Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to the Aussie ABC, a 3C rise in nighttime temperatures in Nambour is raising costs for farmers by shrinking the size of strawberries.
Climate change means smaller strawberries, higher costs for farmers
ABC Rural / By Melanie GrovesBeing able to eat large, succulent strawberries may become a pleasure of the past, as the popular fruit is the latest victim of a changing climate.
Key points:
- Warm overnight temperatures are contributing to smaller strawberries
- Smaller strawberries are more expensive to pick
- Consumers may need to adapt to buying smaller fruit
It’s not cold weather causing the strawberries to shrink, but rather warmer temperatures.
And as smaller strawberries take longer to pick, production costs are rising along with temperatures — which means lower returns for farmers and could lead to a price hike at the checkout for consumers.
The principle horticulturalist at Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), Christopher Menzel, said field tests at the Nambour research centre showed that as air temperatures rose the size of the fruit dropped.
“With [climate change] even here at Nambour the records show the night temperatures have gone up by about 3 degrees over the past 50 to 60 years, which is quite significant,” he said.
“The size of the fruit is very sensitive to temperatures.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-16/climate-change-small-strawberries-warmer-nights/100071954
Can you imagine the calamity of having to eat smaller strawberries? If further warming occurs, obviously it is not going to be possible for Nambour farmers to switch to a different variety of strawberries, or grow something else, because in the age of the climate crisis no adaption to changed conditions is possible.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
That’s utter bullshit. I live near Nambour and the temperature has decreased if anything in the last 3 years.
I did some quick looking online and found the Elders website.
That gives averaged figures for Nambour (not changes unfortunately) but also points out they only have records going back 13 years for this location.
If I read the Elders website correctly they make use of BOM data, which these days could be anything. BOM regularly ‘normalise’ historical records, often using the justification of weather stations in some cases 100s of km away as defence for their actions.
These days asking the BOM for historical data is like asking China for historical proof of Nine Dash.
It’s strange, but I have blueberries in my fridge that are the size of cherries and apples on my counter that are bigger than anything I recall was available growing up, and we have them year round.
Growing up, we used to store our apples in the cellar so they would “keep” as my mother used to say. I kind of like the supplier managing all this, at least when they’re successful. I bet they figure out a way to make it work.
Maybe your supplier will become intermittent as part of the “fruits” of climate policy.
the temperature has decreased if anything in the last 3 years.
That’s right, exactly the reason for shrinking 😀
Colder weather definitely causes my berries to shrink.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/18/trump-is-right-to-question-climate-change-causes/#comment-2496356
Utter nonsense – warmth is NOT the problem.
Circa 1990 I went for a swim at the Forty Foot at Dun Laoghaire near Dublin, one fine warm summer Sunday morning. http://www.fortyfoot.org/
The water temperature was colder than I’d ever experienced – I thought my heart would stop – I swam out to a big outcrop, shot back to the ladder, and climbed out, glad to still be alive.
The little man was littler than he had ever been, and the twins were lost for an entire week.
Where do these bozos get this stuff? The strawberries I get are so confounded big that I need a large knife to cut them, never mind trim the leaves off them.
One of them will easily cover 2+ inches in the palm of my hand, and that’s shrinking????
On what planet, may I ask?
The only times I’ve seen small strawberries that were ripe enough to eat is when they’ve come from a neighbor’s local garden and she’s overwhelmed by the load. Happy to take them off her hands.
Lucky you. I bet those small ones taste better too.
Mmmm white chocolate-coated strawberries for dessert this evening. Those idiots are good for something – reminders about how life is good for people who aren’t them.
You got that right, Phil!
And here in Ventura, CA (about 40% of the US crop of strawberries are grown in this area), our berry harvests have been huge. No change in berry sizes at all, or yields.
I would say that the strawberrier at that location will get bigger. Lets wait and see 🙂
Generally speaking, warmer temperatures promote plant growth, as long as the plants have enough of the other resources they need to grow. And most plants either stop growing … or die … when temperatures get significantly colder. Have no idea if this applies to strawberries as well, but my guess is that it does!
What actually causes small strawberries is a lack of water.
The problem most growers face is that too much water swells berries yet reduces the flavor intensity.
Fruits that swell too fast too soon, crack and quickly spoil.
Bullshit has become the speciality of the ABC. It has now even branched out into outright distortion of the News as propaganda for its political aims. If the ABC says that Nambour is getting hotter, Nambour is probably getting cooler.
Smaller strawberries generally taste better than large (Californian) ones
The ABC admitted today it had edited in archive footage into another news story to make it appear people were present at an event when they were not actually there. You cannot believe anything you see on the ABC.
Yeah – but they did apologise for misleading the public!
Woke is such an ugly cloak.
Maybe Nambour growers could be assisted with bags of ABC manure, technical reference: SH 1 T
Is there a link for that? (ABC edit archive footage)
Based on “Field tests”, not historical growers data?
Is the T-rise real or a result of a bad station location?
Any windmills around that prevent nighttime stratification?
Lots of questions…
From the linked article:
It’s a correlation for sure. It’s also not the only possible cause.
Where I am, within a hundred miles of Toronto, Canada, you couldn’t make a statement like that. We harvest strawberries once. The harvest lasts a couple of weeks. We sure don’t have early season strawberries and late season strawberries.
It sounds like they are getting more than one picking during the season. What else changes during the season besides temperature? A whole bunch of things change.
So, someone noticed a fact and drew an unwarranted conclusion. Surely that doesn’t happen much, does it?
Every year in high school the chaplain would tell a story:
It’s human nature to take a simple fact and use it as the foundation for a castle in the sky.
I grow strawberries in a greenhouse, in a poly-tunnel and outside (in SW England). The ones grown indoors have much higher night-time temperatures and do much better. Huge quantities of strawberries are grown in poly-tunnels in England and I have never heard any mention of the effect of night-time temperature. This is just more of the usual climate change BS and propaganda.
”“With [climate change] even here at Nambour the records show the night temperatures have gone up by about 3 degrees over the past 50 to 60 years, which is quite significant,”
3 degrees C hey? Me thinks this is complete crap. Please show the data you used.
Nambour since 1970… about + 0.5 Since about 1955…. 0.0
http://berkeleyearth.lbl.gov/auto/Stations/TAVG/Figures/152239-TAVG-Raw.pdf
“Nambour since 1970… about + 0.5 Since about 1955…. 0.0”
That’s about right: More lying from the climate alarmists. So the truth is there has been no temperature increases in Nambour in recent history, certainly not an increase of 3C.
More distortions of reality by the climate alarmists.
If they didn’t have lies, they wouldn’t have anything at all. It’s pathetic.
If, than thanks UHI, in cities etc.
have they release their methology on how they determined that. I know apple grower in MI remove some of the blossoms to get larger apples.
First of all there is no global warming only massive cooling due to the sun.
Second, cooling inhibits growth, otherwise they’d tear down every glasshouse, for fear of getting tiny growing produce.
Thirdly, horticulture makes fruit groan under the weight of artificial enhancers.
Other than that, it is a complete mystery.
Most of us groan when under a heavy weight 🙂
I tend to find the cold gives me more shrinkage problems 😉
Quote:“Global Warming is Causing Strawberries to Shrink”
Good.
Then they might actually taste of something instead of being grotesque tasteless acidic boulders that give you belly-ache and The Shits
Not unlike contemporary tomatoes as it ‘appens
It is possible to get ‘Wild Strawberry’ seed. They grow like weeds and are a joy, especially for kids.
Which we all are, at heart.
Go there. Do that. (re) join The Real World
Have fun before it becomes completely illegalised
For once, I completely agree with you, Peta. Wild strawberries and many other wild fruits are way more tasty. We need more!
I have gardened in Las Vegas off and on for years. It is a real struggle to keep a small garden here, in the Mojave desert. Soil amendments alone cost a ton. But eating fresh from the vine tomatoes is worth it. All the flavor that you don’t get from store bought. The problem with tomatoes is the crop is totally dependent on the spring night time temperature, once the night time temperatures get too high, the flowers won’t set fruit. I have had years when the spring was cool and we picked tomatoes for over 2 months. Other times, when the temperatures went hot early, maybe only a month of harvest.
I also always planted a sacrificial crop of sets as soon as they were available in the garden center. I put them out about 2 weeks before the regular final frost date to draw the killer frost. Then, after they were killed, I could safely plant the crop for the year. It worked almost every time. Occasionally the first planting survived resulting in a good year and enough for canning.
And Peta, I often grew strawberries, specifically for the kids, then grandkids, to go and find and pick and eat. I haven’t for a couple of years, the grandkids are getting older, and I guess I am getting lazier.
First gw came for the strawberries, I don’t have to tell you what it’s coming for next.
Small strawberries taste better. In Scotland and Norway strawberries are. Small and sweet. In S England and California they are big and florid and utterly tasteless. Does that have wider implications?
I think that’s more connected to out of season growing in Spanish greenhouses.
Once you get in-season Kentish strawberry, they are so sweet and succulent.
Sort of…
Those huge flavorless strawberries have several things in common.
They’re raised with copious water, picked green and ripened with ethylene just before delivery to the grocery store.
Just as apples, pears and greenhouse tomatoes are.
All because ripe fruits bruise easily, so they pick and ship them green. Doesn’t matter the season or where they are grown.
It’s picked early, shipped then ripened artificially.
But global warming is causing my hemorrhoids to grow! the horror..the horror…
“And as smaller strawberries take longer to pick”
Christ! how small are these things?
Taste depends on the variety grown. For a strawberry of old taste grow Mara-des-bois, I don’t bother with anything else.
I wonder if they meant to say it takes longer to pick “a pound” of berries???
Exactly. ‘Cause that’s how workers are paid and how the berries are sold, wholesale and retail, by the pint or by the pound (in the US).
Strawberries grow quite large in warmer weather on the California coast. Fruits grow larger with selected varieties, and the use of cultivation, herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers — just like all other agricultural products. If a specialty grower chooses to grow smaller varieties organically, they charge more for the product. Taking more effort to pick causes workers to be paid more than workers engaged in shorter term work.
Consumer price represents grower costs — except in the command economies, seemingly desired by the eco-terrorists and their propagandists, in which strawberries would be a party membership or aristocratic luxury.
Journalists and publishers, on the other hand, can churn out any string of words that satisfies their managers and financiers, without reference to facts, economics, discipline, the concerns of production, or quality.
Pickers are usually paid per carton, basket, crate, etc. Not by the fruit.
So, if as XR claim, dairy eg cream is offensive to the lactose intolerant, smaller strawberries isn’t such a big deal- especially for the vertically challenged
Objection.
The official BOM Climate Data Online web page does not list 50 years of temperature data from Nambour, home of these strawberries.
The nearest long T record I could find was at Gympie. about 60 km away from Nambour.
Here is the annual Tmin for Gympie.
It actually shows a decline over the mentioned 50 years.
Reconcile that??? Geoff S
http://www.geoffstuff.com/gympie_tmin.jpg
Yes, when we get these absurd claims of rising temperatures from alarmists, the first thing we need to do is examine the regional temperature chart, which will put the lie to their claims of unprecedented temperature increases.
The only thing that shows a steady rise in temperatures is the computer-generated, instrument-era Hockey Stick chart No regional temperature chart from around the world resembles the temperature profile of the Hockey Stick chart. The regional charts all show it was just as warm in the recent past as it is today.
Those who use the Hockey Stick chart can show a temperature increase, but the regional temperature charts don’t show this temperatue increase. Most of the regional charts, starting from the Early Twentieth Century, show flatlining temperatures or a temperature downtrend.
Regional charts are made up of actual temperture readings taken by human beings who were not doing so for political reasons.
The Hockey Stick chart is a computer-generated figment of the imaginations of people who desire to promote the idea of Human-caused Climate Change and it does not represent reality, it represents scientific fraud.
Always check the regional charts when you see outrageous temperature claims which are based on the Bogus Hockey Stick chart..
Claim: Global Warming is Causing BRAINS to Shrink
So let me get this straight. For decades strawberries have been grown in greenhouses where warmth and CO2 were increased to enhance the growth of the berries. The science behind this is not under dispute. No study has ever suggested otherwise
Now they’re saying the exact opposite. That increased warmth and more CO2 are enemies of the berries.
Yeah, right
I’ll tell you what doesn’t shrink when it’s warm,but does when it’s cold.And that’s my Johnson.
We now call that a Boris, in cold conditions we call it a bit of a Boris….Carrie on.
Oh, I see what you did there. And I’m from the US.
Carrie is the bit’s twit. Good one!
Actually, Carrie is the twits bit. Boris and nut nut.
Commercial strawberries are grown for size and colour – but not taste.(just like commercial tomatoes)
Why anyone would choose to buy commercial strawberries is just beyond my comprehension…
So wouldn’t somewhere else now be the perfect temperature for strawberries?
Was this story originally released on 1st April?
Is it something specific to strawberries this aversion to warmer growing conditions at night and helpful levels of CO2 in the atmosphere?
My crop should be good this year, it has been particularly cold overnight this year with yet another frost last night continuing the long, now two week run of April frost here in the Midlands UK.
On the plus side, I bet the strawberries are loving it….?
Slightly warmer at night, no hotter during the day, which is what we are seeing for climate change if we are seeing anything, should be better growing conditions.
Too cool at night encourages mold.
Of course, definitions of cold depend on where. My definition of a nice warm day world freeze the yargles off an OZ