Fewer Apples For The Fall: Climate change wiped out Massachusetts farm crops this year

By Chloe Adams

October 23, 2023

With about 78 apple orchards in Massachusetts, fall is in the air when they start to offer seasonal apple picking, fresh apple cider donuts, baked apple pie and hot apple cider. 

While apples are a high demand fruit, their availability this season has fallen short — crops at farms and orchards were damaged after climate change struck Massachusetts throughout the year.

A May freeze led to major crop losses once temperatures almost hit record lows in areas of the Northeast. Then, over the summer, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources estimated that the July floods in central and western parts of the state resulted in at least $15 million worth of crop loss.

Between increased precipitation and fluctuating temperatures, farmers had no way of predicting these inconsistent weather patterns.

Marissa Galat, the retail manager at Carlson Orchards, said the farm’s apple orchard had a significantly smaller crop this year following the May freeze.

“We have been pretty cleaned out,” said Galat. “We had a couple varieties that only lasted one weekend due to how few we had, and some of our trees had none at all.”

Apples were not the only crop impacted by unpredictable weather patterns: An arctic freeze earlier in the year destroyed peaches and plums for all farms in the state.

“The entire peach crop got wiped out after the first negative weather in February, so that was a major hit,” said Galat. 

In terms of business revenue, she said there was “no peach-pickin’, so that definitely hurt.”

Since agriculture serves the economy and plays a vital role in the food industry, consumers also face disruptions in the availability of produce whenever the weather is erratic, not just in Massachusetts, but all throughout the United States.

David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, wrote in an email that “climate change is one of the biggest threats” to the Food and Agriculture Sector. He said these environmental pressures are “often manifested as sporadic shortages, stock outs, low quality products or heightened prices.”

Tristan Green, the vice chair of Boston University’s Earth and Environment Graduate Student Association, said climate change is a complex issue, and weather irregularities are nothing new.

“Climate change in the past century is largely driven by human activities — mostly due to fossil fuels burning,” he said.

Green, who is also a member of the BU Land Cover and Surface Climate group, said implementing small changes goes a long way when it comes to improving the planet.

“Easy things, like using a reusable water bottle, impacts a lot of what your carbon footprint is,” he said.

Climate change is not slowing down, so agriculture workers are keeping up with breakthroughs that can help them combat unprecedented weather events.

“There’s always new information — you always have to be on the edge,” said Gerard Beirne, owner of Berlin Orchards. “You have to be ready to avail it, or you might get left behind.”

Beirne does not let one difficult year — or any bad apples — put a damper on his attitude towards the future of farming.

“The Patriots don’t win the Super Bowl every year,” he said. “Not every year is going to look great, but it has to look hopeful.”