Catastrophic Crop Failures in Morocco, and Why They Matter to You

Draft script:

From The Cool Down on 23 September 2024 comes this headline: Moroccan farmers issue warning of catastrophic crop failures as droughts persist: ‘We haven’t had a good year since 2000.’ Here’s the subhead: “At this point, it is unclear when farmers will have some relief, with the kingdom now in the sixth year of drought.”

The lede tells the story: “Farmers in Morocco are pivoting to new crops or halting operations altogether as droughts continue to wreak havoc on the North African kingdom, with one researcher telling Bloomberg that growing grain has become ‘synonymous to misery.’”

Under a section titled What’s happening?, The Cool Down quotes an article from June 2024 in Bloomberg. The Bloomberg articles are not open-access, which is why I’m quoting The Cool Down. “Bloomberg reported in June that Moroccan farmers are suffering as drought conditions are leading to a crisis impacting crop yields, putting the kingdom on track to import record levels of wheat to keep food on its people’s tables.”

A 77-year-old farmer is then quoted: “We haven’t had a good year since 2000, and the last three years were the worst.”

How bad is it? Here’s a line from a woman who, along with 10 co-workers, won a government prize for growing couscous as part of the King’s program to support economic participation by women: “I just can’t wrap my mind around what happened.” Her cooperative did not grow grain during this growing season. The grain was of poor quality and it was too expensive. The grain currently costs 7,300 dirhams per ton, whereas it cost about 4,000 dirhams per ton a decade ago. The women in the cooperative earn about 6,000 dirhams a year, which translates to about $600US per year.

Under the subhead titled Why is this important on a global scale?, The Cool Down reports “[a]t this point, it is unclear when farmers will have some relief, with the kingdom now in its sixth year of drought.

Studies suggest certain regions experience yearslong droughts as part of the planet's natural climate cycles. However, experts overwhelmingly agree that human activities — like the burning of dirty fuels — are supercharging extreme weather, leading to an uptick in the frequency and intensity of events like droughts as global temperatures warm.”

In other words, we have yet another trenchant reminder that Earth is in the midst of abrupt, irreversible climate change. Even the designed-to-fail Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that the current event is by far the most abrupt in planetary history. The IPCC has also concluded that climate change is irreversible, although it’s a rare news story that reports the IPCC reached the conclusions of abrupt and irreversible climate change more than five years ago. Not surprisingly, The Cool Down fails to point out this important detail.

Among the results of the horrific drought in Morocco is higher unemployment rates. As pointed out by an employee in Morocco’s National Institute of Agricultural Research, “Farming cereals has become synonymous to misery in the Moroccan countryside.”

In addition to higher rates of unemployment, grocery prices have risen. Morocco has begun to reduce exports of staples such as onions and potatoes, thereby spreading hunger to countries outside of Morocco.

In contrast to the increasingly dire situation, the story at The Cool Down continues with a subhead titled What is being done about this? The first sentence: “Morocco is working to improve the situation, … recommending small farms that ‘contribute to national food security’ receive priority shipments of supplies.” The following sentence quotes a February report from the Royal Institute for Strategic Studies which explains why “working to improve the situation” will fail: “Moroccan agriculture finds itself in an unprecedented critical situation.”

The bottom line tosses in some ill-warranted optimism: “Scientists in the kingdom have also developed more drought-resistant, high-yield crops, as well as agricultural technologies that leverage techniques such as drip irrigation (which requires less water to support crop growth).”

As I have pointed out a few dozen times in this space, the set of living arrangements with which we are familiar is rapidly changing. In fact, it is rapidly disintegrating. The ability to access clean air, potable water, and healthy food teeters on the proverbial brink.

I return to the subhead of the story at The Cool Down: “At this point, it is unclear when farmers will have some relief, with the kingdom now in the sixth year of drought.” The declining ability to grow food is not merely a problem for Morocco. Rather, it’s an ongoing struggle for people of the world. Too many people demanding too much food leads directly to a situation famously pointed out by Thomas Malthus in the early 1800s: The exponential growth of humans, coupled with the linear growth of the food supply, is a prescription for disaster.

Only recently have humans discovered how horrific the disaster will be. A significant decline in the human population leads to a reduction in aerosol masking and also the uncontrolled meltdown of nuclear facilities. Either outcome is sufficient to cause our extinction, and therefore the extinction of all life on Earth. I suspect you will join me in preferring another path.