Going from bad to worse — the drought is becoming so severe that river transport is becoming impossible — S. America grains gridlock will accelerate global grains collapse (ie START GROWING FOOD NOW):

The South American drought that’s helping push Wheat, Corn, and Soybean prices to multiyear highs isn’t just threatening crops, but also the ability to haul them on waterways that are drying up.

On the increasingly shallow rivers that flow through top producers Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, barges are carrying less than their usual load. The situation is so desperate in Paraguay that the country is asking neighboring Brazil to release water from the giant Itaipu hydroelectric dam, after vessels have run aground and logjams are forming in river ports because barges can’t move. In a key Argentine leg of the 4,900-kilometer (3,000-mile) Parana River, uncertainty over dredging work could make it even harder for farmers to ship their harvests.

https://gcaptain.com/south-america-waterways-navigation/

Russia sees strongest poultry production decline in a decade

In the first 2 months of 2021, Russian poultry production dropped by 6.2% compared to the same period of the previous year.

#WarOnMeat

https://www.poultryworld.net/Meat/Articles/2021/4/Russia-sees-strongest-poultry-production-decline-in-a-decade-739090E/

Yes, higher feed prices = fewer animals raised.

Higher Corn, Soybeans Prices Could Slow Dairy Herd Expansion

http://www.farmers-exchange.net/detailPage.aspx?articleID=20544

AI predicts #GrandSolarMinimum:

STUDY: Does Machine Learning reconstruct missing sunspots and forecast a new solar minimum? [Spoiler: yes, yes it does]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273117721002465?dgcid=author

Electroverse has a write-up:

NEW PAPER USES AI TO PREDICT THE SUNSPOT CYCLES: LOW SOLAR ACTIVITY UNTIL 2050

“The machine-learning algorithm, with its interesting interplay between the very short 5.5-year cycle and the long 120-year cycle, confirms our results of 10-15 years ago suggesting that the next three or four solar cycles will be comparatively inactive."

#GrandSolarMinimum

https://electroverse.net/new-paper-uses-ai-to-predict-the-sunspot-cycles-low-solar-activity-until-2050/

High prices nibble at corn's sway as Asian feed buyers switch to wheat

SINGAPORE, April 27 (Reuters) - Asian feed manufacturers are switching to wheat in animal rations as multi-year high corn prices constrict demand for the yellow grain widely used to fatten hogs and chickens.

Some of the world's top corn buyers such as China, South Korea and Vietnam are buying more wheat from Australia and the Black Sea region in the months ahead as the landed cost of corn has climbed to a rare premium to wheat, said two Singapore-based grains traders.

Combined, those three countries are forecast to buy 26.4% of global corn imports this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, so any substitution for wheat could have a large impact on global grain trade flows.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/high-prices-nibble-at-corns-sway-as-asian-feed-buyers-switch-to-wheat-2021-04-28

Edible Insects as a Potential Food Source: Benefits vs. Food Safety Issues

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recently released a publication detailing various food safety issues that could be associated with edible insects. According to the FAO, the benefits of edible insects as an emerging food source must be weighed against potential food safety issues.

Possible food safety issues for edible insects include biological, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, chemical hazards, pesticides, heavy metals, antimicrobials, and physical hazards.

https://www.food-safety.com/articles/7095-edible-insects-as-a-potential-food-source-benefits-vs-food-safety-issues

The US drought is understated and underreported. But we are beginning to hear about it.

https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/agronomist-surprised-by-how-dry-it-is-in-many-parts-of-the-midwest/

France prepares to spin up the printing press - 1bil euros for farmers affected by the recent frosts that wiped out vineyards.

Remember: you can print more money, but you can't print more food. (That's why food prices are rising!)

https://agroinsurance.com/en/france-solidarity-fund-of-1-billion-euros-for-farmers-affected-by-frost/

Had a great conversation yesterday with the remarkable Whitney Webb at UnlimitedHangout.com.

It isn't public yet -- but Whitney was kind enough to allow me to share an early release for members on https://patreon.com/iceagefarmer .

Everyone else: wait just a couple days and then it will be unlocked!

Preview:

NYTimes laying on the FEAR thick -- Meat is DIRTY and DANGEROUS:

"I’m a vegan, but I’m also a realist. There’s no chance humanity is going to give up meat, en masse, anytime soon. That said, we can’t just wish away the risks of industrial animal agriculture. If we don’t end this system, soon, terrible things will happen to us and to the planet. Terrible things are already happening."

#WarOnMeat

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/opinion/climate-change-meatless-meat.html

Food Prices exploding. How is your garden? How are your animals?

DeutscheBank Warns Soaring Food Prices Will Lead To Social Unrest

Today, DB's Jim Reid picked that chart as his "Chart of the day", repeating what readers already know, namely that Bloomberg’s agriculture spot index has risen by c.76% year-on-year, noting that "that’s the biggest annual rise in nearly a decade, and there are only a couple of other comparable episodes since the index begins back in 1991."

The DB strategist then goes all-in and says what everyone is thinking, namely that "this trend of higher food prices leading to social unrest extends far back into history and surrounds many key turning points. The French Revolution of 1789, which overthrew the Ancien Régime, came after a succession of poor harvests that led to major rises in food prices. It was a similar story at the time of Europe’s 1848 revolutions too, which followed the failure of potato crops in the 1840s and the associated severe famine in much of Europe. And the 1917 overthrow of the Tsarist regime in Russia took place in the context of food shortages as well."

#FoodPrices

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/one-bank-warns-soaring-food-prices-will-lead-social-unrest

Eight States Are Seeding Clouds to Overcome Megadrought

“Amid growing concerns about water resources in the western U.S., scientists are working to answer those questions. Today, cloud seeding research represents the cutting edge of weather and climate science—a convergence of questions about the influence of warming on our dwindling water resources and our ability to control those consequences.”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eight-states-are-seeding-clouds-to-overcome-megadrought/

Now that is a considerable piece of hail. #gsmHail

https://strangesounds.org/2021/04/hail-texas-destruction-apocalypse-video-photo.html

If you’re still on the twatter, my condolences. Just kidding, but now you can find/share these awesome posts there as well!

https://Twitter.com/iafbot

China institutes “No Pig Zones” to limit the flow of #AfricanSwineFever .

What’s left unsaid here: this sets the stage for use of 4IR tech like tagging & geofencing to prevent epidemiological spread — now it is needed for your safety:

“With new guidelines expected to be in place in a matter of days, areas known for little or no pig farming will have to increase capacity. 

"Some areas that used to call themselves no-pig counties or no-pig cities will have to build pig farms," Guofa said. 

Under the guidelines, the only way for pork to be transported across regions will have to be in frozen meat form, leading to an expansion of the cold-chain industry, added Guofa. “

#china

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/china-creates-countrywide-pig-zones-limit-african-swine-fever

EU to launch carbon farming framework by end-2021 following two-year study

In the ‘Farm To Fork Strategy‘ announced as part of its European Green Deal last year, the EU stated that farming practices which “remove CO2 from the atmosphere contribute to the [EU’s] climate neutrality objective and should be rewarded, either via [EU policies] or other public or private initiatives [such as a] carbon market.”

It added that a “carbon farming initiative [will be set up] to promote this new business model, which provides farmers with a new source of income and helps other sectors to decarbonize the food chain.” Furthermore, the strategy tasked the Commission to “develop a regulatory framework for certifying carbon removals based on robust and transparent carbon accounting to monitor and verify [their] authenticity.”

#absoluteZero

https://agfundernews.com/carbon-farming-eu-framework-by-end-2021-following-two-year-study.html