Climate change is coming for your pizza sauce

last year

last modified: last year

The 2021 heat wave had big consequences: By the end of the season, growers across CA delivered about 10 percent less than the expected tomato crop. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is, because CA grows 90% of the country’s canning tomatoes—the second most valuable produce product that CA exports. And even a 10% production drop left canners—who provide the tomatoes that become pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and ketchup—in a tight spot:

Farmers struggle with climate change

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l pinkmountain

last year

I am still working on last year's canned tomatoes. I plan on buying from a local vegetable farm this year. Last year we had a garden with 50+ plants and it was too, too much and I can get them cheaper from a farm market if I can find one. Someone told me about one this year. I have a small garden this year with five tomato plants. I've still got pizza sauce and tomato sauce from last year, and salsa. The canned tomatoes are all gone. I have sundried ones too, that I bought. I like those on pizza. There's a huge tomato growing greenhouse in my town. Ironically I don't think they supply the local grocery . . .

Cue argument, but we are now seeing the downside of big centralization and having only a few big suppliers of products in only a few places, instead of a diverse economy. Told ya so!! So many small to mid sized farms went out of business in the last 25 years, along with small and mid sized processors. How many cards can you take out before the whole house tumbles. Never seemed like a good idea to me . . . We've already sort of dialed down our eating to be much more dependent on local and seasonal foods, but we do eat a lot of canned tomatoes in the winter . . .

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Comments (11)

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
last year
last modified: last year
Tomatoes are tricky here, in central TX. By high summer, it is too hot for the flowers to pollinate, so our crop is May/June, with some leftovers just ripening in July. You have to plant out early to have them mature in time to be flowering by May. May is BIG POLLINATION TIME. We just had the hottest May on record, and I got almost ZERO pollination. We're in El Niña, which tends to raise temps, but we've been there many times, and this has never happened to me.
Lars
last year
I stocked up on canned tomatoes a few months ago before the price went up because I was aware of this. I'm transferring some of the cans (after opening them) to the freezer.
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Someone who knows better, please correct me if I'm wrong. A typical pizza sauce is very thick. Is this too much for a home canner in a BWB? Are the approved ones more on the runny side, then boil down before use? Alyssa Lee--whether you can a recipe (or buy tomato paste and spice it yourself), you will be able to find tons of recipes for the spices needed in pizza sauce. Basic place to start would be garlic powder, oregano (powder is better for pizza sauce to me) and some other Italian spices--basil, parsley,or go with a blend. Google will show you bunches of recipes, but until you have the equip to make your own puree, just play and come up with what you like best. Tomato paste is much cheaper than the flavored, and you'll be able to personalize it more. Oregano is the main flavor I associate with pizza sauce. As for equip--decide how much it will be used. I have a Squeezo strainer (similar to the Victorio Dave mentioned) and wouldn't be without it for making tomato or applesauce. But, it's spendy to buy (mine came from DH's grandma) so unless you'll be doing lots, it may not be worth it.
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cindy-6b/7a VA
last year
I happen to live in an area where growing tomatoes is conducive. I currently have 72 tomato plants in the ground. Hopefully, the production will be enough for canning this season.
KatieC
last year
I have a really short season so I grow my tomatoes in a high tunnel/hoop house. I had good germination this year so I guess I'll stop trying to give away starts and pack that thing full.
plllog
last year
Sad about the tomatoes, but I'm reminded of the mozzarella shortage some years back, and a pithy T-short that said, "Life's too short to eat bad pizza." :) I don't know that a 10% crop decrease will cause true shortages. More like, make the culls more desirable, is my guess. It will send the prices up, though.
Islay Corbel
last year
I don't think there's any global shortage of tomatoes. America is a big place so surely if there was a downturn in the Californian crop, there was a great crop elsewhere? Any excuse is good today to put up prices.
Judi
last year
last modified: last year
I buy my canned tomatoes from Supermarket Italy.

https://www.lavalleus.com/
carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
last year
So true, pinkmountain!

And don't forget there is currently a war in one the world's biggest sources of wheat and cooking oil, along with a shortage of farmworkers to harvest crops in many places. Things are rotting in the fields because of that.
plllog
last year
And the peppers were bad this year, and Huy Fong are predicting a sriracha shortage...
daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
last year
last modified: last year
That doesn't make a lot of sense about centralization being the cause of this problem. Small producers aren't going to have fields that are any cooler than large producers. Centralization doesn't raise temperatures. There are good reasons to have a large and diverse range of producers, but this isn't one of them. In fact, centralization is more about marketing than production. In the case of peppers, and the Sriracha shortage, it's mostly about drought. Centralization doesn't dry things out either. If anything, large farms manage water better than small farms do.

Climate change is coming for your pizza sauce

l pinkmountain

Comments (11)

daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)

Lars

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