It's been in the news that 56% of the nation is in at least a moderate drought, and food prices will probably start to rise soon. Can't farmers and scientists team together to genetically modify/crossbreed crops to create more drought-resistant hybrids? It seems like it would be possible.
farmer corn wrote:
It's been in the news that 56% of the nation is in at least a moderate drought, and food prices will probably start to rise soon. Can't farmers and scientists team together to genetically modify/crossbreed crops to create more drought-resistant hybrids? It seems like it would be possible.
Most cash crops are already genetically modified to make them more drought resistant. The problem is that no one can make crops drought proof. And drought restitant crops still do not produce as much as they would with rain.
farmer corn wrote:
It's been in the news that 56% of the nation is in at least a moderate drought, and food prices will probably start to rise soon. Can't farmers and scientists team together to genetically modify/crossbreed crops to create more drought-resistant hybrids? It seems like it would be possible.
Gee, I bet that nobody is planting drought-resistant crossbreeds.
Just let nature take its course and roll with the punches. They should be selling tickets to the new American Sahara.
That's where we are going folks. Enjoy.
Heard a report on the radio today that despite the drought it is expected to be a very big year for the corn crop. Higher acreage planted in corn and Iowa (#1 producer) is supposedly not doing all that bad despite the drought.
If it was possible to grow crops without any water there would be farms on the desert. The crops this year withstood the lack of rain for a long time but time has ran out. Native and invasive species of plants are dying too. Even the weeds are dying.
This is not a normal year and may be the worst drought since the 1930s. Back in 2008 the low land fields in our farming community were under water due to too much rain and this year I would guess that 100% of the corn in our area will is in very poor contion or worse. In another week it will be dead. That is the roll of the dice that farming is every year. Most years are good but one must be ready for the years that are very very bad. This year will devastate the entire local economy.
After the dust storms of 1930s farmers implemented better farming practices to conserve the land. These practices are the very best way to combat the destructive forces of too much rain or not enough rain. Area farmers that take good care of their soil have just very bad corn due to this drought. A good rain storm last week may have saved it. Farmers that cut corners and do not practice good conservation have fields that have been dead for weeks.
A Better Suggestion wrote:
Just let nature take its course and roll with the punches. They should be selling tickets to the new American Sahara.
That's where we are going folks. Enjoy.
Pretty soon, I won't have to go west to see places like Kansas and Nebraska. Those states will come to me!
A lot of people die each year in car crashes. Why don't they add safety measures to cars to reduce the chance of injury/death? Someone in the auto industry better get on it.
lmfao
Seriously, GMO's are your suggestion? You really want to eat GMO's? Maybe I'm indoctrinated too much into my west coast culture, but I only thought ignorant people and Greedy corporations were for GMO's. You've gotta question if stupid "Progress" stuff like this is what got us into these kind of troubles in the first place.
Cancel all farm subsidies. Let the farmers go bankrupt. They took a chance and lost. Nobody held a gun to their head and made them plant crops and buy livestock. Tough shit for them. It's survival of the fittest in America. No weaklings wanted. That's the free enterprise system and the American way. No corporate welfare or business handouts for farmers, Anglo, Black, or Hispanic-White. If they are personally starving or homeless they can go to the Union Mission or SVDP Center like the rest of America has to. If the farmers don't like it they can leave the United States and go live elsewhere in another country and see how they like it there.
A Better Suggestion wrote:
Just let nature take its course and roll with the punches. They should be selling tickets to the new American Sahara.
That's where we are going folks. Enjoy.
haha. Rubbish. We made it through the dust bowl, people, we can make it through this little pansy ass "drought."
Or patronise them with water
How long did it take you to construct this troll post?
Even during the Dust bowl produced crops and now we have at least 10 times the irrigation systems in place to water crops.
random a hole wrote:
Heard a report on the radio today that despite the drought it is expected to be a very big year for the corn crop. Higher acreage planted in corn and Iowa (#1 producer) is supposedly not doing all that bad despite the drought.
Wonderful news! Wonderful!
The thing is that the corn crop was on record pace before the drought. Corn's not going to grow with no water. And the aquifers making the midwest the nation's agricultural heartland are getting lower and lower. In many places in Texas and Oklahoma and Nebraska, the aquifers are so low now that farmers can't make it at all and much of the farmland is being taken over for wind energy. There was a good article in Harper's recently about this.
Corn in Indiana is also curling up. They do have irrigation on many of the fields, but the high heat and lack of water is telling.
GLOBAL WARMING (I'm 16 years old O_O)
The WIND knocked over a bunch of corn a couple weeks ago. Who could have ever predicted that happening?
farmer corn wrote:
Most cash crops are already genetically modified to make them more drought resistant. The problem is that no one can make crops drought proof. And drought restitant crops still do not produce as much as they would with rain.
the above is correct. Hybrids are available that only need a small amount of moisture, but they were developed for arid land such as in africa. the yield is much lower so no one would plant them in the USA. Even with the drought USA plantings are so dense we will net far more corn than planting a drought resistant variety. In addition the drought corn is not a total loss, even the worst can be ground into livestock feed. One of the subsidies paid to farmers is the rental by the government of buffer strips, basically the edge of the field or places that are at higher erosion risk. For a few dollars investment the topsoil is retained and while it might be currently dry the land is in no danger of returning to the dustbowls of the past. In the old days the farmers were desperate and lost alot of topsoil in bad practices. the government now controls almost all farming practices and the land is in excellent health. It costs a few dollars but when you consider that food stamps make up 80 percent of the Dept of Agriculture's budget, farm supports return more value than most anything else the government sticks its hand in.
Of course if you all don't mind lead in your milk, clenbuterol in your meat and food prices much lower than much of the world than feel free to bash the farm industry.