I've heard similar things based on predictions concerning sun activity (or lack thereof). I know that there are many parts of the world suffering from weather extremes that are damaging crops. Plus, those damaged crops have become breeding grounds for heinous crop diseases. More reason to go with indoor hydro, huh?

Parts of Africa that relied on genetically modified maize from a certain Biotech giant suffered horribly because the crops failed so majorly. Though the giant in question is taking responsibility and paying out for the mistake willingly, it is important to note that people can't eat dollar bills and coins. If other countries can't provide enough food for purchase, what good is a pay out? India's cotton farms are reporting losses due to using poor yielding genetically modified seed from the same company. I'm not saying genetically modified crops are bad. I just think it's obvious some companies are putting product on the market without fully proving viability and that can be dangerous for the food supply and other parts of the global economy that rely on crops. Add crop failures due to jumping the gun on trusting new bitotech advances and crop failures due to climate changes occurring world wide (not talking about the political issue of global warming) and that makes for a lot of crop loss.

I know you didn't necessarily want a response, but my main point is this: Think this will convince my wife to let me upgrade to a bigger greenhouse?

I also heard about this rumor that 2010 year will be the year of crop failure. I was afraid when i heard this news and worried about my crops. Kindly let me know more about this rumor.

Chicken Licken the sky is falling.........

Lee, I personally had an awesome year with my garden. I'm not a farmer, though. Most people I know had a seriously crappy year. Many of them blamed everything from global warming, diseases "everyone" was getting and were thus unavoidable, too much rain, and even a claim that it was evident of the end times because we are becoming a Godless nation (not commenting, just reporting). Oddly enough, nobody blamed human failure to perform in the garden well enough. I know one thing for certain. I worked harder on my garden this year because of the rain and pestilence. My harder work paid off. It seems many predictions and excuses are just ways of people not wanting to take responsibility for the human factor. Maybe some people should just try harder when adverse conditions present themselves and work with nature rather than constantly seeing it as the enemy. Or, as alluded to in my previous post above, stop acting on guesses and marketing. If you keep that in mind (assuming you have some skill in crop raising) then surely you won't fair too badly next year barring any major natural disasters. I wish you well with your crops.

Right on joe.jr I too had an O.K. garden and yes a lot of work or thought. Also a lot of replanting like they did in the old days. Every week or two until some thing grew good. I never replanted so much in my life lol. F.D.R. "We have nothing to fear but fear itself".

Curt ;-]

freemangreens, I haven't heard the rumor, so I'm curious about the source of this prognostication.

I guess with bad news, comes good news: the obesity problem will diminish.

oddly I read a report about two weeks ago saying the soy farmers here (North Carolina) were worried they wouldn't be able to harvest there crop because we're having so much rain.
Maybe this is the beginning?!? [fad with eerie music]

There's been a sudden flow of news reports about converting farms to forests. For an expected bad year in farming you'd think they would want to step up farming. Unless they are expecting a sudden population reduction, I don't like the idea. Sounds like they are going through with the UN's Agenda 21 from 1992.

Here are some links to articles from just the past 7 days.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/29/forests-vs-food-study-worries-agriculture-chief/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010400272.html

http://radioviceonline.com/farms-to-forests-climate-legislation-economic-impact/

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15179766

The UN's map from 1992 on how the US will be converted: http://www.thebyteshow.com/UN_SimulationMap2.jpg

Has anyone noticed I'm not much present any more? I'm taking my own advise; I'm hiding and watching.

I will tell you one thing for sure, I trashed EVERYTHING in my garden except the DWC tomatoes. They did and are doing awesome. I'm into simple and I can live on BLTs forever, so that's it for me. I'm growing toms using DWC and nothing else. I've had fresh tomatoes all through the winter and they just keep coming and coming. They ripen a little slower in the winter, mind you, but I do the numbers thing: I've got zillions of toms out there!

I know this might sound kinda yucky, but I've found that I can build a regular BLT and use "Bacon Bits" (textured soy, chemicals and probably all sorts of bad stuff--but tasty!) and it's a close second to actual pig belly!

If you want better BLT's use smoked pork jowl and give up bacon. It has better flavor and texture.

project_gardener, some of the predictions (based on science and not astrology or calendars of people that used to sacrifice humans to gods) of upcoming ag problems are based on the fact that we have cleared away too many forests. Forests lead to great soil thanks to the large amount of organic material. They soak up billions of gallons of water that are currently destroying our farmland. China has learned the lesson far sooner and we are only now starting to follow their lead. If you pull all the trees from the hills, the hills disappear with the rain in devastating mudslides and floods. Those floods reach the farmland and carry away the topsoil. Then add in the fact that the trees of wood lines with gradually inclining canopies are wind barriers that keep the soil from being carried off by winds (not to mention a pretty good protection for homes from heavy straight line winds like we experience in the midwest). It only makes sense that if a 600 acre farm area appears to be in danger of becoming useless (like many of our farms in the midwest) then we should consider planting forests. 300 acres of crop is a far cry better than 600 acres of useless barren ground ruined by flood waters and unblocked wind gusts.

The forests also give us some protection against something else that is devastating to the crops. Pestilence. Forests serve as a barrier and a breeding ground for the creatures that feed on the pests that eat our crops. When we destroy the forests, we destroy the predators. When we destroy the predators, the pests grow in numbers since all they have is food without danger. Pests evolve against predators much more slowly than they evolve against pesticides. Plus, the predators evolve along with them. It only takes a few generations for some insects to develop resistance to pesticides and chemicals don't tend to evolve. This puts more pressure on biotech businesses to put out untested chemicals that could and often do prove harmful for humans and other animal life.

I know the articles mentioned keep talking about greenhouse gas emissions, but farmers have been paid to let land go fallow and to reforest it for many many years due to the recognition that farm land tends to crop out after a certain period of time and risks ruining the land for generations to come. It is an attempt to preserve some land for later so that which is cropped out can recover. It's been called the CRP (conservation reserve program) for the last 25 years, but it was called something else before that.

I am of the opinion that politicians are trying to use programs (and maybe modify them a bit) that are already in practice to say "now look at what we are doing for emissions!" even though the programs are not really about the emissions. It's just that "carbon emissions" is the current buzz. "Cropping out" and "dustbowl", scientific realities that are real and present dangers, aren't.

True, I also heard that same rumor that there would be massive crop failure this year because of the insufficient supply of water and the terrible change in the weather...however, by just looking at different topics about ways on how you can grow different crops in hydroponics, I do not think that it would be such a worry...and there is an abundant supply of hydroponic information here in the forum that any newbie or hobbyist and even experts can apply in order to continuously grow healthy and good looking hydro crops ;)