A Very Wet Start to the Season

 

We often hear of farmers praying for rain, and farmers in Alberta have certainly done that often enough, but this year like last year we are all hoping for a bit more sun!

The frequent rains have certainly impacted us at PUF. We can't work during storms, and even when the sun comes out, we have to be careful because working while our plots are wet can cause soil compaction, particularly with our clayey soils.

Working at PUF always makes me think about Alberta's other farmers, the ones growing food as a means of supporting their families and communities. Our weather tribulations pale in comparison to the difficulties that the rainy season has posed for our farmers. For many their crops have been inundated, choking out young plants, so they face the prospect of harvest failure this year, an occurrence that has been happening all too often of late.

Crazy weather seasons also remind me of the direct relationship between climate change, agriculture and food, and the importance of adjusting our farming and consumption practices to adapt to emerging climate realities and avoid practices that make those realities even worse. While we cannot attribute a single storm to climate change, shifts in patterns of temperature, precipitation, and extreme weather frequency are all associated with human-caused changes to our climate. I hope we can share our views and ideas about these things while at PUF, since they certainly affect our own little farm. But they also affect our agri-food systems regionally and globally with potentially serious consequences for farmers' livelihood and food security.

The weather finally seems to be warming up and hopefully drying out a bit. Please join us for a work session. You can sign up at puf.eventbrite.com