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| Europe |
| Europe’s harvest crisis: heatwave devastates grain crops |
| 2003-09-06 |
| The prolonged heatwave has devastated crops across Europe, leaving some countries facing their worst harvests since the end of the second world war. The searing weather, especially in central and eastern Europe, has forced countries that usually export food to import it for the first time in decades. Several, including Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, are experiencing rising food prices and the UN is warning this will have a severe impact on economies. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), wheat output in the EU is expected to be millions of tonnes down on last year, with much greater losses in southern Europe than in the north. Wonder if they’ll consider lowering the tariffs on African foodstuffs ... ... ... ... nah! France has also been severely hit, and is expected to lose more than 20% of its grain harvests. Italy is expected to lose 13% of its wheat, Britain 12% and other countries 5%-10%. In Britain, one immediate effect is likely to be a 7p rise in the price of a loaf, retailers said. In Ukraine, once known as the breadbasket of Russia, the wheat crop fell to 5m tonnes this year, a 75% decrease on normal years. In Moldova, 40% of the wheat area has reportedly been decimated and harvests are down 80%. According to the FAO, which has sent a mission to assess the emergency, losses are being been compared to those of 1945, the worst harvest in memory. Across the EU, wheat production is down 10m tonnes, about 10%. "In some parts it’s pretty bad," said Henri Josserand, head of the FAO’s early warning system, which forecasts harvests and predicts where food may be scarce. "Some countries will have to import a lot more than usual. Their import bills will go up significantly." He warned that floods similar to those that caused devastation in Germany two years ago are likely to hit parts of Europe shortly. "These are now ideal conditions for serious flash flooding because the capacity for the ground to absorb water is very low." The UN figures, released yesterday, mirror those of the world’s two leading crop monitors. The US department of agriculture last week cut its forecast for this year’s global grain harvest by 32m tonnes, mainly because of Europe’s extreme weather. The International Grains Council, an intergovernmental organisation, believes the world harvest will be even lower. A report from the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme, paints a bleak picture of the intense weather continuing to devastate farming. Last year was the third time in four years that global wheat, rice and maize production failed to meet demand, forcing governments and food companies to release stocks from storage. This week India released 50% of its food stocks, partly as a result of intense heat and then floods in some states. But although 38 countries are experiencing food emergencies, the UN does not believe there will be overall food shortages this year. "The world food supply is on an upward trend," said Mr Josserand. "But just because the world is doing OK, it doesn’t mean that in some areas the situation is not severe. Southern Africa, especially Zimbabwe, is still in real difficulty." Zim-Bob-We ... we’ve heard something about a food crisis down there, haven’t we? Wonder why? Surprisingly, one country that has done better than ever this year is Afghanistan, where the cereal crop will be the largest on record, due in large part to good rainfall and better access to seeds and fertilisers. Afghanistan, breadbasket of Europe! |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #11 "Global warming! AAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!" I have two theories on Global warming. 1: It's a normal occurence in the Earth's life-cycle. 2: God saw what the world became in the 90's, and decided to fry us with a giant, invisible maginfy glass. |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-9-6 7:31:02 PM |
| #10 Global warming! AAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-6 4:45:53 PM |
| #9 When's the famine??? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-9-6 1:57:16 PM |
| #8 Mr Anderson I hope we sent them the best we had. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-6 1:05:23 PM |
| #7 Super Hose asked if we could engineer a better grape. We might, but don't really need to: after WWII there were few vineyards producing anything - most French grapes today are descendants of cuttings sent from US universities. |
| Posted by: John Anderson 2003-9-6 12:51:19 PM |
| #6 Wierd - the only wheat doing well is this genetically engineered stuff. Oh well, U guess we will al starve... |
| Posted by: flash91 2003-9-6 11:54:04 AM |
| #5 According to this article, Europe may need to change quite a few things, if they want to keep feeding themselves. Then there will be the swing back the other way as we move into the next Ice Age in about 8000 years. Still, a little cooperation should see the world capable of feeding itself, even under the worst conditions. The problem is that cooperation. There are signs that the US is finally coming out of its four-year drought, at least enough to rebuild grain outputs to close to those of the early 1990's. A few new, genetically altered species of corn, milo (a feed grain), sorgham, wheat, and rye, capable of better withstanding a drought and extreme heat, are also being tested in Texas, where I can personally attest it's hot and dry enough! Europeans will soon have to make a choice - either accept GM foods, or go hungry. Wah, wah. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-9-6 10:41:59 AM |
| #4 We'll send the EU some burlap sacks full of GM food that they can use to sandbag their flooding rivers with. I wonder if we can engineer a better grape? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-9-6 9:21:33 AM |
| #3 Translation: " We need our wine sales! " Time to buy more Spanish wine. They helped and supported us, and France didn't. Everyone spread the word! Spanish wine is better than French! Buy Spanish! |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-9-6 3:06:56 AM |
| #2 One of the things I have ever found funny is that the French and the French-influenced oenologists dismiss the Spanish wines as "being too heavy, not tanic enough due to Spain's summer heat" but that when France is struck by a particularly hot and dry summer (ie Spanish-like summer) the same oenologists explain the French wine will be exceptionally good due to the heat. Go figure. |
| Posted by: JFM 2003-9-6 2:53:31 AM |
| #1 ahhhh, but the Spanish and Italian and German wines should be excellent - heat raises sugar content, alcohol %. French wines should still suck ....just because..... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-9-6 12:46:34 AM |