Climate and Ag in the news
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Smithsonian had an interesting article this week on a long-term source of proxy climate data that was collected by Japanese priests monitoring the ice conditions on Lake Suwa. As the lake froze each year, the priests recorded the time of development and the orientation of a ridge of ice that built up as the lake…
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The latest WunderBlog from Jeff Masters discusses something that I have not heard of before: food system shock. His blog started out this way: “The greatest threat of climate change to civilization over the next 40 years is likely to be climate change-amplified extreme droughts and floods hitting multiple major global grain-producing “breadbaskets” simultaneously. A…
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The US Forest Service published an interesting article this week on how trees respond to drought by looking at the mechanics of water movement within the tree and through the leaves. Different species of trees respond in different ways and at different rates. You might enjoy reading about this at https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/compass/2016/04/26/open-or-shut-how-trees-respond-to-drought-at-the-leaf-level/.
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There has been a lot in the news recently about how carbon emissions would be drastically reduced if we just stopped eating red meat (or in some cases, any meat at all). I get questions from extension agents and producers about the impacts that producing animal protein has on the increase in carbon dioxide in…
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The latest Drought Monitor came out today and shows that a large area of northeast Georgia plus a sliver of adjoining South Carolina is now classified as D1, moderate drought. Small areas in western Virginia also received a D1 classification this week. The drought declaration was not surprising considering the lack of rainfall in recent…
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The Packer noted this week that spring sweet corn harvesting in Florida has been delayed by about ten days due to winter weather issues, but that production is rapidly increasing with better weather. They noted that “late January torrential rains flooded south Florida fields, harming winter production and causing quality issues through mid-April.” You can…
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Dry conditions have hit parts of Georgia and Florida this year as El Niño rains have bypassed those areas to fall in other regions. The Panhandle Ag e-News from the University of Florida published an article this week discussing some of the impacts of the dry conditions and heat on vegetables. In particular, Josh Freeman,…