Cherry farmers in Michigan facing a crisis caused by ongoing climate change have needed to turn to the federal government for assistance.
What's happening?
As detailed by Grist last month, unpredictable weather patterns have taken a toll on cherry farmers within the last year, pushing many to the brink of bankruptcy. This past fall, the Department of Agriculture approved a request from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for emergency assistance to cover crop losses through a federal disaster declaration.
"None of us really want to get to the point where it's considered a disaster, and now we are," Raul Gomez, operations manager at Wunsch Farms, told Grist.
The problem hasn't been limited to Michigan, as Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University, told Grist that farms nationwide are dealing with similar struggles, with some regions like the Midwest "facing the onset of an agricultural recession." Grist listed a slew of reasons for the downturn, including "extreme weather, rising labor and production costs, imbalances in global supply and demand, and declines in what growers earn and what they receive in disaster relief."
"Every industry, everybody has struggles at times, and this is our struggle time," Leisa Eckerle Hankins, a fifth-generation Michigan cherry farmer, told Grist. "And so we're coming together to look at how we can change things."
Why is this important?
According to Grist, Michigan is responsible for 75% of tart cherries in the United States and one-fifth of the nation's sweet cherries. Unfortunately, as much as 75% of the state's sweet cherry crop was lost by the end of the season because of volatile weather significantly impacting the quality of the fruits.
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"An unusually mild winter followed by a warm, wet spring marked by torrential rain left a lot of the fruit rotting on the trees," Grist explained. "That led to an explosion of fungi and pests. Diseases like brown rot diminished the quality of several varieties and the size of the harvest."
To make matters worse, many farmers face the common issue of struggling to access and afford crop insurance because of costly premiums, hindering them from protecting themselves from these immense losses.
Grist noted that small farmers who apply for federal disaster aid relief have faced similar roadblocks with eligibility and coverage. Data from the USDA Economic Research Service in 2022 revealed that only 13% of the nation's estimated 1.9 million farms were enrolled in a crop insurance plan.
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What's being done about this?
For now, federal government assistance is the primary avenue for cherry farmers in Michigan to overcome the losses from last season. Grist illustrated how some of them have adjusted to the constant changes.
"Many growers are adapting to the difficult market and changing climate, planting different varieties or embracing high-density orchards with trees packed more closely together — an approach that makes them easier to harvest while lowering costs and improving quality," Grist stated.
Isaiah Wunsch, CEO of Wunsch Farms, told Grist that the key to survival is "not putting all of our eggs into one basket."
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