Category: Food Tremor

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A Rising Food Tremor

Touch the Soil News #1216 (Feature photo – Sow and Piglet – USDA) Most dinner plates will have items from foreign countries on it. That said, the world’s food system is well interconnected. It also means that a food tremor overseas can have ramifications here at home. China, the world’s largest pork producer, has had over 100 different incidents of African Swine Fever in the last half of 2018. There is no cure for the disease that rapidly leads to the death of the pigs infected. Laws are such that if the disease is found in one pig, all pigs at the farm must be culled (destroyed). Recently, a larger…

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Food Tremor on the Other Side of the World

Touch the Soil News #1077 (Feature photo – Australian sheep with no feed – GNU Free Doc License Virtual Steve) The single largest activity on land in the world is agriculture. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, approximately 38 percent of the world’s land mass is dedicated to agriculture. Climatic change, volatility and drought can do little else but impact the world’s ability to grow food. After several years of drought in the Province of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia, farmers and ranchers are at wits end as the 2018 drought is the worst yet. Reeling from recent dry years, it is not just the reduction…

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United Kingdom (Great Britain) Food Jitters

Touch the Soil News #1073 (Feature photo – Palace of Westminster, the seat of both houses of Parliament of the UK – CCA SA 3.0 Unported) Next March (2019) Great Britain is slated to leave the European Union. Unfortunately, Great Britain must import 40 percent of the food the empire consumes – most of it coming from the European Union it plans to leave. This summer, Great Britain is facing severe drought conditions which hamper internal food production. Global trade and alliances have crept into modern life in the UK to such proportions, that the British nation may have even less control over its destiny without the protection and preferential…

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Food Tremor – Co2 Shortage Limits Food Choices in Britain

Touch the Soil News #1057 (Feature photo – Chemical makeup of Carbon Dioxide – GNU Free Doc License) While debates rage over how we can’t adequately feed the world, theorists focus on farmland and water. The Co2 shortage in Europe lets us know that it goes beyond farmland and water. Co2 is used to put the fizz in soft drinks and beer, as a preservative for meat and produce and as dry ice for frozen food deliveries. It makes us realize just how fragile the food chain can be. Want More? – Sign up below Special Deals Ahead…Sign up!

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Trouble in Tea Land?

Touch the Soil News #794 (Feature photo – picking tea leaves on a tea plantation – CC SA 3.0) Far off in India in one of the world’s major tea growing areas where human issues are tripping things up. In the shadows of the Himalayas is the Darjeeling district – home of the Darjeeling tea. Political turmoil in the Darjeeling area has brought closure to many of the tea plantations, closure of banks and transportation is almost at a standstill. In the midst of these problems, the world’s largest tea company McLeod Russel India LTD has decided (for the first time) to sell one of its tea plantations (1,500 acres)…

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Avocado Food Tremor

Touch the Soil News #793 (Feature photo – CC SA 3.0) When it comes to avocados, some are calling it the perfect storm, the triage of problems 1) More people want avocados. 2) Weather and Climate are not co-operating. 3) Production is down. U.S. consumption of avocados is dramatic. U.S. per capita consumption of avocados has grown from 2 pounds in 2001 to 7 pounds last year (2016). One of the largest avocado producers in the world is Mexico which supplies almost 30 percent of the world’s production. Estimates are that 2017 production in Mexico could be down by 20 percent. Avocado production in the U.S. is concentrated to California…

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Egg Tremors

Touch the Soil News #771 (Feature photo Maksym Kozlenko CC SA 4.0)) Aldi, the largest grocer in Germany with over 4,000 stores, pulled all eggs out of its store last week. Widespread traces of an illegal chemical – Fipronil – has been discovered on eggs in the European Union. Historically, the chemical was used to kill ticks and mites in egg laying flocks. However, the European Union – over health concerns to humans – has made use of the insecticide illegal. It was discovered that egg producers in the Netherlands were using a product to keep mites and ticks out of their facilities that contained Fipronil. Millions of eggs have…

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Less Water = Food Tremors

Touch the Soil News #762 (feature photo – drought stunted corn crop – USDA photo) There have been a number of stories floating around the media that suggest a larger event is lurking between the cracks. Following are a few of the pieces:   Researchers at MIT warn of reducing availability of water for cotton and forage (hay). Hay is the foundational crop for meat animals. The area of concern is the Southwest. Now, the Southwest is huge and includes the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas – an area equal to almost 1/3 of the U.S. land mass. Drought trends could push yields in…

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Food Tremors

Touch the Soil News #745 Heat Wave Striking the California Central Valley, heat waves are stressing livestock. Up to 6,000 livestock deaths through the end of June 2017 have been reported. Livestock that perish in the heat do not enter the food chain, but must be disposed of through a rendering plant. The largest rendering plant in the Central Valley is operated by Baker Commodities Inc. They normally process 1 million pounds of dead animals a day – the heat wave has pushed that up to 1.5 million pounds a day (see video below).   Pig Fear On average, a mother pig will produce about 19.5 piglets a year, up…

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Peach & Blueberry Tremors

Touch the Soil News #673 In mid-March, South Carolina (rated as the #2 peach growing state behind California) experienced and unseasonal freeze. The frost destroyed 85 percent of the state’s peach crop – a loss of over 100 million pounds of peaches – 5 percent of the nation’s peaches. On average, American’s consume about 3 lbs. of peaches/nectarines each year. The loss is equivalent to the peach/nectarine consumption of 33 million Americans. The same frost hit Georgia, the nation’s largest producer of blueberries. Estimates are that around 70 million pounds were lost – equal to roughly 5 percent of the nation’s blueberry crop. On average, Americans consume 4.5 lbs. of…

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