I guess the cows that escaped the Wisconsin snows for the slavery of pens in California are having second thoughts
Posted on 02/09/2014 12:05:15 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Much like the polar vortex spiked demand and prices for natural gas in the eastern U.S., another weather phenomenon — a severe drought — is threatening cattle and milk production and food crops in the West.
It’s a threat that can last for months and year, and parched conditions have already driven up prices on milk and cattle futures.
“The hardest hit section of California is the Central Valley — ‘the supermarket to the world’ — and [it’s becoming] increasingly clear the region won’t see relief from the devastating drought anytime soon,” said Kevin Kerr, editor of CommodityConfidential.com. “Retail prices for many key agricultural commodities could jump.”
That means consumers may see higher prices for everything from beef and milk to wheat, nuts and vegetables, and it’ll take time for supplies to replenish.
Drought conditions cover more than 37% of the 48 contiguous states, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor . MDA Weather Services said about 67% of California alone is currently experiencing extreme or exceptional drought conditions.
The state’s Gov. Edmund “Jerry” Brown, Jr. declared a drought State of Emergency on Jan. 17, calling on California’s residents to voluntarily cut water consumption by 20%.
The state is “already taking steps to limit water usage, so it is likely that irrigation supplies will be limited as well,” said Kyle Tapley, senior agricultural meteorologist of weather services at MDA Information Systems LLC....
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Thanks for the link. Looks wet. Hope it helps the farmers. Been following Rep. Deven Nunez on how the Democrats and Obama have kept water from the San Joaquin Valley farmers for years.
What a shitty thing to do to hard working farmers. So much for Obama’s “Hispanic” outreach, unless it was to starve them to death.
I guess Gov. Moonbeam has never heard of desalination. He should call the Israelis about it. Might learn something they didn’t teach in Hash U.
“Been following Rep. Deven Nunez on how the Democrats and Obama have kept water from the San Joaquin Valley farmers for years.”
Devin is one of the few good guys we have, and he’s from the Central Valley and is from a farming family, so he understands the issues. The RATs have never evaluated decisions based on facts, but rather “feelings.” We must be “fair to the fish,” even if human beings have to suffer. So we get these Federal idiots who are out to save the Delta Smelt at the expense of our population and our economy. Most of the rest of the country fails to understand that California’s wealth isn’t in the Silicon Valley, but rather in the Central Valley farming by a huge margin. that is the richest, most productive land in the entire country, but it takes water to function, unlike the dry farming done in most of the rest of the country.
I’ve got to tell this little story for all you Californians.
A few years ago, I met actor William Smith (Red Dawn; Any Which Way But Loose, etc) at a memorabilia show in Gaithersburg, Md.
As we were leaving, he said that he was going to call for a cab to take him to his hotel, about a half mile away. I volunteered to take him and his friend there on my way home.
They accepted and as I drove down the road, he said that he really enjoyed seeing the trees, some in fall colors, because in LA, all he saw was “sand and two palm trees”.
I took him and his friend for a little sightseeing tour of the wooded streets in Gburg before we got to the hotel. He was one happy man.
Well, you’re right about seasons, we don’t have them in a normal sense.
Out here they are: Drought, Forest Fire. Flood, and Mudslide! And add in an Earthquake once in a while, just to keep everyone “awake.” But we don’t have Tornadoes, because we don’t have enough trailer parks to act as magnets for them.
All of us Californians don't live in L.A. but live near stands of majestic 300 foot tall redwood trees, forests of live oak, bay trees, madrone, buckeye and black walnut. Not as much color as New England in the fall....
There is no water shortage in California or ever could be no matter the rainfall amounts. Just short sighted little men afraid of desalination.
Why we need a fair percentage of our crops grown outside the southwest. Crops can fail anywhere and having diverse sources means they’re unlikely to fail everywhere.
In 2012 an early thaw followed by a hard freeze followed by extreme drought wiped out most Michigan fruit crops but the pacific northwest had a bumper year. Prices were up but not wildly so.
We still need to grow there but regional crop diversity helps alleviate pressure in bad years.
Last week, Chopped meat (93%) was $4.59/ lb.
Went to a brunch - their “Salisbury Steak” was mostly breading.
desalination. That ruin the view of the ocean the same as the drilling rigs on the horizon /s
Any news on fukashima and its effects on the pacific ocean AKA weather cycles?, no? ok lets move on.............
Nowhere near that here. The price difference from state-to-state is amazing.
I drive over to Jersey and save 30 cents a gallon on gas. Go figure.
Diesel has been really steady here for going on two years. $3.59 almost always, no matter what gasoline does.
http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/
Diesel’s higher than regular around here, and is rising more than regular.
I just paid $4.20/gal for kerosene - used to be able to get it for way cheaper than gas.
Diesel has been higher than gasoline since Katrina. But you usually get better mileage in a diesel, which evens it out a bit.
I guess the cows that escaped the Wisconsin snows for the slavery of pens in California are having second thoughts
Thinking like that is why the tree huggers have ruin your state and cause more problems then it solved. Example: No clear cutting = massive wild fires. You have 840 miles of coastline. 10 desalination plants might soiled the view of 2 miles of coast line and supply millions of gallons of fresh water daily that would never run out. Israel has too much fresh water in the middle of desert.
If water is that short, maybe more farming should be done in places with more of it.
Actually, CA undercut a lot of farmers elsewhere with pricing based on an unsustainable resource model. It would be good to have farming a little less centralized (e.g., where it’s easier to get Americans to provide the labor) and to pay a bit more for it.
A lot of it has to do with cheap labor. Its one of the main reasons California has so many illegals. However I do agree that our crops should be more regionally diversified.
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