Growers in California harvested a record crop of tomatoes for processing, the thick-skinned varieties used in making soup and pasta sauces, says Bloomberg. It cites an estimate from the California Tomato Growers Association, a trade group, of a crop of 14 million tons, up 16 percent from last year. Processors paid a record $83 a ton. According to the trade group, California grows 95 percent of processing tomatoes in the nation.
Aaron Barcellos, a grower in the Central Valley, told Bloomberg that market prices for tomatoes were high enough that farmers were willing to devote their limited supply of water to tomatoes rather than other crops. Irrigation water was in short supply due to three years in a row of drought in California. Some farmers have compensated by drilling deeper and deeper wells.
By raising water prices, the drought is discouraging avocado production in California, says Taking Part. Higher fertilizer prices and low-priced imports also hurt. Growers are experimenting with ways to grow more avocados while using less water; one technique is to plant trees closer together.
Climate modeling by the U.S. Geological Survey and Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows that warmer temperatures in the future would reduce the snowpack on California’s mountains, the largest source of fresh water in the state, says the Sacramento Bee. The size of the snowpack could shrink by one-third by 2050 and by two-thirds by 2100, “potentially making droughts an ever-present condition,” says the Bee.