Spain Projects Wheat Harvest Down 29%, Barley 25% As Drought Continues

[hatrack]

EDIT

"In its first estimate of this year's crop, the ministry said the wheat harvest was seen at 5.06 million tonnes, compared with 7.11 million last year. It did not give a breakdown of soft and durum wheat. The barley crop was forecast to fall 25 percent to 7.95 million tonnes. The number of hectares sown to each crop were roughly the same as last year, the data showed.

After the driest September to end-March stretch since records began in 1947, Spain, like its drought-hit neighbour Portugal, has asked the European Union for help dealing with the drought. The Agriculture Minister has asked the EU for permission to import up to 8 million tonnes of cereals from EU intervention stores, in a letter seen by Reuters last week. Grain traders are sceptical about how much grain Brussels will allow Spain.

In the letter, the minister said she expected 50 percent of the crop to be lost. Because of the dry weather, water reserves stand at just 60 percent of capacity.

Farmers have started harvesting in the sun-scorched southern region of Andalusia but even in the most promising areas yields are less than a third of usual levels, a technician from farmers' union COAG in Seville said on Friday. "Those are the best fields, that's not a good reference ... I think we'll lose 90 percent in Andalusia," Ramon Garcia said."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/30916/story.htm

[whistle]

1. Spain harvest down by nearly a third, Australia going through....

...majot droughts, China suffering agricultural set-backs due to the Asian Bird flu, the African continent on the verge of mass starvation, peak oil, U.S. presidential lies! Laura Bush is in the middle east on a public relations tour of the enemies of America to raise the image of the United States with plastic smiles and empty rhetoric.:wtf:

[hatrack]

2. Yes, never has the phrase "style over substance" been more appropriate

Or more chillingly evocative of what it means to live in a decadent society.

PR flash and bullshit and spin as some sort of half-assed counterweight to the rust that never sleeps.

[NNadir]

3. The United States, like everyone else, will have hell to pay too.

This isn't just murder; it's murder-suicide.

It is mildly poetic that one of the first states to be submerged will be the one where the fixed elections most mattered.

[phantom power]

4. I'm not worried,

we can cast aside our consumer-based society and live in an ecotopia as hunter-gatherers.

Or, anyway, maybe the 1% who don't die of famine, pestilence and war can do that.

[NNadir]

5. You leave me greatly relieved.

:-)

[Boomer]

6. A bit of an optimist, I see

Since 1% of our current population of 5.5 billion people is still 50 million, your scenario may be a bit on the rosy side.

[phantom power]

7. I'm even crazier than you think.

I dare to believe that we might actually keep this circus running through the coming crisis, with some luck and about a million miles of duct tape. But only if we face up to the changes that are coming, real soon.

I realize my optimism is just nutty, considering the quality and attitude of our current government, but maybe some of the other less screwed-up countries will make it.

Anyway, it helps me get out of bed every morning.

[Boomer]

8. Ay, there's the rub

>> But only if we face up to the changes that are coming, real soon.<<

No signs of that happening yet. Given human nature in general, and the realities of our government structure, we're not likely to move into high gear until ruination and chaos are fairly advanced.

[bloom]

9. I think people

like the Amish will seem like the smartest ones around (in this country, anyway). :)

[phantom power]

10. Could be... assuming they aren't just murdered for their food

when the famines come. Really, that's my big problem with the "back to nature" scenario. There's this intermission of chaos, and when the chaos comes, I don't think there will be smart or dumb, there will only be the ruthless and the dead.

I might be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that if we command enough resources to avoid that kind of chaos, then that implies we'll also be able to simply avoid a return to the 19th century (or earlier).

[bloom]

11. "there will only be the ruthless and the dead"

That is certainly possible and I wouldn't want to live in that world anyway.

People who take over from those who have worked at being able to live outside of "civilization" - wouldn't know how to keep surviving anyway.

There are so many ways that corporations are working against survival - ruining the seeds and such - besides everything else like pollution/toxins/and other maladaptive practices - I don't have high hopes....

[suneel112]

12. Its partly their fault

If they didn't vote for BushTard in Ohio, we would have a president who acknowledges and cares about peak oil. Too little, too late, sure, but he would at least soften the blow of peak oil that is about to come in 2007. The Democrats must use the energy crisis (and Solutions like those discussed in these forums) to win the mid terms. Right now, our economy is "fear of heights", but the crash is soon to come.

If the mid terms are not won, we must build our own Ark, because the flood's a-comin'.