More Rain On The Way To Midwest - Substantial T-Storm, Flooding Risk MO, KS, IA, OK, NY

[hatrack]

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[global1]

1. What Is Causing This Rainy Weather Pattern?.......

Is this something we'll have to live with all through summer or is there an end in sight to all this rain. I can't remember a rainier spring than this. What is happening? What do the weather experts say?

[hatrack]

3. Stuck jet stream, more or less . . . .

.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. It's Central and Western NJ

We are in the bullseye. The rain the past month is penance for dodging all of the storms in the coastline this past winter. I live ten minutes from the PA border and commute to Secaucus. The number of times I drove out of a storm (ice, rain, snow mix) to the sun setting this past winter.. .

Opposite the past month and this week. I drive into the sun in the morning and leave dark clouds behind.

[MuseRider]

4. I live near Topeka

and the paper said today that we are just under 10 inches for the month. I don't think my farm had that much all year last year. All that means dry topsoil flooded away on planting ground. Thankfully I grow grass hay so we are sitting pretty right now.

We are drenched here and we are not the areas with the most rain. I have friends who cannot get back to their farms and homes because all the roads are washed out and we have parts of highways underwater for periods of time that will only get longer the more rain. It is the same in many of the plains states, some are much worse.

The worst part is that last year broke a lot of farmers with the drought. Around here you could drive for miles and see nothing but dead corn, it was like a scene from a scary movie. This year we are pushed right up against seeding time. They cannot get in their fields and even if they could and planted this much moisture all at once will lift the seeds and float them away. Add that to the tariff debacle and I just do not know what will happen. I DO know we have to start farming responsibly. Even the farmers I know who do farm responsibly are still stuck with planting the only seed available to them that actually require them to not be responsible.

Because I feel required to post this, not all farmers and ranchers are Republicans. I know quite a few farmers who are as left as I am and maybe more, many of whom are women with large farms they manage alone very well. There are all kinds of farmers here, most small because of the buying of land for the corps but they are not all Republicans.

[Ghost Dog]

5. "stuck with planting the only seed available"

How is this?

[MuseRider]

8. You can no longer save seed for planting.

They used to grow a crop to sell and a crop to seed with the next year. Once the big farm corps got rolling they were not allowed to use their own seed and the crops that are grown from the corp seed will not reseed. So they have to buy from the corporate seed companies and cannot use their own. Have you ever wondered why all crops are the exact same height with the exact same growth at the same time? It did not used to be that way.

Is that what you meant?

From Wikipedia

"In the United States, the farmer's privilege to save seeds to grow subsequent crops was considered protected by the Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970. American farmers, it was thought, could sell seed up to the amount saved for replanting their own acreage.[5][6]

That view came to an end in the latter part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st century, with changes in technology and law. First, in 1981 Diamond v. Chakrabarty established that companies may obtain patents for life-forms—originally genetically engineered unicellular bacteria.[7] In 2002 J.E.M. Ag Supply v. Pioneer established that valid utility patents could be issued on sexually reproduced plants, such as seed crops (e.g., corn).[8][9] In 2013 Bowman v. Monsanto Co. established that it was patent infringement for farmers to save crop seeds (soybeans in that case) and grow subsequent crops from them, if the seeds or plants were patented. Seed corporations are able to earn massive profits from this control over commercial seed supplies, and consequently further loss of control has been taken from US farmers over their farm production process. [10]"

[Ghost Dog]

9. But are there no seed banks for organic farmers

conserving ancestral non-patentrd seeds?

[MuseRider]

10. We are talking seeds for farms.

Acres and acres of farmland. You cannot buy enough seed for that nor could anyone afford this. Farmers are checked, they are not just out on their own. Their crops come in and if they are different or at a different time that everyone elses then they are in trouble. It is not possible to buy organic seed from seed savers if you are planting 100 acres of corn. Think about this. I have only basic knowledge of all of this since my crop is grass and not subject to seed laws. We are having a tornado warning just now so whatever your questions are you can find the answers online. I am headed down to the basement.

[Ghost Dog]

11. I get it. Good luck!

[Bayard]

6. We actually need rain here in southern KY

We've had a few little thunderstorms that last about 5 minutes. Not enough to soak the ground.

[The_jackalope]

7. Global food crisis ahead

It’s not just happening in the USA. Extreme weather events are devastating crops and thus the food business around the world. From Australia to North Korea and Argentina here are the latest reports of food shortage around the world.

Global food crisis ahead as extreme weather events devastate crops and fields around the world

· Australia imports wheat for first time in over a decade after worst drought in 116 years
· Floods, hail and bad weather affect fruits and vegetables in Italy
· Planting in France slowed down by extreme cold temperatures
· Severe drought devastates crops in Yucatan, Mexico
· Lowest rainfall in 100 years leaves millions at risk of starvation in North Korea
· Spring’s record-late arrival in parts of the U.S. has catastrophic consequences for food industry
· Cracks are appearing in the edifice of modern agriculture: Australia’s biggest grain producer’s revenue collapses after horrific crop losses
· Floods leave 600 000 ha (1.5 million acres) of crops damaged in Argentina

And it's only going to get worse over the long haul.
May you live in interesting times...