Author: admin
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Foreign firms taking billions of litres from UK aquifers to make bottled water
As reported in the Guardian Access to water will become harder as the climate crisis intensifies. For example, see this article on the Spanish villages where people are forced to buy back their own drinking water.
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2024 EU cereal production down 8.9% on 5-year average
See the cereal statistics available on the European Commission’s website
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France, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain wine production down
Across the five countries, total wine production was down 3% on 2023 and down 10% on the 5-year average. France was down 22% on 2023. See this press release from Copa Cogeca for the full breakdown.
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English wine harvest down 20-70%
Coverage in decanter.com Anecdotally, many English winemakers expect this year’s harvest to be down by between 20% and 70%. ‘We are down to about half of what we would expect in a normal year, and around one-third of last year’s record crop,’ said Vranken Pommery’s cellar master Clément Pierlot. ‘From January through to today, we haven’t…
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Swiss beekeepers report below-average honey harvest
Reported in swissinfo.ch The honey harvest is projected to be lower than usual this year, as Swiss beekeepers report harvesting an average of just 16kg of honey per bee colony, says the beekeeper umbrella group apisuisse. By comparison, in 2023, the Swiss harvested just over 17kg of honey per bee colony. The long-term average is…
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Swiss government forced to import more grain after yields fall by a third
Coverage in swissinfo.ch and swiss-food.ch The Swiss grain harvest in 2024 was significantly lower than average, the national government wrote in a press release. In order to cover the demand for grain, Switzerland will have to import more from abroad. ‘We have never had such a poor bread wheat harvest as this year’. The yield…
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India bans exports of non-basmati white rice
This article in the FT is a year old but a very concerning read. After decades of rapid growth thanks to the development of new varieties, yields are stagnating in four big rice-producing countries in south-east Asia, according to a recent study in Nature Food, an academic journal. Globally, on average yields increased 0.9 per…
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Every US state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought
The Guardian: More than 150 million people and 318m acres of crops are affected by droughts after summer of record heat.
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England has second worst harvest on record
Official government statistics Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit press release: Data released shows England experienced it’s second worst harvest since 1983 after record breaking wet weather last winter, with recent downpours leaving many farmers unable to drill crops again Coverage in the Standard, Euronews, The Guardian Wheat down 21%Winter barley down 26%Winter oilseed rape down…