6-26-19 Food Production: God is Closing the Window
Nearing Midnight: Food Production: God is Closing the Window - Todd Strandberg -
Unless you live in Death Valley or another country, you've probably noticed that the US has had an abundance of rainfall. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information, May 2018 to April 2019 was the wettest year on record in the contiguous United States.
This year's corn crop is a little over a month old and it has already been negatively impacted by all this moisture. In fact, it is one for the record books, with planting at the slowest pace in 40 years. There comes a point where there just may not be enough days for the plants to mature before a hard frost, so millions of acres will now have to wait until the 2020 growing season.
Last week, the USDA lowered the projected total yield to 13.68 billion bushels (last year's corn yield was 14.3 billion bushels). The anticipation of an impending shortage has sent corn futures to trade at their highest level since June 2014.
The total yield may have to be lowered several times because of the endless precipitation. In southern South Dakota, 30 to 40 percent of corn that has been planted has been flooded from new rains. Seedlings left in standing water will be stunted and unlikely to produce any yield. Some portions of Ohio and Indiana have gotten 10 more inches from a storm system, and then three days later, the same area got another 10 inches of rainfall.
In the past few months, we have had one Agriculture disaster after another. An April blizzard killed thousands of cattle in Nebraska. In June, it was reported that the total number of honey bee colonies across Europe plunged 16% over the winter of 2017-18, according to COLOSS (Prevention of honey bee COlony LOSSes), an international, non-profit organization based in Switzerland, tasked with the goals of protecting honey bees. Also, in Europe, a series of hail storms destroyed crops in France and Italy.
Chinese farmers are also very perplexed over why 2019 has become such a disastrous year for food producers. While their weather has been normal, China faces a biological threat on three fronts:
1. Some 30% of pig farms in mainland China are rumored to have been hit by African swine fever. China's population of pigs will shrink by 134 million heads, which is equal to all the hogs raised in the US. Since China is the #1 consumer of pork, global hog prices may rise sharply as Beijing imports heavily to meet demand. Average prices may jump by 70% to record levels in the second half of 2019, according to Chinese forecasts.
2. The fall armyworm, native to North America, was first detected in China five months ago after wreaking havoc in Africa over the past two years where it infested up to at least half of the continent's crops. A United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) report published at the end of April said the pest, which entered Yunnan province from the neighboring country of Myanmar, would spread to all of China's grain producing regions within 12 months.
3. China has confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N6 bird flu in Horgos in the far western Xinjiang region. The outbreak killed nearly half the birds raised by farmers in that city, according to a notice on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
I chose the title of this week's article from a remark Terry's wife received from a rice farmer here in Arkansas. He said he has only been able to plant 1,400 of his 6,000 acres. He said, "In previous years, God has always provided a window to plant. This year, the window was closed."
Bible prophecy may be the explanation for why food production is experiencing so many difficulties. If the tribulation hour is near, the earth is going to go from a time when food is generally plentiful to a time when a loaf of bread will cost a day's wage. Since 2019 is now certain to be a shortfall year, we may be seeing the beginning of the predicted end-time famine.
"And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny..." (Rev 6:5-6).
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