Drought Happens in the Winter, Too

I know it's commonplace to associate drought with summer time. July and August are generally known for low precipitation and high temperatures. Yuck. I am not a fan of summer.

However, drought happens year round. While my home state of Kansas and the Ninja's home state of Ohio are faring well in terms of moisture through the cold months (I'm still waiting on snow to melt from January and NW Ohio has had a near record-breaking winter), farmers and ranchers in California are desperate for moisture. Any moisture.

California rancher Meg Brown of The Beef Jar has been blogging about the difficulties her family's ranch is facing with such an extreme drought.

Meg is not alone. As you can see, there are numerous states that are struggling with a lack of moisture right now.

image credit National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration

 

So while there are many people [including myself] who are tired of snow, we should all keep those drought affected regions in our thoughts. Furthermore, that big purple portion of the map is responsible for A LOT of fruit and vegetable production in the USA and without water, it's going to be hard to get decent yields.

 

Just some food for thought!

 

Until next time,

~ Buzzard ~

I Don't Want to Live Without Meat in 2050

I just read an article on Yahoo! that said the world may be forced into vegetarianism by the year 2050, according to some scientists at the Stockholm International Water Institute in Sweden. Here is a link to the article -- http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/vegetarian-2050-190426669.html.

Hell no. I refuse to live in a society where there is no meat. I would starve. Literally. If I didn't die of energy depletion first. 

There's a few things I want to point out on this...

- Cattle spend about 75% of their life eating grass in pastures. In the Flint Hills, where I live, if there were no cattle grazing this land it wouldn't be used. Rolling hills with lots of rock aren't viable for crop production. So putting those acres into crop production isn't realistic.

- Another point that the author makes, who does a very poor job of presenting an unbiased story, is that we can't really produce more food. Wrong! We can produce more food - farmers and ranchers are becoming more productive every year and if legislators in D.C. would listen to producers who have real experience instead of listening to lobbyists, they would know that we can continue to improve our efficiency with science, technology and gasp! the help of GMO's.

- I'd really like to see the study that cites 70% of all water is for agriculture - I want to see how this data is presented. Notice that doesn't say 'animal agriculture' just agriculture in general. Furthermore, I don't know of a cause that is more important than food production that we should be funneling water towards - aside from drinking water. Maybe we should start reusing water from purification plants for water in our toilets, yard spouts, washing machines and dishwashers.

These are just my opinions - but I'd love to hear yours.

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Real quick addendum: Cutting meat completely out of production is NOT going to feed the people who are starving in other countries. The infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa needs to improve, for example. There could be 4 tons of food arrive to major societal hubs in food deprived countries but if there is no way for the food to be moved to rural, impoverished areas or if the local government uses food provisions as a way to control people, then all the food aid in the world won't help. There is more than just food production at the center of those issues - it's a web of underlying causes that need to be addressed to stop world hunger.