Back and forth

As the weather continues to whipsaw between late winter and early summer, it seems like the lot of the dedicated gardener and farmer is becoming more interesting by the minute.  20 inches of rain in Texas, hail the size of baseballs, drought in the West and continuing uncertainty in most of the rest of the country are making decisions of what and when to plant more and more of a gamble.  While very few people are saying it out loud, I have to believe government officials concerned with food supplies are starting to get nervous.  Agriculture on the scale needed to feed billions of people operates in a narrow range of temperature and precipitation regimes.  Farmers are stubborn and will continue to plant even in the face of mounting evidence of futility, but at some point, failing performance and common sense will force changes.   At the very least, we are on the way to higher prices for smaller supplies.  I used to scoff at people who predicted growers would be switching to controlled environments in giant buildings in the future.  Now, it doesn't seem like pie in the sky anymore.