Farmers warn food aisles will soon be empty because of crushing conditions: ‘We are not in a good position’

27 comments

1. Farmers warn food aisles will soon be empty because of crushing conditions: ‘We are not in a good position’
   The United Kingdom is facing dire food shortages, forcing prices to skyrocket, and experts predict this is only the beginning.

   What’s happening?

   According to a report by The Guardian, extreme weather is wreaking havoc on crops across the region. England experienced more rainfall during the past 18 months than it has over any 18-month period since record-keeping began in 1836.

   Because the rain hasn’t stopped, many farmers have been unable to get crops such as potatoes, carrots, and wheat into the ground. “Usually, you get rain but there will be pockets of dry weather for two or three weeks at a time to do the planting. That simply hasn’t happened,” farmer Tom Allen-Stevens told The Guardian.

   Farmers have also planted fewer potatoes, opting for less weather-dependent and financially secure crops. At the same time, many of the potatoes that have been planted are rotting in the ground.

   “There is a concern that we won’t ever have the volumes [of potatoes] we had in the past in the future,” British Growers Association CEO Jack Ward told The Guardian. “We are not in a good position and it is 100% not sustainable,” Ward added.

   Why is it important?
   English farmers aren’t alone — people are struggling to grow crops worldwide because of extreme weather.

   Dry weather in Brazil and heavy rain in Vietnam have farmers concerned about pepper production. Severe drought in Spain and record-breaking rain and snowfall in California have made it difficult for farmers to cultivate olives for olive oil. El Niño and rising temperatures cut Peru’s blueberry yield in half last year. Everyone’s favorite drinks — coffee, beer, and wine — have all been impacted by extreme weather.

   According to an ABC News report, the strain on the agriculture industry will likely continue to cause food prices to soar.

   If these were just isolated events, farmers could more easily adapt — bad growing seasons are nothing new. The problem is that rising temperatures are directly linked to the increasing amount of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere.

   Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, humans have burned dirty energy sources such as coal, oil, and gas, which release a significant amount of those gases. Our climate is changing so drastically that the 10 warmest years since 1850 have all occurred in the last decade.

   “As climate change worsens, the threat to our food supply chains — both at home and overseas — will grow,” Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit analyst Amber Sawyer told The Guardian.

   What can we do about it?
   “Fortunately, we know many ways we can make the food system more resilient while reducing food emissions. The biggest opportunity in high-income nations is a reduction in meat consumption and exploration of more plants in our diets,” said Dr. Paul Behrens, an associate professor of environmental change at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

   If we replace a quarter of our meat consumption with vegetables, we could cut around 100 million tons of air pollution yearly. It may seem strange to suggest eating more vegetables with the decline in crop production. However, reducing the land and water used for animal agriculture and diverting those resources to growing more produce would drastically help the declining food supply.

   Growing our own food is also a great way to reduce our reliance on store-bought produce, and it can save you hundreds of dollars a year at the grocery store.

   Join our free newsletter for cool news and cool tips that make it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.

2. Is this until the next panic that the world’s population might fall due to low birthrates? It must keep increasing etc.

3. I know local farmers are having it tough yielding crops due to the weather. One bad year can be awful. We only deal in animal rearing.

4. Never really noticed the crops because of Al the vote Brexit / Tory signage.

   Farmers of all people should know you will reap what you sow.

5. Need more indoor factory vertical farms that can pump out a million heads of lettuce a week.

6. Bad planning all around. Farmers, the government, and supermarkets.

7. Some farmers down here (Cornwall) will have nothing to harvest. The same is happening all over the country and abroad. As much as everyone likes to scoff and say all farmers are worth a fortune and can afford it, it’s simply not true. Imagine having a shop and it being emptied of all stock then having to start again. Even if you’re in a good position, that’s a huge hit.

8. Farmers always tell you to vote Tory, and now want you to be shocked by the consequences of people voting Tory.

9. This sounds alarmist, but it isn’t.

   Expect food inflation and availability to be something you’ll be tracking for the rest of your days.

10. I really wish scientists had been warning about this for decades. We might have actually done something about it then instead of moaning about inflatable boats.

11. Everybody saw it coming, everybody did nothing but keep spending spending spending. It’s my god given right to go into a supermarket and all the shelves be full.

    Tick tock goes the clock.

12. Finally, some good news in the fight against obesity.

13. Oceans at record temperatures and only getting hotter. This results in more rainy and unsettled climate for our island.

14. Lets be honest is anyone ? Other than the super rich?

15. Bet Thanet Earth isnt having problems right now. What I never get is that it is surely equivalent to a threat to the nation for our food supply to not be secured and up to nature in this day and age where we know how to grown everything in protected, managed greenhouse solutions which we can build and have built successfully.

16. I know a few farmers. They reckon its a combination of weather, production costs and Brexit, plus an incompetent Govt who promise the earth and provide no support.

17. I’ve been saying this for months but no one seems to care…so many farmers haven’t been able to plant anything cuz of all the rain we’ve had and a lot can’t this year and may even need to give up altogether as their fields are still flooded. So we will have to import more than ever…but then other countries are having similar issues with crop failures the price will be high…then add in the rubbish extra fees due to Brexit…then the supermarkets who love to make record profits…think prices are bad now…man are we in for a shock.

    This is a sign of things to come due to climate change…more flooding, more droughts…people forget about this stuff when they consider climate change. We need to adapt asap otherwise its going to get brutal in the near future…not talking 50yrs from now…look at how people were over toilet paper, fighting over it, when we have actual food shortages, people will turn against each other so quickly

18. In all honesty if we used more of our land for making food and less for making animal feed (yes I know that eventually becomes food, but is hugely inefficient in comparison in terms of land use, costs, and resources) then we’d be in a far better place.

    Also, along the same lines, it would help if farmers produced what the UK wants to eat, rather than focusing on what they can get the most money for on the global market.

19. Basically one can easily make out that the food shortage situation is due to the UK leaving the EU in the harshest terms possible, bad weather and the Government not giving a flying about farming or agriculture in general.

    The weather is the huge factor in the falling British food production. Also we have the situation, where post Brexit, everything is now so much more expensive to import – including basic foods.

    The irony being that, like the fishing industry, farmers were led to believe that leaving the EU would be in farming’s interests. How deceived they were. Like many other business sectors they have been well and truly fucked over by a Government that just doesn’t give a damn about farming and the environment. It was all about money for other parties, rather than the prosperity of the UK and the people.

20. Give it a few months and we’ll all be back to ration books and coupons

21. Actions = Consequences? Shocking.

    Those of you who do, keep denying climate change, please. It’s clearly a myth.

22. Huh…..if only there was a free-market trade area nearby where we could source all these things from.

23. The government “the UK can expect huge climate change issues in the next decade, so we are encouraging all farmers to do what they can to mitigate this risk”

    Farmers and brain-dead morons on Facebook *”won’t take no government control on my farm, my great great grand father didn’t”*

    Also farmers: the recent climate change is fucking up my crops.

    Absolutely 10/10 to that farmer on Clarksons farm who called him out and said rich wankers like him are what is causing climate change.

24. its total fearmongering rubbish anyway. Farmers are unhappy they aren’t getting eu subsidies anymore from government. If there was actually a risk of shortage there would be crisis meetings.

25. I actually noticed this the other day. I was driving to hull on the M62 in my hgv and saw loads of fields towards ouse that were absolutely drenched.

    I just assumed the farmer left it like that for a reason. Or was gonna take his tractor and plough the fields or something farmery

26. Supermarkets will just import it like they do to keep the prices down

27. I’m not in the UK but I’ve been seeing this coming for years. I tried to say something about it, but they called me crazy…