My local Wendy’s has a sign up saying tomatoes are scarce and will be offered only by request, and this is in California. So, this article by Marlo Lewis about sandwich shops in DC illustrates a nationwide effect. – Anthony
Can Tomatoes Take Any More Global Warming? By Marlo Lewis
Today, my friendly neighborhood Potbelly Sandwich Shop posted dozens of small flyers along the ordering line, asking: “Where are the tomatoes?” The flyer explained:
The recent cold weather across North America has had a severe impact on the availability, quality and cost of tomatoes.
Due to these factors, we will temporarily cease to offer tomatoes on your sandwhich. As soon as the tomato crop returns to normal we will add them back to your sandwiches.
We apologize for this inconvenience. We do not want to compromise on the quality or value of our sandwiches.
More evidence – if any were needed – that winter endangers public health and welfare. Tomatoes are a great source of anti-oxidents and other health-enhancing nutrients. And they are delish!
Besides ruining tomatoes, winter is strongly correlated with cold and flu. Winter can also cause or contribute to power outages, travel disruptions and delays, traffic accidents, and injuries from slipping on ice.
You’d think that by now global warming would have made harsh winter weather a thing of the past. Alas, no. Our tomatoes, and the health and welfare benefits they bring, are still endangered.
But be of good cheer. The carbon dioxide emissions allegedly responsible for Al Gore’s “planetary emergency” are helping tomatoes beef up. The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change maintains a database on field and laboratory experiments measuring plant growth response to CO2-enriched environments. Here’s the link for data on tomatoes.
A whopping 45 studies have examined the effects of CO2 enrichment on the garden tomato (lycopersicon eculentum). On average, garden tomatoes gain 32.
See the whole post here.
Joe D’Aleo writes:
Here is an approximate, preliminary look at the winter for the 90 days ending february 26, 2011. December/January was the coldest in Florida (winter vegetables) history and remember the frosts and freezes in California and south Texas.
I’ll have more on the tomatoes and cold story coming up, a story about Mexico – Anthony
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It has been plenty cold here — can’t seem to warm up these past weeks.
I sure wish there were some way we could warm up this planet . . .
[me] Takes a look out of his window and sees the mighty glare of the glass city in the nightsky to the north-west of me, one of the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world also known as “Westland” [/me]
Use googlemaps and zoom in on location 51.987555,4.191771
And they thrive on Gas, and the CO2 provided by the petrochemical industry to south just on the other side of the “Waterweg” canal.
Same in Vancouver Anthony. not only national, international. The only thing saving us is we have some of the worlds largest greenhouses, and tomatoes are one of their main crops.
Don’t know about the rest of Calif, but we planted only colder weather tomatoes last year, and had plenty.
The problem was not warming, but early falls and late springs.
Not expecting any warming anytime soon, either.
Yes, tomatoes do well at elevated CO2 levels as confirmed in this ABC Landline program.
The link is http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s2247329.htm. I quote,
“KERRY STAIGHT: The glasshouse runs on recycled waste water, which is cleaned up using reverse osmosis. Rainwater is also collected from the roof and recycled. Evaporative cooling keeps the temperatures in the low 20s, even during a baking South Australian summer, while the natural gas boiler takes the chill off things in winter.
The boiler produces another important ingredient: carbon dioxide, and plenty of it – more than seven million cubic metres a year. But the gas isn’t released. It’s captured and piped to the plants. And the glasshouse says that means the fruit is feasting on about four times more CO2 than what it would get if it was growing outside. “
Will this change the tipping point in restaurants?
I just assumed that tomatoes were coming from Argentina or somesuch this time of year, like the grapes.
I just ate an In n Out burger, and it had two surprisingly nice tomato slices on it. I guess the Great Tomato Dearth of 2011 hasn’t hit Elk Grove yet. 🙂
I guess we could get some help from Chile (pun intended). I hear they have tomatoes this time of year. I think you have to put them in a plane or on a ship though so never mind (carbon foot print issues 😉
@Al Gored Feb 28, 10:38 PM, no, it remains 15% to 20% if the service is good.
Will this finally bring to an end this serious threat?
Just goes to show there is a silver lining in every cloud.
Tomatoes responding to ‘global warming.’ Tomatoes trump computer models on warming feedback.
Another headline might read,’THE REVOLT OF TOMATOES TO THE GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE.”
But Al Gore told us the earth has a fever……
My son lives in Hobart Tazmania and reports snow fell on Mt. Wellington today.Early in the season for snow up there also Tazmania has had a cool wet summer. I didn’t ask about the tomatoes.
Back in the 80s I grew field tomatoes. In the 90s, they weren’t ripening until April (Southern Hemisphere), so I gave up and eventually, so did all the other field tomato growers in the valley. Nowadays, I grow tomatoes in a small greenhouse for our own use. Amish Paste. Yum 🙂
This year, the French beans cropped 3-4 weeks later than usual. If the warming is global, how come we never see any where I live? It’s sad really…
Typo alert:
“Tomatoes gain 32.”
That would be %, as opposed to oz. or in. or leaves.
And the table sez 32.6, which rounds to 33.
😉
Try Bunol in Spain!
You say tom-ay-to and I say tom-ah-to. Let’s call the whole thing off.
Oh wait… Ma Nature already took care of that.
What’s next, po-tah-toes? No fries with that burger?
In Norfolk British Sugar grow over 30 acres of tomatoes using heat from the sugar
refining process, and piped C02 into glasshouses giving up to 40% increase in yield.
A fine example of making the best use of the resources available.
Very cold in Victoria Australia too. Only max of 17 degrees C today and expecting minimum of 3C over night. I say thank god for global warming otherwise it would be really cold!
Sorry to dissapoint you guys but global warming causes colder AND warmer Northern Hemisphere winters. Don’t believe me? Believe the models!
Warmer Northern Hemisphere winters [1999] NASA – Gavin Schmidt et. al.
Colder Northern Hemisphere winters [2010] Potsdam Institute – Vladimir Petoukhov et. al.
P.S. I am currently working on a long list of contradictory claims and pair them up for comparison. I hope to put it up in a month or two. It was inspired by Number Watch and I am currently looking at Warmists’ other claims made over the years. I hope will be a valuable rebuttal for unrepentant Warmists.
Anthony,
Last year we had some sort of mold going around decimating gardens due to the cool wet weather. Many people love gardening and just pulled all their plants out as this mold didn’t care what plants to attack.
Tomatoes used to be seasonal, we are getting lazy and too used to the convenience of sources. Irrespective of warming or cooling we need to develop greater resilience in our food supplies.
Jimbo, 3:27
John Brignell at Number Watch already has a list of everything caused by global warming, with dozens of contradictory effects. http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
He’s not been well of late, so I’m sure there will be plenty more you can add.
Jimbo says:
March 1, 2011 at 3:27 am
“P.S. I am currently working on a long list of contradictory claims and pair them up for comparison. I hope to put it up in a month or two. It was inspired by Number Watch and I am currently looking at Warmists’ other claims made over the years. I hope will be a valuable rebuttal for unrepentant Warmists.”
Jimbo, I look forward to the report. Don’t forget the warmist scaremongering over the disappearance of winter snow due to global warming (as we, in New Hampshire, dig out of yet another snow/ice event…sigh…is it March yet?).