The Drought Of 2021

The Apocalyptic Drought In The Western U.S. Is Causing Widespread Crop Failures On A Massive Scale

At a time when food prices are already rising aggressively, agricultural production in the United States is being absolutely devastated by a drought that many are calling “the worst” in American history.  Once again this week, the latest U.S. Drought Monitor map has extremely bad news for us.  In all the years that I have been writing, we have never experienced anything like we are experiencing right now.  As I write this article, 100% of the state of California is in a state of drought, and you should care very much about that because California produces about a third of our vegetables and about two-thirds of our fruits and nuts.  Of course it is not just California that is facing an unprecedented nightmare right now.  At this point, drought is covering more territory in our western states than we have ever seen before…

Record-high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest and other parts of the West Coast along with prolonged drought in those areas and the Upper Midwest are stressing crops and livestock and raising concerns about irrigation supplies as conditions persist.

The US Drought Monitor as of July 13 showed 100% of all states west of the Rocky Mountains and most of the Upper Midwest region in some level of drought. California, Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, Utah and North Dakota were nearly 100% severe drought or worse (with extreme and exceptional the most severe). Washington, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, New Mexico, most of Wyoming and western Colorado all were in moderate or worse drought.

2020 was a bad year, but at this time last year only about 20 percent of the West was experiencing “severe drought”.

Today, that number is up to 80 percent…

Nearly 80% of the West, including North and South Dakota, is in severe drought. That percentage is even more staggering when compared to the 20% of the region that fell into the severe drought range this time last year.

Let that number sink in for a moment.

This is a historic disaster of epic proportions, and it is starting to have a dramatic impact on agricultural production.

For example, the amount of spring wheat is projected to be 41 percent below the level that we witnessed in 2020…

The USDA’s initial spring wheat other than durum production forecast for 2021 was 344,575,000 bus, down 41% from 2020 and the lowest since 205,460,000 bus in 1988. Average yield was forecast at 30.7 bus an acre, down 37% from 2020 and the lowest since 2002. Although 2021 spring wheat planted area was down 5.5% from 2020, harvested area was down 7%, suggesting a larger number of abandoned acres.

Other crops are being hit even harder.

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. oat crop will be the smallest that we have seen since records began in 1866.

That isn’t a typo, and I didn’t mean to say “1966”.

For thousands upon thousands of U.S. farmers, 2021 is going to be an absolutely disastrous year with very little production at all.  At one farm in Minnesota, the owner is estimating that he “will not be able to harvest hardly anything” from the 2,500 acres of corn that he planted…

At Schiefelbein Farms, the hayfield should be knee-high by this time of year. Instead, it’s sparse and barely ankle-high.

Schiefelbein estimates they have about 75% less hay this year. Out of their 2,500 acres of corn, they will not be able to harvest hardly anything.

So what are we going to do if there is not enough food to go around?

You might want to start thinking about that.

Up in Canada, farmers are saying that the unprecedented “heat dome” that we just witnessed literally “cooked” a lot of the fruit while it was still on the branches…

Fruit growers in the province of British Columbia (BC) said the heatwave reportedly “cooked” fruits while still on the branch. BC Fruit Growers Association (BCFGA) President and orchardist Pinder Dhaliwal told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: “It seems like somebody took a blowtorch to [the fruit] and just singed it.” He described the cherries affected by the heatwave: They became brown in color, with burnt leaves and dry stems.

According to Dhaliwal, 50 to 70 percent of cherry crops were damaged in the heatwave. He added that apples, apricots and other stone fruits also reported damage – albeit to a lesser degree. “The overall financial impact is going to be great on the farmers,” Dhaliwal said.

But the corporate media is telling us that everything is going to be just wonderful, and so we should probably just stick our heads in the sand and ignore this sort of thing.

Personally, I don’t understand why the federal government is not taking action.  As global weather patterns go completely nuts, other national governments are starting to step up to the plate.  For example, just check out what has been happening in Dubai…

As mother nature hasn’t helped till now, Dubai has come up with its very own way to create rain as it grapples with a 50C heatwave.

The city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has come up with drone technology that “shocks” clouds into producing rain.

It is part of multi-million efforts to tackle the blistering weather and bring up the meagre average of just four inches of rainfall a year in the Middle Eastern country.

We have similar technology.

So why aren’t we using it?

Somebody needs to ask the Biden administration that question.

As it stands, we are heading into a real nightmare.  Food prices have already been getting very painful, and a billionaire that is in the food business just told Fox Business that he is expecting “10% to 14% food inflation by October”…

Businessman John Catsimatidis expects 10% to 14% food inflation by October.

Catsimatidis — the owner and CEO of Manhattan-based grocery chain Gristedes Foods — told Fox Business that Americans can expect higher prices for basic expenses in the coming months.

“We’re both in the food business, and we’re in the oil business. Food prices are getting higher, and we expect even more increases by October,” he said. “We’re seeing anywhere from 10% to 14% by October 1. It’s a real number.”

I think that he is right on the money, but this is just the beginning.  There will be much more pain in 2022 and beyond.

Food prices are never going to be lower than they are right now, and so if you can afford to stock up I would strongly recommend doing so.

Scientists are assuring us that we are in a multi-year “megadrought”, and they are telling us that there is no end in sight at this point.

This is an absolutely huge story, and unfortunately we are still only in the very early chapters.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five others that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

Ranchers Sell Off Cattle And Farmers Idle Hundreds Of Thousands Of Acres As America’s Drought Emergency Escalates

In my entire lifetime, this is the worst that drought conditions have ever been in the western half of the country.  During the past 20 years, the amount of territory in the West considered to be suffering from exceptional drought has never gone higher than 11 percent until now.  Today, that number is sitting at 27 percent.  The term “mega-drought” is being thrown around a lot these days to describe what is happening, but this isn’t just a drought.  This is a true national emergency, and it is really starting to affect our food supply.

Just look at what is happening up in North Dakota.  The vast majority of the state is either in the worst level of drought or the second worst level of drought, and ranchers are auctioning off their cattle by the thousands…

“Normally this time of the year, we’re probably looking at 400-600 head and a lot of times would be every other week,” said former auctioneer Ron Torgerson.

On Sunday and Monday, more than 4,200 head of cattle were sold at Rugby Livestock and Auction.

Needless to say, ranchers in North Dakota don’t want to get rid of their cattle, but the drought has pushed prices for hay and corn so high that many of them simply have no choice.

One of those that has already been forced to sell a large number of cattle is rancher David Bohl…

As the drought continues, the price of hay and corn has gone way up. It’s more expensive for ranchers to try and supplement feed than it is to sell the cattle.

Bohl has already sold 200 of his head in the last month.

“Everybody is in the same situation, they’re going to have to sell probably 25 to 50% of them because there’s nowhere to go with them we just got no food to feed them,” Bohl said.

As cattle herds shrink all over the western half of the country, this is going to push beef prices significantly higher than they are right now.

And in many areas, they are already at ridiculous levels.

Meanwhile, the drought continues to push the water level in Lake Mead into the danger zone.  According to CBS News, Lake Mead will soon hit the “lowest level ever recorded”…

For more than eight decades, the iconic Hoover Dam has relied on water from Nevada’s Lake Mead to cover up its backside. But now, at age 85, it finds itself uncomfortably exposed. Much of the water the dam is supposed to be holding back is gone.

“This is like a different world,” said Pat Mulroy, the former head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. She told CBS News senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy that Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, is on track to soon hit its lowest level ever recorded.

Since the year 2000, the water level in Lake Mead has declined by a whopping 30 feet, and it is currently at just 37 percent of capacity.

The dam’s hydropower output has already been reduced by about 25 percent, and once the water level gets low enough it will stop producing electricity completely.

In addition, many farmers that rely on water from Lake Mead are facing a very uncertain future at this point…

For the first time ever, the federal government is expected to declare a water shortage on the lower Colorado River later this summer. That will force automatic cuts to the water supply for Nevada and Arizona starting in 2022. Homeowners have higher priority and, at first, won’t feel the pain as badly as farmers.

Dan Thelander is a second-generation family farmer in Arizona’s Pinal County. The water to grow his corn and alfalfa fields comes from Lake Mead. “If we don’t have irrigation water, we can’t farm,” he said. “So, next year we are going to get about 25% less water, means we’re going to have to fallow or not plant 25% of our land.”

Unless something changes, Thelander and other farmers in the region could potentially have all water cut off in 2023.

That is just two years away.

Of course there are many farmers in California that have already been informed that they will not be getting any water allocated to them at all here in 2021.  It is being projected that farmers in the state will not grow anything on 500,000 acres this year, and that is really bad news because California grows more than a third of our vegetables and two-thirds of our fruits and nuts…

Along with wildfire risks, short water supply is putting immense pressure on the state’s agricultural industry, which grows over a third of the country’s vegetables and supplies two-thirds of the fruits and nuts in the US. Already farmers are culling crops and fallowing fields in anticipation of water shortages. Karen Ross, California’s food and agriculture secretary, told the California Chamber of Commerce that she expected 500,000 acres would have to sit idle this year.

So what are we going to do if this mega-drought persists several more years and agricultural production in California is dramatically reduced for an extended period of time?

I am sure that some wise guy will post a comment after this article about importing more fruits and vegetables from South America, but South America is experiencing a historic drought too.

In fact, at this moment Brazil is experiencing the “worst drought in nearly a century”, and scientists are anticipating that it will not end any time soon.

Needless to say, the droughts that we are witnessing are setting the stage for many of the things that I have been warning about, and the future of agricultural production in the western hemisphere is looking quite bleak for the foreseeable future.

In the short-term, this crisis is going to result in substantially higher prices at the grocery store.  I know that grocery prices have already risen to painful levels, but the truth is that food prices will never be as low as they are right now.

So I am encouraging everyone to stock up while they still can.

As I have said so many times, we really struggle to feed everyone in the world during the best of years, and 2021 is definitely not one of the best of years.

Global food supplies are getting tighter and tighter, and this definitely has enormous implications for our future.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.