The Perils Of Farming In A Climate Crisis

Climate Crisis Brings Historic Delay to Planting Season, Pressuring Farmers and Food Prices

Eoin Higgins, May 29, 2019 (Common Dreams via EcoWatch)

Farmers in the Midwest are watching the spring planting season shrink due to the climate crisis as damaging storms and flooding are making fields from Oklahoma to Arkansas impossible to sow, a situation that is driving grain prices up in futures markets in a way that could have devastating consequences…A lower yield of corn and soybeans is already jacking prices for the staple cereals up, which could lead to a ripple effect across the economy. And farmers can lose crop insurance if they don't hit growing planting deadlines, most of which are in late May and early June, a major source of recovery for struggling farmers in an already volatile economy…

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Per Reuters: ‘Excessive rain has caused U.S. planting to fall seriously behind schedule. Farmers still had 116 million acres of combined corn and soybeans left to plant as of May 19, far more than they ever had on the date. The previous high was 91 million acres in 1995.’…[Multiple sources suggest] the increasingly dangerous and damaging storms and flooding are likely due to the climate crisis…[Recent research shows] the severity of extreme hydrologic events, so-called 100-year floods, hitting 20 watersheds in the Midwest and Great Lakes region will increase by as much as 30 percent by the end of the century…Corn planting as of May 20 in 18 key U.S. states is off 38.75 percent compared to the five-year average…Soybean planting is off 59.5 percent of its five-year average…” click here for more

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