disease called Huanglongbing or HLB. A bacteria spread by an insect, the Asian psyllid, causes the disease, which makes trees produce a green, bitter fruit before dying within a few years. Production is down 60.7 percent from last season and when you add hurricanes, there have been $247.1 million in losses.
We are all familiar with the problems our local coffee farmers are having with coffee leaf rust. The EPA has recently approved the use of a fungicide, Priaxor Xemium, for use to control fungi not only on coffee, but also on strawberries, tomatoes, soybeans and wheat. Coffee leaf rust has forced 2 million farmers worldwide to stop production and, due to global warming, we potentially will lose 50 percent of lands suitable to grow coffee by 2050.
We have wonderful corn from Aloun Farms in Ewa, but corn needs a lot of water and the right temperature. Let’s hope we don’t see a reduction of production in the future, as in the Big Island with Loeffler corn which has not been seen for a few years.
Cranberries are an integral part of our Thanksgiving meal, but with more extreme and hotter weather, added to the fact that cranberries are sensitive to heat stress, there will be fewer cranberries in our future. The states producing the majority of cranberries are Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, and all these states are experiencing warmer weather. Cranberries suffer from “scald” during hot weather when the fruit cooks on the vine. USDA researchers are looking at hearty wild cranberries to breed a new species that can contend with the changing climate.
Rice is a staple for over half of the world’s population, or nearly a billion people. As the oceans are rise and flood the rice fields with salt water, the rice industry is suffering. The seedlings need water, and there are worldwide issues with drought. In the U.S., California is the main producer of medium-grain rice, about 70 to 76 percent, but many regions in California have been having issues with drought. Arkansas produces 56 to 58 percent of the long-grain variety and also grows a substantial amount of medium-grain rice, especially when California is experiencing drought.
An essential ingredient in making hummus is garbanzo beans or chickpeas. India is the largest producer of chickpeas with 9,937,990 tons per year, which is interesting because it is a cool season crop that grows best when daytime temperatures are between 70 to 84 degrees with nighttime temperatures between 64 to 70 degrees. When I visited India in April, I never experienced those temperatures. Chickpeas cannot handle drought, and with disease and the climate changes, this crop could be wiped out.
Wines in California suffered smoke damage in 2020 and 13 percent of the grapes were ruined. Additionally, temperatures rose in California which could affect the production of wine as much as 56 percent by the end of the century.
Baby scallops and oysters filter calcium and carbonate from the ocean to construct its protective layers. With more acidity in the ocean due to rising carbon dioxide levels, the number of carbonate ions is set to decline by 50 percent in just a few decades. Additionally, as the ocean gets warmer and more acidic, there will be less calcium and carbonate for the baby scallops and oysters.
Sardine larvae cannot survive in warmer water temperatures. Additionally, their food — plankton — is getting scarcer. This could lead to a 87 percent collapse of the sardine industry, and countries like Spain, which depend heavily on the sardine industry, will suffer tremendously.
Almond trees need tons of water to thrive, almost one gallon of water per nut. Think about this: one pound of almonds needs 404.8 gallons of water! This translates to hundreds of gallons of water per tree every fourteen days, while during times of drought, people have to save their bath water, brush their teeth with just a cup of water!
Can you imagine all the researchers around the world trying to create a more drought-resistant product that can survive times ahead for us? Are we all doing our part to slow global warming?
Email Audrey Wilson at audreywilson808@gmail.com.
