Well, there’s two I’m concerned about. Not that any of this is real
Climate change is threatening ketchup, salsa, and California
One-fourth of total tomatoes grown every year on our planet comes from California, but now tomato production is decreasing in the state at an unprecedented rate. The yield of tomatoes dropped by about 23% in 2021 as compared to the year 2015. Plus, the limited supply of tomatoes is further causing a never before seen jump in the prices of popular tomato-based products like ketchup, salsa, and pasta sauce in the US and elsewhere in the world.
The average retail price of tomatoes has grown by 13% to 23% in the US, substantially more than the current rate of food inflation in the US which is at its peak this year and it is likely to stay between 9% to 11%, according to the US Department of Agriculture. In other words, tomato inflation is much larger than money inflation.
Part of it is simply mismanagement of water resources, because Democrats are incompetent. Fortunately, we can grow tomatoes elsewhere. Give me Jersey tomatoes for gardens and small farms any day (if you want really, really good tomatoes, try them (and the corn) when you’re there. I promise they are the best. Also, The Jersey Tomato Company pasta sauce is The Best). Most of the tomatoes I get locally are produced here in NC.
Tomatoes are no ordinary vegetables, they are the second most consumed vegetable in the US after potatoes (yes, technically, it’s a fruit, but this is not the point). The ketchup market alone was valued at 1.39 billion dollars in 2021 across North America. Even if we forget tomatoes, ketchup, and the numbers mentioned above, salsa and other sauces are dependent on tomatoes; truth be told, we couldn’t really imagine many of our meals without the humble tomato.
Not sure about you, but, I can’t. If I buy a cesear salad or some other that doesn’t have tomatoes, I will buy some grape tomatoes or small slicing ones. I refuse to have a salad without them. I don’t blame any issues on man-induced climate change doom. Things change, and, you adapt.
In an interview with Bloomberg, CTGA (California Tomato Growers Association) president, Mike Montana commented on the difficulties on growing tomatoes nowadays:
“It’s real tough to grow a tomato crop right now. On one side you have the drought impacting costs because you don’t have enough water to grow all your acres, and then you have the farm inflation side of it with fuel and fertilizer costs shooting up.”
Hmm, so, the other half is incompetent government on the fuel side and restrictive government on the fertilizer side.
The problem in California is not the falling tomato production itself but the high temperatures that are drying water reservoirs and making it difficult for the farmers to water large farmlands. Although the state is known for its tomato yield, this is not the only crop that has been affected by the drought and increasing temperature.
The average California temperature is not that much higher than it was in 1900, a couple of degrees to 3 degrees. Take out the urbanization, heat island effect, land use changes, and it drops back down. You should expect this during a Holocene warm period. Just like the French had a huge problem growing wheat during the Little Ice Age (that’s really what the whole “let them eat cake” thing was about) and wanted everyone to eat potatoes, because they are hardy, and easier to grow than many other veggies.
One can imagine the water crisis in the state from the fact that in April, local authorities had to ask residents and businesses in the southern California region to cut down their water usage by 35%. However, the government officials have realized the problem, and they are already making billion-dollar investments to improve the water infrastructure, develop new reservoirs, and implement innovations that could provide some relief in times of water supply shortage.
Perhaps the state can force all the Elites to stop watering their expansive 1%er lawns.
Read: ZOMG: Hotcoldwetdry Threatens Ketchup, Salsa, And California »