Welcome to

ePeach.com

2009

Old man winter did it again!

Just as the sun was rising on the morning of April 7th here in Fredericksburg Texas, the air temperature bottomed at 29 degrees Fahrenheit. Peaches should be able to resist frost damage to temperatures as low as 26.5 degrees Fahrenheit. But the blossoms froze and the minuscule peaches inside have since turned black.

Spring came earlier to the Hill Country, as it has been doing frequently as the climate has warmed. The early warm temperatures trigger vegetation to come out of dormancy. Fruit trees flowered early, and then the frost killed them.

The lead author of a climate study conducted by Oak Ridge Laboratory and published in Bioscience said this, "The warm weather was as much a culprit for the damage as the cold, we see the paradox in that mild winters and warm, early springs make the plants particularly vulnerable to late-season frosts."

Link to study:  http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/resources/Gu.pdf

The campaign slogan “Time for Change” is jarringly ironic. Though peaches have been grown in the Hill Country for over six generations, the weather has changed just enough to make peach orchards impractical if not impossible. Growers will have no choice but to bulldoze under the fruitless trees and find a substitute crop, or give up raising food altogether.

The Department of Agriculture has not had the money to conduct studies on how to feed the rapidly expanding US population, replace the aging staff of Ag Extension Agents as they retire, or fund research and education at the few remaining agricultural departments at our Universities. Much less, fund or train growers to adapt to the change in weather that is destroying crops in endemic proportions.

Only 15% of the US Department of Agriculture budget goes into farming while 63% of the money is paid out in the form of “Food Stamps”. The US Department of Agriculture will spend $60 billion on welfare in 2009, or triple the total US Department of Welfare budget.

It is time to change the US Department of Agriculture back to a broad based advocate of science, conservation and education. It’s time the US Congress be admonished for the deceitful practice of concealing the true cost of welfare programs by burying it in other departments.

Once the “Bread Basket of the World”, now America imports more than 50% of fresh produce and fruits. The total number of farmers in the US is less than the number of prisoners in it's jails. This is an unacceptable direction heading toward even more foreign dependence and less self reliance.

Cutting off foreign oil would cripple our Country. Cutting off foreign food could kill it.

Tell your US Representative, that we demand better funding in Agriculture and Education and that we will never accept relying on other Countries for our food.

Link: Find Your Representative