MARKET REPORT - APR.16TH, 2016
A very short actual market report is at the bottom – but first, here’s this:OK, Here I go on a climate rant – but there’s an opportunity here for you, and one for farmers, but first, the bad news as it rolled in today.First: Arctic sea ice:A record expanse of Arctic sea never froze over this winter and remained open water as a season of freakishly high temperatures produced deep – and likely irreversible – changes on the far north. Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre said on Monday that the sea ice cover attained an average maximum extent of 14.52m sq km (5.607m sq miles) on 24 March, the lowest winter maximum since records began in 1979. The low beats a record set only last year of 14.54m sq km (5.612m sq miles), reached on 25 February 2015. “I’ve never seen such a warm, crazy winter in the Arctic,” said NSIDC director Mark Serreze. “The heat was relentless.”It was the third straight month of record lows in the sea ice cover, after extreme temperatures in January and February stunned scientists.
Second: GreenlandAs this week started, scientists monitoring the Greenland ice sheet experienced a shock - over 10 per cent of the island's ice sheet surface was experiencing melting. As this started on April 11, this surpasses the previous record for early melt of more than 10 per cent of the ice sheet surface - from May 5, 2010 - by more than three weeks.Third: Global Warming by the month:Adding "yet another month to a new mountain chain of extreme global temperature peaks," March 2016 was the warmest since at least 1891, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Not only that, but, as February did, March broke the previous record by the greatest margin yet seen for any month. Compared to the 20th-century average, March was 1.07°C hotter across the globe, according to the JMA figures, while February was 1.04°C higher. If April also sets a monthly record—and there's no reason to think it won't—"the Earth will have had an astonishing 12 month string of record-shattering months," writes Andrew Freedman for Mashable.Fourth: One of the ‘tipping points’ climate scientists have been warning about is the increase in Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, which has risen from 280 ppm to the new high recorded on Wednesday of 408, (above the 400 ppm level we’ve been warned about as another irreversible tipping point.)Fifth: California – despite hopes of above normal rainfall and Sierra Snowpack based on past performances of El Nino winters, it didn’t happen – it was certainly better, but still no better than average, so California is right back where it was a year ago, 4 years of intense drought, and now predictions are for the reverse pattern – La Nina, to kick in soon, which can reduce rainfall across the West Coast. Severe or exceptional drought now covers over 55% of the state, and summer hasn’t begun.
So where’s the good news here?The truth is that we are pushing ever increasing amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but on the other side of the coin, this process can be reversed with organic farming (and by that I mean true organic soil management practices). Last year, the Rodale Institute, who have been strong activists for organic farming for 80 years, announced:“If management of all current global cropland shifted to reflect the regenerative (organic) model…, we could potentially sequester more than 40% of annual emissions. If all global pasture was managed using a regenerative model, an additional 71% could be sequestered. Even if modest assumptions about soil's carbon sequestration potential are made, regenerative agriculture can easily keep annual emissions to within a desirable range.”On the other hand, conventional agriculture uses chemically derived fertilizers that, because they are far worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas – (Urea nitrogen fertilizer creates gases that are 22,000 times more potent) - account for 40% of global warming.We all know most of this, as do some of your customers, but consumers are stranded by a lack of information, and can only make very small changes to our own lifestyles which have an iota of impact on these global climate changes. So let’s empower them to make a big step on their own – something tangible! That one simple step of purposely buying organic food is HUGE - it not only replaces conventional food that is one of the biggest problems, but supports farming methods that reverse climate change. Do you know this? Do your customers know this? Would you consider signage in your store that says this? Would you like signage from us? And the other good news for farmers, is that carbon sequestration can be measured, and there are programs already in place, and growing, that compensate growers for increasing soil tilth and capturing carbon. Farmers in the United States can sign up with a carbon credit registry, such as the Climate Action Reserve, the American Carbon Registry, or and the Verified Carbon Standard. These organizations provide third-party verification much like an organic certifier, and then the farmers can apply for compensation, which can reportedly be up to $1,000 an acre per year. Simply adding compost and cover cropping, these regular organic practices make a huge difference! This, along with farmers getting grants, tax breaks and subsidies for installing photovoltaics on portions of their farms means that farmers may be able to reap more income from carbon capture and renewable energy production than from the crops they grow – so that’s the good news.Market news:With the rising Canadian dollar (of course based on higher oil prices, which is dichotomous considering the above 2 and ½ pages), you can expect to see a little price relief on products with generally stable pricing.Bananas – now we have lots – really sorry for last week, we could have filled the gap with other brands of organics, but I don’t think most of you would accepted those major brands – you know the ones I mean. We can thank Canadian Border Services, who, despite having watched us receive hundreds and hundreds of containers of bananas, and inspected so many, detained that one container for 9 days, and the next two are also lined up for inspections. We were able to grab a few pallets of Organics Unlimited which we are shipping now, and will have a full colour selection for you in a couple of days.Warned you about lemon pricing – with recent rain in Riverside and elsewhere, there is very limited availability and we have had to bite the bullet and buy in at stupendous pricing for the next few days – nothing we can do about it.Pears – Talked about this last year. New plantings of Heirloom Pears in Argentina are hitting bigger volumes every year – Alexander Lucas and Durondeau did very well last year, competing for shelf space with Bartlett and D’Anjou – (which, by the way are also Heirloom varieties,) but not as exotic as these less known varieties – anyhow, give them a try, they are smoother and sweeter.Also mentioned a pending carrot dilemma – There are only a handful of major organic bulk carrot producers, and they are coming up empty – we have no info on how this is going to last. We do have bunchers coming from soCal over the next few days, from 2 of our favourite carrot growers – Capay and Something Good.So who is to blame for these shortages – well, here goes another news clip from today.ASSOCIATED PRESS“Costco has a voracious appetite for organic fruits and veggies — so much so that it can’t get enough of them to sell. The warehouse retailer recently passed $4 billion in annual sales from organic produce, eclipsing Whole Foods for the title of organic heavyweight champion in the U.S. Now, organic farmers can’t grow produce fast enough to supply the retailer. To help nudge supply in the right direction, Costco is lending money to farmers, allowing them to buy land and equipment to grow more organic produce in Mexico. Costco CEO Craig Jelinek told investors about the effort at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington, earlier this year. “We cannot get enough organics to stay in business day in and day out,” he said.”Full article here