Farmers fight for survival amid Mother Nature's recent wrath: 'Does keep you up at night'

Yahoo

7 hours ago

Perhaps more than ever in modern history, it's a stressful time to be a farmer. The Guardian recently dove into the particular challenges facing European farmers in the face of prolonged drought.
"Farmers across northwestern Europe are waiting with bated breath for fresh rains as typically drizzly countries such as the U.K., Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany suffer through what may be their driest spring in a century," the Guardian reported. And Earth.org said that last month was the second-warmest May on record in the region, which is now "exceptionally dry."
Of course, farmers know how to deal with the occasional drought. "We farmers are resilient," one farmer in Germany, Sven Borchert, told the Guardian. "But dry spells are always stressful."
And unfortunately, these droughts are anything but occasional. With global temperatures continuing to rise because of human-driven pollution, weather patterns are changing — and this has spelled bad news for farmers.
Hendrik Jan ten Cate, a Dutch farmer, told the Guardian that in 2018, severe drought crippled his onion yield to 10% of what it usually is. This year, he's watching his fields anxiously and hoping for rain.
"There are questions, such as how you'll pay back the bank, that does keep you up at night," he said.
The key concern is the fact that these droughts are part of a pattern, not an isolated series of incidents. In fact, with changing temperatures, weather of all types is growing more severe, erratic, and frequent — from hurricanes to tornadoes, droughts to sudden floods.
And when it comes to growing crops and raising livestock, severe and unpredictable weather is the last thing anyone wants.
"If rain comes soon, perhaps we'll see losses of 20%-30%," German farmer Peter Boysen told the Guardian. "If no rain comes, it will of course be much worse."
An analysis by the insurance firm Howden found that extreme weather costs the European Union roughly 28.3 billion euros — the equivalent of $32.7 billion— in lost crops and livestock per year. That's approximately 6% of its total food production that ends up squandered. More than half of those losses are due to drought.
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And even worse for EU farmers, less than a third of these weather events are generally insured, meaning they can't recoup their financial losses in any way. The issue of disaster insurance has become increasingly complicated as insurers pull out of high-risk areas, leaving residents and businesses high and dry without a safety net in the face of an emergency.
And for consumers, a more limited food supply means higher prices in grocery aisles.
The farmers interviewed by the Guardian shared that they are looking into multiple ways to adapt, including looking into planting more drought-resistant crop varieties, investing in large-scale rainwater storage, and installing drip irrigation.
Governments and insurers are also looking into possible reinsurance plans — insurance for insurers — in order to provide more comprehensive coverage for farmers in the event of a loss.
And ultimately, reducing erratic weather means dramatically reducing human-generated carbon pollution, which falls on governments to regulate, corporations to scale back, and consumers to invest.
"In the short term, though, farmers across Europe see little choice but to wait for more rain," the Guardian concluded.
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