Alphonso, the king of mangoes, has fallen victim to climate change. The state government’s preliminary estimate is that nearly 80% of the mango crop has been destroyed, said agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil. “The trees flowered far in excess of everyone’s expectations. The devastation has taken us by surprise. I am told it is because of [...]
Signal: higher food prices
China bracing for worst drought in 200 years
The United Nations’ food agency issued an alert on Tuesday warning that a severe drought was threatening the wheat crop in China, the world’s largest wheat producer, and resulting in shortages of drinking water for people and livestock. China has been essentially self-sufficient in grain for decades for national security reasons. Any move by China [...]
Global food crisis driven by extreme weather fueled by climate change
We’re in the midst of a global food crisis — the second in three years. World food prices hit a record in January, driven by huge increases in the prices of wheat, corn, sugar and oils. These soaring prices have had only a modest effect on U.S. inflation, which is still low by historical standards, [...]
India’s crops hit hard by climate change
A number of India’s key crops are experiencing the effects of climate change, experts say. H Pathak, an investigator with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute’s Climate Change Challenge Program, said global warming isn’t limited to a rise in average temperatures. “It’s a little more complicated than that. There is for example also a rise in [...]
Damage from super-cyclone Yasi sends sugar prices to record high
Sugar prices broke over a three-decade high Wednesday as one of the strongest cyclones to hit Australia in a century slammed into the sugar-producing nation’s already flood-ravaged Queensland coast. Raw-sugar futures for March delivery broke 36 cents a pound in InterContinental Exchange trade, the highest price since November 1980. White sugar on London’s Liffe exchange [...]
Costs of extreme weather hitting Australia hard
Australia has endured two of its deadliest summers on record, blamed in part on global warming. Since 2006, Australia has suffered a string of disasters that have costs hundreds of lives, caused losses in the billions disrupted the crucial agriculture and mining sectors. In March 2006, Cyclone Larry tore through the northern Queensland town of [...]
Weather swing from drought to flood wipes out Australian crops
Successive deluges this week have ruined many harvests. In the long, thin shire of Warren along the Macquarie River in western NSW, hundreds of farmers are waiting for the flood surge predicted for Sunday afternoon that will ruin their grain crops. ”Some have barely started to harvest and it was such a good crop, to [...]
Food prices higher on weather disasters linked to climate change
This month, the Wall Street Journal reports that prices of basic foods like milk, beef and cereal grain have risen sharply enough in the U.S. in recent weeks that major food producers like Kraft and General Mills have decided they must begin to pass the increased cost of supplies on to their customers in the [...]
