Research forecasts Iowa corn yields could drop in half within the next half-century thanks to extreme weather - yet it's not part of the political conversation
Farmers around here are itching to go after that amber wave of soya beans, but there was that 5in rain a couple of weeks ago and then a 7in rain, and it drives even the retired guys batty.
Those beans aren't worth much at the elevator thanks to a Trump trade war with China, but they're worth even less getting wet feet in a pond that was a field which the glacier made a prairie bog some 14,000 years ago - until we came along and drained it.
This year, crops in north-west Iowa are looking spotty. Up into
Minnesota they were battered by spring storms and late planting, and then inundated again in late summer. Where they aren't washed out, they're weedy or punky. If you go south in Buena Vista county, where I live in Storm Lake, the corn stands tall and firm.
Welcome to climate change, Iowa-style.
Comment: Over the past few years in particular, no where on the planet has been spared from the increasingly erratic seasons and extreme weather, and it seems the world is scarcely prepared to deal with the coming food shortages:
- Erratic seasons and extreme weather devastating crops around the world
- Study reveals atmospheric rivers to double in size
- A taste of the future: 'Disbelief' as snow hits and northern Alberta farmers scramble to save crops worth millions
- 'This is a crisis' - Unusually brutal winter doubles farmers' costs and endangers cattle in Montana
- Unusually cold winter and spring have Koreans worried about rocketing food costs
- "Perfect storm": UK farming crisis as areas suffer worst drought for 225 years
Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?