Fruit
-
Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story this week about continuing efforts to determine the losses from Hurricane Irma to blueberry production. Hurricane winds ripped many bushes right from the ground, forcing farmers to replant. New bushes take two years or more to begin production, which costs the farmer in lost income as…
-
In the past three years, olive growers in Europe have experienced blistering heat, heavy rains and an untimely frost. All of these extreme weather events have reduced the production of olive oil from Italy and Spain, leaving buyers to look for new sources in places like Australia and New Zealand (and the Southeast?). The New…
-
Business Insider had an interesting story earlier this year about how domestication changed five different popular foods from something barely recognizable to something delicious. Check it out and see what your favorite food looked like before scientists and farmers worked their magic at https://www.businessinsider.com/common-foods-before-and-after-domestication-2016-2.
-
The latest damage estimates to Florida citrus show a higher impact on citrus production than originally thought. Market Intel reported this week that production of citrus there is the lowest in 70 years, due to a combination of lower consumer demand, citrus greening, and the significant impacts of Hurricane Irma. In fact, as more fruit…
-
While apples don’t grow everywhere in the Southeast because of the warm conditions, they do provide a good crop in the northeast Georgia mountains and points north. Where I grew up in Michigan and Wisconsin, they are a much larger crop. Yale Climate Connections provided an interesting story this week on the impacts that warmer…
-
I’ve seen some articles online indicating that they think the smoky conditions from the fires in the California wine country this year could devastate the production of wine, leading to a smoky, burned flavor that would doom the wines. It was interesting to read this article in Food & Wine today which points out that…
-
While the wildfires in California are still burning, we are starting to see some assessments of the toll that it is taking on California agriculture, in particular on the wineries. The California Climate & Agriculture Network posted a story earlier this weekend on some preliminary estimates of costs to crops, livestock, cannibis and wine grapes…