Fruit
-
Reports on damage caused by the wind and rain of Hurricane Irma are still coming in, and they look bad. Vegetable and Specialty Crop News posted a story this week about one strawberry farmer’s impacts on his fields from the ravaging wind, which tore out most of his plastic sheeting, and heavy rains, which eroded…
-
Global Weather & Climate Center has a good short summary article about the impacts that weather and climate have on wine production. It is a compilation of information from Forbes, Journal of Wine Economics, the Denver Post, and Earth magazine. You can read it at https://www.globalweatherclimatecenter.com/climate/weather-climate-and-wine-forbes-journal-of-wine-economics-the-denver-post-earth-magazine.
-
Brown marmorated stink bugs are an invasive pest which causes a lot of mid-summer damage to many Southeastern crops, but especially to fruit orchards. A recent study which looked at the likely range of stink bugs in a warmer climate shows that the bugs may migrate to the north and out of the Southeast in…
-
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…