United States might be heading for a ketchup crisis
Fresh Tomato
United States
Published Sep 16, 2022
Tridge summary
Americans consume upward of 30 pounds of tomatoes a year, three-quarters of that in processed form. While the commercially produced fresh fruit varieties are mostly grown in heavily controlled environments, away from the elements, climate change is looking like it will be a big issue for processing tomatoes.
Original content
Tomatoes are especially susceptible to climate change: according to a study published in Nature Food, by 2050, production in the United States (California produces 90 percent of the nation’s processing tomatoes), China, and Italy, which are the world’s three biggest tomato producers, could drop by 6 percent. California is a big tomato producer, but the state is getting hotter, with temperatures reaching upward of 95 degrees in spring and summer in areas that grow tomatoes, such as the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. In extremely high temperatures, a lower percentage of flowers on a tomato plant will develop into fruit, said Tom Turini, a University of California farm adviser responsible for vegetable crops in central California, particularly Fresno and Kings counties. Higher air temperatures also spell out bad news for irrigation, especially given that some areas, like California, are already facing chronic water shortages, the second problem. Click here for an enlarged ...
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