Another Crop Failure

Farmers in the United States and Russia are reeling.   Now it's Australia, the world's second biggest wheat producer, where production is in peril.

Lower production in Australia, the world’s second-largest wheat exporter, could boost momentum for world grain prices that have already surged to near-record levels this year, as searing heat has withered crops in the US and Russia.

Poor rainfall in Western Australia is expected to cut Australian winter grain production in the financial year ended June 30 by a fifth to 36.2 million metric tons, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science said in a statement Tuesday. That’s down from its June estimate of 38.5 million tons.

Abares also reduced its estimate for winter wheat production, by 7% to 22.5 million tons, representing a 24% decline from record output in 2011-12. 

With the world population going straight up and global agricultural production heading in the opposite direction, isn't it time we had some straight talk from our governments, federal and provincial?  Stephen Harper is deranged.   This is happening and yet he's stuck in a terminal brain fart over the riches of Arctic seabed oil and gas the Earth can't afford to burn if our grandchildren are to live some measure of decent life.

It's encouraging that Obama's people have finally figured out there's enough voter support to make climate change a useful campaign issue.   It's frightening that he's running a close race with a Republican nominee and his sidekick, both of whom refuse to acknowledge the reality of global warming.