America’s farmers are on the front lines of food and fuel production, and this 60 seconds video explains how they work to serve America more sustainably
Video: How America’s Farmers are Feeding and Fueling the Nation was originally posted on: PlanetSave. To read more from Planetsave, join thousands of others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage.
The tremendous drought in Texas and the Southwest that I wrote about in early April continues on (almost 50% of Texas is experience “exceptional” drought now, the highest level of drought — “unprecedented” according to experts). Furthermore, it has expanded and is affecting even more important U.S. farming areas.
Now, this didn’t hit me until recently, but if you don’t follow climate science closely (or much at all), you may have a hard time making the connection between climate change (or global weirding) and food security or food prices.
In January, February, and March, I discussed the link between climate change and rising food prices. Well, there was big news out of Texas recently bringing us back to that topic yet again. Texas is experiencing its worst drought in 44 years and it is damaging the state’s wheat crop. This is driving up the price of wheat and meat (ranchers have had to reduce the size of their herds).
I wrote last week that we should probably cover the link between food and broader issues a little more here on Eat Drink Better. With a nudge from our site director, Becky Striepe, and network founder/publisher, David Anderson, I’ve decided to cover the complicated but important topic of rising food prices today.
The LA Times had a decent piece on this topic recently that included a number of interesting food statistics. What of the following did you know?
These days, living in a global village of sorts, we can easily take for granted the wide variety of foods we have access to and relatively low food prices. However, as the United States Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog (USAFLPB) notes, global food supply may be approaching its limit, we are currently seeing considerable price increases, and we could see much more in the future.