7 ms·

Sicily's farmers are looking for innovative alternatives to traditional crops

52 points by ranit 7y ago

buboard 7y ago
Cool story, and definitely climate warming is real, but this doesn't scale. Hot weather is not new to the mediterranean, and neither are droughts. The mediterranean basin is blessed with being able to cultivate almost anything. It is certainly possible to cultivate tropical fruit and tropical animals are not strangers (lions used to live in greece). But there are at times harsh non-tropical winters and at times snow. These plants can't survive those that's why they were never grown en masse.
- Ensorceled 7y ago
  > These plants can't survive those that's why they were never grown en masse. Now they can. That's the point of the article.
  - mahesh_rm 7y ago
    As an Italian who's been living at the equator for a while.. Would you bet a big part of your capital knowing that a snowstorm in January can wipe out 20 years worth of growing avocado or mango plants? As much as 2.7 degrees in average temperature rise, though dramatic, does not prevent the possibility of a month in a winter of rigid temperatures, where your whole avocados and mangos plantation freezes to death.
    - zeristor 7y ago
      I read a short story by Chekhov which involved a Cherry Orchard (it may well have been The Cherry Orchard although that's a play, I think it was The Black Monk) in which a frost was forecast so they set smoke billowing making fires, I imagine to stave off the cold killing the fruit. I've not heard much about that, and I imagine the Russians are quite adept at coming up with genius solutions to get a crop to harvest. It always struck me as an amazing image, the contrast of reading it whilst being banged around on a tube train making it all the more amazing.
      - Udik 7y ago
        Planting fire lanterns at night for example in the middle of vineyards, to prevent exceptional frost from damaging the harvest, is an ancient agricultural practice. In Italy I think it was used last year. Here's an article with a gallery of pictures: https://www.altoadige.it/foto/locale/la-notte-pi%C3%B9-fredda-fuochi-in-campagna-per-scongiurare-le-gelate-1.1996760#1 https://www.altoadige.it/foto/locale/la-notte-pi%C3%B9-fredd...
        Scoundreller 7y ago
        Niagara region uses small wind turbines to turnover the really cold air at ground level that gets « stuck » at crop level with warmer upper air. Helicopters are a more expensive way of doing this.
      - nradov 7y ago
        Farmers also use helicopters to prevent frost from destroying fruit. https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2016/08/23/flying-frost-control/ https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2016/08/23/flying-frost-control/
    - jaclaz 7y ago
      I would add (also as an Italian) that a not so uncommon crop (not only in Sicily) has been in recent (last 20 or so) years kiwis. Don't ask me the reason why, but somehow they (the Italian ones) taste very unlike what a kiwi (in Oz or NZ) tastes, they are somehow less sweet and more sour. Maybe it is a different species or the different kinds of ground or maybe they are harvested and brought to market at different stages, but I believe that somehow is the difference in climate (even if NZ and Italy are not so different). AFAIK most people in EU (that hadn't the occasion to taste the "real" thing) get used to the taste, but when (if) they happen to go to NZ they suddenly realize that they had been eating something "different".
      - eurg 7y ago
        Many supermarkets import both, and even after that excessively long transport from NZ to EU you can easily tell the difference, both by look and by taste. Definitively different breed. I personally also prefer the NZ version.
      - criley2 7y ago
        While I don't have knowledge of Italy or Kiwi, here in my US state of Georgia this year our watermelon has been extremely good. Very sweet and big melons. Much better than any year in recent memory. I was listening to some journalism on the subject and the farmers association promoting this produce claimed it was due to a very good growing season with no freezes or bad weather and that conditions remained ideal for basically the entire season, which almost never happens. Perhaps the quality of flavor of the kiwi is just affected by the climate and soil. Another example more relevant to Italy might be the D.O.P. canned marzano tomatoes, which have unique flavors due to the soil and climate they are grown in in Italy.
        jaclaz 7y ago
        >Another example more relevant to Italy might be the D.O.P. canned marzano tomatoes, which have unique flavors due to the soil and climate they are grown in in Italy. Yep, and you should taste them before they are being put inside the cans ...
        7y ago
    - sjg007 7y ago
      You'd probably hedge with insurance and I would take an option on propane heaters and polyvinyl! Also plant cold hardy variants (if they exist).
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - Udik 7y ago
    The article mentions that they've been in the business of cultivating and exporting avocados since the 1960s: "Continella's father started an avocado export enterprise in the 1960s, when such crops were pretty much unheard of in Sicily. Now, their tropical garden is the biggest on the island, and home to towering green 50-year-old avocado trees." So yes, they could survive also before and they did. It's a bit strange to claim that thanks to the climate change of the past 40 years you've been growing avocados for the past 50.
    - LoSboccacc 7y ago
      the rise in planted hectares comes from a rise in prices and ever more stringent production quotas on other produce from Europe.
      - Udik 7y ago
        There's an avocado craze since years, and EU agricultural regulations determine how convenient is to cultivate something. But hey, "climate change". So much more interesting. Pet peeve of mine: "climate wars". Sometimes we (the West) have been arming and training rebel factions for years, or destabilised governments, or paid the corrupt ones to serve our interests. And if a war breaks out, hey, "it's climate change!"
        benj111 7y ago
        While I don't disagree, climate change is relatively new, so to point to the Arab spring and the effect climate change potentially had on it is newsworthy, and deserves it's own treatment.
        Udik 7y ago
        With all our meddling in the Middle East, I find it immoral to suggest that climate change might have a role in unrests and armed conflicts. It's a very easy scapegoat that absolves us from a tough questioning of our actions and purposes in the area. There are so many and so more obvious, or plausible, political factors entirely dependent from our will that to suggest it might be climate change's fault sounds like a bad joke.
  - buboard 7y ago
    eh, no, snow and occasional hailstorms have not stopped
  - onetimemanytime 7y ago
    >>Now they can. That's the point of the article. Until a Siberian cold destroys them. Europe had one a few years ago, it ruined all such exotic fruit in Eastern Europe (at least). Now they are planting hardy crops because in 10-15 years odds of another cold front are almost 100%
- ranit 7y ago
  > lions used to live in Greece Lions didn’t disappear from Balkan Peninsula because of the harsh climate, people wiped out them.
  - zeristor 7y ago
    I imagine the Romans wanted them for the Coliseum (or is it Colosseum? That's a whole rabbit hole I don't need to go down at the moment) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe#Historic_range_of_Panthera_leo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe#His...
    - buboard 7y ago
      mostly hunted for sport well before the romans
      - npongratz 7y ago
        For sport, before Rome existed? Not mostly hunted because they are direct competitors as apex predators? And because they threatened and killed children and livestock?
  - HelloNurse 7y ago
    Greek myth is full of lions, they went extinct in historical times.
ptah 7y ago
Does that mean I can grow olives and oranges in Scotland without a greenhouse now?
- zeristor 7y ago
  On a south facing slope
- pmontra 7y ago
  Why not, Scotland already has the Inverewe Gardens [1], it's only going to get hotter (but maybe some harsher winters [2]) [1] https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/inverewe/highlights/garden https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/inverewe/highlights/gard... [2] http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/Mann/articles/articles/MannSciAmFeb19.pdf http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/Mann/articles/...
- dharma1 7y ago
  The growing season is much shorter, maybe a cultivar that will flower early so the fruit have longer to grow and ripen. I've got two olive trees in London that are blooming right now and produce fruit, albeit small compared to southern European olives. They did turn dark last summer. Raw olives are very bitter - brining is key. Frost might be an issue in Scotland - mine are in large pots
est 7y ago
And it should cost a few seconds to actually hold the like button to like. This avoids unnecessary likes.
blunte 7y ago
Adaptive, not innovative.
- adamc 7y ago
  Adaptation is an innovation if few others are doing it.
  - blunte 7y ago
    Fair enough. But the bar is rather low when it comes to commercial farming. Now a jump to permaculture principles (which also eschews monocultures) would be the kind of innovation that would lay longer before the next “innovation” was required.
beat 7y ago
This story does suggest the logical response to the climate change Chicken Littles who say we will no longer be able to grow crops. Sure we can, just different crops. Then again, apocalyptic belief systems generally have little to do with either reasoning or positivity. edit: Before you flame me, I fully believe in climate change - I'm not denying anything here. I'm just saying humans can and will adapt.
- namdnay 7y ago
  > I'm just saying humans can and will adapt. The human race as a whole can and will adapt. Just as we have to particularly virulent strains of influenza. That doesn't mean it won't be a tragedy
  - HelloNurse 7y ago
    Looking forward, I'll welcome European bananas and dates and cocoa, but what other crops will they replace?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

52 points by ranit 7y ago

Cool story, and definitely climate warming is real, but this doesn't scale. Hot weather is not new to the mediterranean, and neither are droughts. The mediterranean basin is blessed with being able to cultivate almost anything. It is certainly possible to cultivate tropical fruit and tropical animals are not strangers (lions used to live in greece). But there are at times harsh non-tropical winters and at times snow. These plants can't survive those that's why they were never grown en masse.

Ensorceled 7y ago
> These plants can't survive those that's why they were never grown en masse. Now they can. That's the point of the article.
- mahesh_rm 7y ago
  As an Italian who's been living at the equator for a while.. Would you bet a big part of your capital knowing that a snowstorm in January can wipe out 20 years worth of growing avocado or mango plants? As much as 2.7 degrees in average temperature rise, though dramatic, does not prevent the possibility of a month in a winter of rigid temperatures, where your whole avocados and mangos plantation freezes to death.
  - zeristor 7y ago
    I read a short story by Chekhov which involved a Cherry Orchard (it may well have been The Cherry Orchard although that's a play, I think it was The Black Monk) in which a frost was forecast so they set smoke billowing making fires, I imagine to stave off the cold killing the fruit. I've not heard much about that, and I imagine the Russians are quite adept at coming up with genius solutions to get a crop to harvest. It always struck me as an amazing image, the contrast of reading it whilst being banged around on a tube train making it all the more amazing.
    - Udik 7y ago
      Planting fire lanterns at night for example in the middle of vineyards, to prevent exceptional frost from damaging the harvest, is an ancient agricultural practice. In Italy I think it was used last year. Here's an article with a gallery of pictures: https://www.altoadige.it/foto/locale/la-notte-pi%C3%B9-fredda-fuochi-in-campagna-per-scongiurare-le-gelate-1.1996760#1 https://www.altoadige.it/foto/locale/la-notte-pi%C3%B9-fredd...
      - Scoundreller 7y ago
        Niagara region uses small wind turbines to turnover the really cold air at ground level that gets « stuck » at crop level with warmer upper air. Helicopters are a more expensive way of doing this.
    - nradov 7y ago
      Farmers also use helicopters to prevent frost from destroying fruit. https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2016/08/23/flying-frost-control/ https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2016/08/23/flying-frost-control/
  - jaclaz 7y ago
    I would add (also as an Italian) that a not so uncommon crop (not only in Sicily) has been in recent (last 20 or so) years kiwis. Don't ask me the reason why, but somehow they (the Italian ones) taste very unlike what a kiwi (in Oz or NZ) tastes, they are somehow less sweet and more sour. Maybe it is a different species or the different kinds of ground or maybe they are harvested and brought to market at different stages, but I believe that somehow is the difference in climate (even if NZ and Italy are not so different). AFAIK most people in EU (that hadn't the occasion to taste the "real" thing) get used to the taste, but when (if) they happen to go to NZ they suddenly realize that they had been eating something "different".
    - eurg 7y ago
      Many supermarkets import both, and even after that excessively long transport from NZ to EU you can easily tell the difference, both by look and by taste. Definitively different breed. I personally also prefer the NZ version.
    - criley2 7y ago
      While I don't have knowledge of Italy or Kiwi, here in my US state of Georgia this year our watermelon has been extremely good. Very sweet and big melons. Much better than any year in recent memory. I was listening to some journalism on the subject and the farmers association promoting this produce claimed it was due to a very good growing season with no freezes or bad weather and that conditions remained ideal for basically the entire season, which almost never happens. Perhaps the quality of flavor of the kiwi is just affected by the climate and soil. Another example more relevant to Italy might be the D.O.P. canned marzano tomatoes, which have unique flavors due to the soil and climate they are grown in in Italy.
      - jaclaz 7y ago
        >Another example more relevant to Italy might be the D.O.P. canned marzano tomatoes, which have unique flavors due to the soil and climate they are grown in in Italy. Yep, and you should taste them before they are being put inside the cans ...
      - 7y ago
  - sjg007 7y ago
    You'd probably hedge with insurance and I would take an option on propane heaters and polyvinyl! Also plant cold hardy variants (if they exist).
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Udik 7y ago
  The article mentions that they've been in the business of cultivating and exporting avocados since the 1960s: "Continella's father started an avocado export enterprise in the 1960s, when such crops were pretty much unheard of in Sicily. Now, their tropical garden is the biggest on the island, and home to towering green 50-year-old avocado trees." So yes, they could survive also before and they did. It's a bit strange to claim that thanks to the climate change of the past 40 years you've been growing avocados for the past 50.
  - LoSboccacc 7y ago
    the rise in planted hectares comes from a rise in prices and ever more stringent production quotas on other produce from Europe.
    - Udik 7y ago
      There's an avocado craze since years, and EU agricultural regulations determine how convenient is to cultivate something. But hey, "climate change". So much more interesting. Pet peeve of mine: "climate wars". Sometimes we (the West) have been arming and training rebel factions for years, or destabilised governments, or paid the corrupt ones to serve our interests. And if a war breaks out, hey, "it's climate change!"
      - benj111 7y ago
        While I don't disagree, climate change is relatively new, so to point to the Arab spring and the effect climate change potentially had on it is newsworthy, and deserves it's own treatment.
        Udik 7y ago
        With all our meddling in the Middle East, I find it immoral to suggest that climate change might have a role in unrests and armed conflicts. It's a very easy scapegoat that absolves us from a tough questioning of our actions and purposes in the area. There are so many and so more obvious, or plausible, political factors entirely dependent from our will that to suggest it might be climate change's fault sounds like a bad joke.
- buboard 7y ago
  eh, no, snow and occasional hailstorms have not stopped
- onetimemanytime 7y ago
  >>Now they can. That's the point of the article. Until a Siberian cold destroys them. Europe had one a few years ago, it ruined all such exotic fruit in Eastern Europe (at least). Now they are planting hardy crops because in 10-15 years odds of another cold front are almost 100%
ranit 7y ago
> lions used to live in Greece Lions didn’t disappear from Balkan Peninsula because of the harsh climate, people wiped out them.
- zeristor 7y ago
  I imagine the Romans wanted them for the Coliseum (or is it Colosseum? That's a whole rabbit hole I don't need to go down at the moment) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe#Historic_range_of_Panthera_leo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe#His...
  - buboard 7y ago
    mostly hunted for sport well before the romans
    - npongratz 7y ago
      For sport, before Rome existed? Not mostly hunted because they are direct competitors as apex predators? And because they threatened and killed children and livestock?
- HelloNurse 7y ago
  Greek myth is full of lions, they went extinct in historical times.

ptah 7y ago

Does that mean I can grow olives and oranges in Scotland without a greenhouse now?

zeristor 7y ago
On a south facing slope
pmontra 7y ago
Why not, Scotland already has the Inverewe Gardens [1], it's only going to get hotter (but maybe some harsher winters [2]) [1] https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/inverewe/highlights/garden https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/inverewe/highlights/gard... [2] http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/Mann/articles/articles/MannSciAmFeb19.pdf http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/Mann/articles/...
dharma1 7y ago
The growing season is much shorter, maybe a cultivar that will flower early so the fruit have longer to grow and ripen. I've got two olive trees in London that are blooming right now and produce fruit, albeit small compared to southern European olives. They did turn dark last summer. Raw olives are very bitter - brining is key. Frost might be an issue in Scotland - mine are in large pots

est 7y ago

And it should cost a few seconds to actually hold the like button to like. This avoids unnecessary likes.

blunte 7y ago

Adaptive, not innovative.

adamc 7y ago
Adaptation is an innovation if few others are doing it.
- blunte 7y ago
  Fair enough. But the bar is rather low when it comes to commercial farming. Now a jump to permaculture principles (which also eschews monocultures) would be the kind of innovation that would lay longer before the next “innovation” was required.

beat 7y ago

This story does suggest the logical response to the climate change Chicken Littles who say we will no longer be able to grow crops. Sure we can, just different crops. Then again, apocalyptic belief systems generally have little to do with either reasoning or positivity. edit: Before you flame me, I fully believe in climate change - I'm not denying anything here. I'm just saying humans can and will adapt.

namdnay 7y ago
> I'm just saying humans can and will adapt. The human race as a whole can and will adapt. Just as we have to particularly virulent strains of influenza. That doesn't mean it won't be a tragedy
- HelloNurse 7y ago
  Looking forward, I'll welcome European bananas and dates and cocoa, but what other crops will they replace?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]