Bone dry

[matrixmann]

The first trees already start to wear their autumn foliage this year at the end of July.
Because of drought.

Comments

[matrixmann]

As far as I can grasp it, even now there are already problems for food items in terms of "what the big brands pay the producers in the second/third world for their wares" and what the products cost in the first world.
Biggest example, I guess, is coffee.
In the shelves here, they aren't seriously cheap, but within the countries who produce the coffee, the big firms from here try to get the price they pay lower and lower, so that, for example, an African peasant already must calculate if his business still is worth the effort.

Similar thing I have in mind when the home-grown foods start to get really scarce. With currencies like Euro and Dollar (whose value the West keeps artififically high through its own world-decisive bankining system that it controls itself), they buy the African and South-American markets empty, buy all the agricultural products the West needs for its market, or let it be grown there, and for the Africans there are neither products to eat nor space and land left to grow their food.
Additionally that they have to struggle with changing climate and effects of long-time exploited earth too...

You can see that here that they don't seem to give much a fuck about their home-grown food production.
Last year, there were many peasants which had incredible amounts of financial damage because the dryness killed a lot of what they planted, and already there they weren't generous with financial aid, so that the peasants don't close their businesses down in financial ruin. They tried to keep that help locked behind a lot of bureaucracy and offered just a relatively short time episode to actually apply for it.
This year, I don't think it'll be any different in practice.
But - compared to last year -, this one already starts with the damages left from 2018 (including emptier water depots in the earth). So that'll mean even more damage.
They didn't have a real strategy last year, so why should they have it for this one?
Agriculture gets regarded like something expendable here anyway because it doesn't generate as much money as heavy industries...