From kellyorchards at gmail.com Tue Feb 6 09:12:35 2024 From: kellyorchards at gmail.com (Arthur Kelly) Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2024 09:12:35 -0500 Subject: [apple-crop-2] Europe's Farmers Are Struggling, but Some Sympathetic Consumers Have Difficulty Affording Their Food | Morning Ag Clips Message-ID: Is the problem the price of the food or is the problem the ability to afford it? Or both? https://www.morningagclips.com/europes-farmers-are-struggling-but-some-sympathetic-consumers-have-difficulty-affording-their-food/ Sent from my iPhone From mrliberty at me.com Tue Feb 6 15:29:42 2024 From: mrliberty at me.com (Jon Clements) Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2024 20:29:42 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [apple-crop-2] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Climate=3A_Europe_struggles_to_ba?= =?utf-8?q?lance_climate_and_farming?= References: Message-ID: In response to Art's previous message, both, I suppose. More on the subject below... Jon Begin forwarded message: From: Jon Clements Subject: Fwd: Climate: Europe struggles to balance climate and farming Date: Feb 6, 2024 at 3:28 PM To: mrliberty at me.com ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: The New York Times < nytdirect at nytimes.com > Date: Tue, Feb 6, 2024 at 3:16 PM Subject: Climate: Europe struggles to balance climate and farming To: < jmcext at umass.edu > Dozens of protests forced the E.U. to back down. All Newsletters Read online For subscribers February 6, 2024 SUPPORTED BY LIFESTRAW Farmers blocking a highway near Mollerussa, Spain, on Tuesday. Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press Europe struggles to balance climate and farming By Manuela Andreoni Senior Newsletter Writer, Climate European farmers are angry, and much of their ire is directed at ambitious environmental policies that are part of the European Union?s Green Deal. Since the beginning of this year, thousands of farmers have protested in dozens of cities across Europe , putting intense pressure on politicians ahead of elections for the European Parliament later this year. Most farmers are not denying the need to address climate change and biodiversity loss. They are seeking help to cope with higher temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme weather events that have wreaked havoc on olive trees , grape vines and other crops. But many are also angry about plans to cut subsidies on diesel, implement requirements to restore native ecosystems and block some pesticide use. Farmers are also upset with trade policies that force them to compete with farmers in Ukraine and South America. Bending to farmers? demands, the European Commission today scrapped its ambitious bill to reduce the use of chemical pesticides and softened its recommendations on cutting agricultural pollution. ?We want to make sure that in this process, the farmers remain in the driving seat,? said Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union?s top official. ?Only if our farmers can live off the land will they invest in the future. And only if we achieve our climate and environmental goals together will farmers be able to continue to make a living.? According to my colleagues Somini Sengupta and Monika Pronczuk , the protests are a harbinger of a bigger challenge: How to grow food without further wrecking Earth?s climate and biodiversity. Treating symptoms, not causes Like agriculture workers across the world, European farmers are burdened by inflation and debt. Many also believe that they have too little control over the prices of their own products, which are influenced by what the big companies that sell or process the products are willing to pay. It?s often easier to roll back or delay what seem like burdensome environmental policies than to transform the power dynamics of the current food system, according to Sophia Murphy, the executive director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minnesota-based research and advocacy nonprofit. And remaking the global food system for an era of higher temperatures and net-zero emissions is a daunting problem. ?There is a big challenge in how to address those grievances and design a food production system that will feed people and at the same time not be detrimental to the environment,? my colleague Monika, who covers the E.U., told me. ?What the farmers I have spoken to have told me is that the burden and the cost of fighting climate change should be shared more evenly,? she added. The far-right threat Europe?s path forward on climate change is hanging by a delicate political thread. If policymakers pushed too far on initiatives to protect biodiversity and combat climate change, especially without involving farmers in the decision-making process, it could empower far-right populists who want to reverse such policies. In France, Germany and the Netherlands , the discontent among farmers is already fueling far-right movements. Though farmers? unions in France have varied political views, the far right is eager to capitalize on the recent protests, according to Aurelien Breeden, a Times reporter who covers France. ?The protests play into this idea of a more rural, forgotten France where people feel ignored by bureaucratic elites,? he told me. ?That?s a classic far-right populist talking point.? Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM LIFESTRAW It?s Time for a Better Water Filter Meet LifeStraw Home, the sleek kitchen upgrade you?ll wish you?d made years ago. It's the only water filter that removes microplastics, bacteria, lead, PFAS, and 30+ contaminants?and dramatically improves the taste of tap water. LifeStraw Home boasts an award-winning Danish design with unique dual filtration. And LifeStraw is a certified B Corp with a give-back program that provides millions of children with safe water. Say goodbye to your grimy old water filter. It?s time for an upgrade. Learn More The Caribbean, seen from the International Space Station. Sponges collected deep below the surface carry chemical imprints that reflect historical water temperatures. NASA A dire warning from spongy sea creatures Humans may have warmed the planet by even more than initially thought, scientists learned from an unusual source: six sea sponges that have been living in the Caribbean for centuries. Networks of satellites and sensors have measured the rising temperatures in recent decades with great precision. But scientists typically combined this data with 19th-century thermometer readings that were often spotty and inexact. That?s where the sponges come in. The heroes of a new study published this week are a long-lived type of sponge called sclerosponges. They are small and round, about the size of a grapefruit. They dwell in deep, dimly lit undersea nooks and niches. And they grow extremely slowly in a process that leaves chemical fingerprints of the temperature of the waters that wash around them. By examining the chemical composition of their skeletons, which the creatures built up steadily over centuries, the study?s authors have pieced together a new history of those earliest decades of warming. It points to a startling conclusion: Humans have raised global temperatures by a total of about 1.7 degrees Celsius, or 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit, not 1.2 degrees Celsius, which is the most commonly used value. The research adds to other evidence suggesting that societies started warming the planet earlier than 19th-century temperature records indicate. But the study?s implications aren?t straightforward, said Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who wasn?t involved in the research. Global targets to curb warming focus on how much worse the effects of global warming will get compared with conditions between 1986 and 2005, Rogelj said. Revised temperature estimates for the 19th century wouldn?t necessarily change our understanding of whether key guardrails had been breached. ? Raymond Zhong Read the full article here. OTHER CLIMATE NEWS Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times The Fingerprints on Chile?s Fires and California Floods: El Ni?o and Warming Two disasters, far apart, show how a dangerous climate cocktail can devastate places known for mild weather. By Somini Sengupta The New York Times See Where Heavy Rainfall Deluged California Heavy rainfall pounded Southern California and much of the state on Monday, flooding roads and causing dangerous landslides. By Leanne Abraham, Zach Levitt and Elena Shao The New York Times How the U.S. Became the World?s Biggest Gas Supplier The stunning rise of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports in the last decade has reshaped global markets and triggered pushback from environmentalists. By Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich Hasan Jamali/Associated Press Two Climate Advisers Quit U.S. Export-Import Bank Over Fossil Fuel Plans The bank is set to vote Thursday on financing an oil project in Bahrain, the latest in a string of overseas fossil fuel projects. By Lisa Friedman and Hiroko Tabuchi Rory Doyle for The New York Times Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine Pushed by an advocacy group, Arkansas became the first state to shield noisy cryptocurrency operators from unhappy neighbors. A furious backlash has some lawmakers considering a statewide ban. By Gabriel J.X. Dance Tom Brenner/Reuters Bank of America Pledged to Stop Financing Coal. Now It?s Backtracking. The changes come as Republican lawmakers step up efforts to punish businesses that consider climate change and the environment in their operations. By Hiroko Tabuchi Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images The Changing Focus of Climate Denial: From Science to Scientists The scientist Michael Mann is challenging attacks on his work in a defamation suit that?s taken 12 years to come to trial. By Delger Erdenesanaa Correction: Last week?s newsletter identified $21.7 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act available to coastal cities. That figure also includes funds available in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Thanks for being a subscriber. Read past editions of the newsletter here . If you?re enjoying what you?re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here . Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here . Reach us at climateforward at nytimes.com . We read every message, and reply to many! Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Climate Forward from The New York Times. To stop receiving Climate Forward, unsubscribe . To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings . To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request . Explore more subscriber-only newsletters. Get The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your Email Privacy Policy Contact Us California Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018 -- JMCEXTMAN (aka Jon Clements) Extension Tree Fruit Specialist UMass Cold Spring Orchard 393 Sabin Street Belchertown, MA 01007 413.478.7219 http://umassfruit.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Con.Traas at ul.ie Tue Feb 6 17:11:27 2024 From: Con.Traas at ul.ie (Con.Traas) Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2024 22:11:27 +0000 Subject: [apple-crop-2] Fwd: Climate: Europe struggles to balance climate and farming In-Reply-To: References:

Message-ID: Hello John and everyone, It's great to see the apple crop list still having the occasional function. Greetings from Europe, and more precisely, Ireland. The topic of farmer protests in various EU (and other European) countries takes a fair bit of teasing apart to begin to get the complex range of problems, grievances, and motivations. On the plus side, there is a lot of agreement between farm sectors, and farmers of different sizes. Organic farmers, fruit & vegetable producers, crop farmers and livestock & dairy farmers all have problems. This is why the protests are having an effect. Politicians are finding producers from all sides coming at them with problems, and so they realise there might actually be a problem. On the down side, everyone has a different problem. In the Netherlands it's mostly the changing nitrates regulations, due to diminishing water quality (there's some of this here in Ireland too). In Germany it was the loss of cheaper agri-diesel and tax breaks, due to a general budgetary problem in the wider economy. These are seen as negative aspects of becoming more environmentally sustainable, and environmentalists and farmers tend to disagree. On the other hand, in Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Poland etc), it's the cheaper imports of Ukranian grain, a necessity forced upon Ukraine due to lack of other accessible markets after the Russian invasion. In France it's over-regulation, with multiple agencies often visiting farms for various inspections within a single year. And across the EU it's trade deals like Mercosur, which swap access to Brazil for BMW's from Germany, for access for beef from newly-felled rainforest to the EU in return. This is where the environmentalists and farmers agree. Another cross-EU problem is the higher interest rates, affecting farmers who took on extra debt to increase their output, at the behest of governments who now are reversing position, as they failed to predict the obvious; that increased output has negative environmental consequences. It's true that the EU commission today dropped plans on reduction of pesticides, but this had all but been shelved already, having failed to get through the EU parliament. It suits to give a concession that was all but lost. The only over-arching solution will be increased prices for farmers, as for many sectors the subsidies are relatively small, and don't make up for poor market prices. This is agreed by all farmers, who are asking to "farm with dignity" again. However, this is extremely unpalatable to politicians, whose main focus when it comes to food is to have food (even food of good quality) available at low consumer prices. If I may illustrate it with apple prices today. The ex packhouse price of Extra Fancy Red Prince apples 64 count (we call them Extra Class 85mm) is equivalent to $12 to $15, which needless to say is a loss making proposition. In relation to the far-right, there have been political opportunists attempting to take advantage of farmer discontent, and there is a small cohort of farmers who are comfortable with that. However, the main organisations (and bearing in mind that these organisations are generally conservatively minded) have steered themselves and their members well clear of far-right association, which to my mind is very hopeful. Lastly, and to the other point in the article. Farmers here are definitely conscious of being on the front-line of dealing with climate change. Crop failures will be the first sign to a lot of the public that climatic changes bring problems. They're also aware of the targets they must meet in emissions reductions, as well as in preservation of biodiversity. Reducing emissions and reducing pollution costs money, and that's exactly what they are getting less and less of. And all the while they're watching the airlines add new routes, airports building new runways, cars manufacturers selling ever-larger models, and an EU which is more than happy to import lower cost food from other jurisdictions where the same standards are not applied to the producers. It would be enough to make you blow a fuse. Which is exactly what happened. Being an optimist, I think this will all end well, but maybe not for the best of reasons. Food prices will rise, not because politicians or consumers like that, but because production will fall. That may be through lower yields (environmental regulation), less land being farmed (loss-making enterprises will turn to forestry for example), less farmers (it's getting harder to find young ones), or if things go bad, climate-induced problems such as drought, flood, fire etc. I can't be the only one expecting these changes, judging by the amount of corporate money being invested in farmland the past few years. Best wishes, Con Traas ________________________________ From: apple-crop-bounces at virtualorchard.com on behalf of Jon Clements Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 8:29 PM To: apple-crop at virtualorchard.com Subject: [apple-crop-2] Fwd: Climate: Europe struggles to balance climate and farming CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the University of Limerick. Do not click on links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender's email address and know the content is safe. In response to Art's previous message, both, I suppose. More on the subject below... Jon Begin forwarded message: From: Jon Clements Subject: Fwd: Climate: Europe struggles to balance climate and farming Date: Feb 6, 2024 at 3:28 PM To: mrliberty at me.com ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: The New York Times > Date: Tue, Feb 6, 2024 at 3:16?PM Subject: Climate: Europe struggles to balance climate and farming To: > Dozens of protests forced the E.U. to back down. All Newsletters Read online [New York Times logo] [Climate Forward] For subscribers February 6, 2024 SUPPORTED BY LIFESTRAW [A long line of tractors occupy a highway while small fires burn nearby.] Farmers blocking a highway near Mollerussa, Spain, on Tuesday. Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press Europe struggles to balance climate and farming [Author Headshot] By Manuela Andreoni Senior Newsletter Writer, Climate European farmers are angry, and much of their ire is directed at ambitious environmental policies that are part of the European Union?s Green Deal. Since the beginning of this year, thousands of farmers have protested in dozens of cities across Europe, putting intense pressure on politicians ahead of elections for the European Parliament later this year. Most farmers are not denying the need to address climate change and biodiversity loss. They are seeking help to cope with higher temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme weather events that have wreaked havoc on olive trees, grape vines and other crops. But many are also angry about plans to cut subsidies on diesel, implement requirements to restore native ecosystems and block some pesticide use. Farmers are also upset with trade policies that force them to compete with farmers in Ukraine and South America. Bending to farmers? demands, the European Commission today scrapped its ambitious bill to reduce the use of chemical pesticides and softened its recommendations on cutting agricultural pollution. ?We want to make sure that in this process, the farmers remain in the driving seat,? said Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union?s top official. ?Only if our farmers can live off the land will they invest in the future. And only if we achieve our climate and environmental goals together will farmers be able to continue to make a living.? According to my colleagues Somini Sengupta and Monika Pronczuk, the protests are a harbinger of a bigger challenge: How to grow food without further wrecking Earth?s climate and biodiversity. Treating symptoms, not causes Like agriculture workers across the world, European farmers are burdened by inflation and debt. Many also believe that they have too little control over the prices of their own products, which are influenced by what the big companies that sell or process the products are willing to pay. It?s often easier to roll back or delay what seem like burdensome environmental policies than to transform the power dynamics of the current food system, according to Sophia Murphy, the executive director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minnesota-based research and advocacy nonprofit. And remaking the global food system for an era of higher temperatures and net-zero emissions is a daunting problem. ?There is a big challenge in how to address those grievances and design a food production system that will feed people and at the same time not be detrimental to the environment,? my colleague Monika, who covers the E.U., told me. ?What the farmers I have spoken to have told me is that the burden and the cost of fighting climate change should be shared more evenly,? she added. The far-right threat Europe?s path forward on climate change is hanging by a delicate political thread. If policymakers pushed too far on initiatives to protect biodiversity and combat climate change, especially without involving farmers in the decision-making process, it could empower far-right populists who want to reverse such policies. In France, Germany and the Netherlands, the discontent among farmers is already fueling far-right movements. Though farmers? unions in France have varied political views, the far right is eager to capitalize on the recent protests, according to Aurelien Breeden, a Times reporter who covers France. ?The protests play into this idea of a more rural, forgotten France where people feel ignored by bureaucratic elites,? he told me. ?That?s a classic far-right populist talking point.? Continue reading the main story A MESSAGE FROM LIFESTRAW It?s Time for a Better Water Filter Meet LifeStraw Home, the sleek kitchen upgrade you?ll wish you?d made years ago. It's the only water filter that removes microplastics, bacteria, lead, PFAS, and 30+ contaminants?and dramatically improves the taste of tap water. LifeStraw Home boasts an award-winning Danish design with unique dual filtration. And LifeStraw is a certified B Corp with a give-back program that provides millions of children with safe water. Say goodbye to your grimy old water filter. It?s time for an upgrade. Learn More [LIFESTRAW Logo] [A view from space of blue ocean with white clouds scattered in the sky.] The Caribbean, seen from the International Space Station. Sponges collected deep below the surface carry chemical imprints that reflect historical water temperatures. NASA A dire warning from spongy sea creatures Humans may have warmed the planet by even more than initially thought, scientists learned from an unusual source: six sea sponges that have been living in the Caribbean for centuries. Networks of satellites and sensors have measured the rising temperatures in recent decades with great precision. But scientists typically combined this data with 19th-century thermometer readings that were often spotty and inexact. That?s where the sponges come in. The heroes of a new study published this week are a long-lived type of sponge called sclerosponges. They are small and round, about the size of a grapefruit. They dwell in deep, dimly lit undersea nooks and niches. And they grow extremely slowly in a process that leaves chemical fingerprints of the temperature of the waters that wash around them. By examining the chemical composition of their skeletons, which the creatures built up steadily over centuries, the study?s authors have pieced together a new history of those earliest decades of warming. It points to a startling conclusion: Humans have raised global temperatures by a total of about 1.7 degrees Celsius, or 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit, not 1.2 degrees Celsius, which is the most commonly used value. The research adds to other evidence suggesting that societies started warming the planet earlier than 19th-century temperature records indicate. But the study?s implications aren?t straightforward, said Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who wasn?t involved in the research. Global targets to curb warming focus on how much worse the effects of global warming will get compared with conditions between 1986 and 2005, Rogelj said. Revised temperature estimates for the 19th century wouldn?t necessarily change our understanding of whether key guardrails had been breached. ? Raymond Zhong Read the full article here. OTHER CLIMATE NEWS [A person holding an umbrella stands on a concrete footpath overlooking a muddy, raging river below.] Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times The Fingerprints on Chile?s Fires and California Floods: El Ni?o and Warming Two disasters, far apart, show how a dangerous climate cocktail can devastate places known for mild weather. By Somini Sengupta [Article Image] The New York Times See Where Heavy Rainfall Deluged California Heavy rainfall pounded Southern California and much of the state on Monday, flooding roads and causing dangerous landslides. By Leanne Abraham, Zach Levitt and Elena Shao [Article Image] The New York Times How the U.S. Became the World?s Biggest Gas Supplier The stunning rise of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports in the last decade has reshaped global markets and triggered pushback from environmentalists. By Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich [An oil pump is silhouetted in a sunny yellow sky.] Hasan Jamali/Associated Press Two Climate Advisers Quit U.S. Export-Import Bank Over Fossil Fuel Plans The bank is set to vote Thursday on financing an oil project in Bahrain, the latest in a string of overseas fossil fuel projects. By Lisa Friedman and Hiroko Tabuchi [Article Image] Rory Doyle for The New York Times Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine Pushed by an advocacy group, Arkansas became the first state to shield noisy cryptocurrency operators from unhappy neighbors. A furious backlash has some lawmakers considering a statewide ban. By Gabriel J.X. Dance [Three people stand on a street corner in front of a bank building holding red-and-black signs that read in part, ?Boycott Banks Destroying the Planet.?] Tom Brenner/Reuters Bank of America Pledged to Stop Financing Coal. Now It?s Backtracking. The changes come as Republican lawmakers step up efforts to punish businesses that consider climate change and the environment in their operations. By Hiroko Tabuchi [A man with a goatee in a light brown suit holds a microphone while standing in front of a dark gray backdrop.] Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images The Changing Focus of Climate Denial: From Science to Scientists The scientist Michael Mann is challenging attacks on his work in a defamation suit that?s taken 12 years to come to trial. By Delger Erdenesanaa Correction: Last week?s newsletter identified $21.7 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act available to coastal cities. That figure also includes funds available in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Thanks for being a subscriber. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you?re enjoying what you?re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Browse all of our subscriber-only newsletters here. Reach us at climateforward at nytimes.com. We read every message, and reply to many! [An illustration of wavy bands, as if on a chart. The ones at the bottom are cooler blues. Moving up, the colors shift from greens to warmer oranges and, finally, to reds.] Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Climate Forward from The New York Times. To stop receiving Climate Forward, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Explore more subscriber-only newsletters.Get The New York Times app Connect with us on: [twitter] Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018 -- JMCEXTMAN (aka Jon Clements) Extension Tree Fruit Specialist UMass Cold Spring Orchard 393 Sabin Street Belchertown, MA 01007 413.478.7219 http://umassfruit.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: