California's specialty crops of almonds, peaches and walnuts are under particular threat as crop-destroying insect populations increase due to warmer temperatures.
Nitrate contamination of well water has been a decades-long problem in the San Joaquin and Salinas valleys — and now stormwater has flushed more fertilizer and manure into aquifers.
Farmers who grow apples, berries, cherries, potatoes and more in the Pacific Northwest are facing more intense and frequent heat, and struggling to adapt their practices to protect their crops.
Scientists there are working on understanding the genetics that result in this bonanza of apple diversity, with the ultimate goal of improving the fruit in different ways — tastier, heartier, more disease-resistant and with longer shelf-life in the face of changing climates.
Research released as this spring’s blossom sweeps across the UK has found there are 80% fewer small “traditional” orchards, which are regarded as particularly important for flora and fauna, in England and Wales compared with in 1900.
