US farmers struggle to face unprecedented threats to key crop: 'It really is kind of like a 1-2-3 punch'
Strawberry crops in the state are still suffering ill effects from wildfires and floods from two years ago. The excessive moisture has introduced multiple fungal diseases that had not been seen in New England prior.
"When you accumulate all those stresses on the plant, it really is kind of like a 1-2-3 punch on a lot of them," said Shelton farmer Jamie Jones, per Westchester News12.
While the Canadian wildfires impacted crops, human health also suffered significantly. Previous studies suggest that the Connecticut agricultural industry has lost upwards of $50 million between 2023 and 2024 due to flooding.
Food crops of all kinds are being challenged by increasingly destructive weather patterns, and along with them, the livelihood of many farmers.
This instability can directly lead to price increases at the grocery store, which means more food insecurity, and in some parts of the world, migration as a result.
It's possible to reduce personal pollution by making your next car an electric vehicle, switching to a heat pump from a gas heating source, exploring a meatless diet, and using more solar power.
While each of these has loads of benefits to end-users, the climate benefits cascade to the farmers growing our food.
While strawberry crops in Connecticut face challenges, good weather this spring has provided some relief.
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station is working on more resilient strawberry strains that can deal with increasingly challenging weather.
"If we can try and keep the plant really healthy – in about a one- to two-month window when the disease problem is really bad, we might actually be able to get it through that danger point and then … basically it can go dormant, and we can get potentially another full crop out of it the following year," said the Station's Nate Westrick, per Westchester News12.
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