A smorgasbord of bright red tomatoes and vibrant vegetables line the walls of Michael Katrutsa’s produce shop in rural Camden, Tennessee. What began a decade ago as a roadside farm stand is now an air-conditioned outbuilding packed with crates of watermelon, cantaloupe and his locally renowned sweet corn—all picked fresh by a handful of local employees each morning.
The roughly 20-acre farm west of the Tennessee River sells about half of its produce through his shop, with the rest going to the wholesale market.
Farms like Katrutsa’s make up just a sliver of roughly 10.7 million acres of Tennessee farmland largely dominated by hay, soybeans, corn and cotton. Specialized machines help farmers harvest vast quantities of these commodity “row crops,” but Katrutsa said the startup cost was too steep for him. While specialty crops like produce are more labor-intensive, requiring near-constant attention from early July up until the first frost in October, Katrutsa said he takes pride in feeding his neighbors.
The World Wildlife Fund sees farms in the mid-Mississippi delta as ripe with opportunity to become a new mecca for commercial-scale American produce. California currently grows nearly three-quarters of the nation’s fruits and nuts and more than a third of its vegetables.
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But as climate change compounds the threats of water scarcity, extreme weather and wildfires on California’s resources, WWF’s Markets Institute is exploring what it would take for farmers in West Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas to embrace—and equitably profit from—specialty crop production like strawberries, lettuce or walnuts.
As climate change threatens California’s agriculture, some hope farmers in the Mississippi River Delta will embrace specialty crop production. Map by Ag & Water Desk / Source: WWF ” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?fit=300%2C275&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?fit=780%2C714&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button” src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?resize=780%2C714&ssl=1″ alt class=”wp-image-46241″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?resize=1024%2C938&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?resize=300%2C275&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?resize=768%2C704&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?resize=1200%2C1099&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?resize=400%2C366&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta.jpg?w=1240&ssl=1 1240w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Map-mid-south-delta-1024×938.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w” sizes=”(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px” data-recalc-dims=”1″>As climate change threatens California’s agriculture, some hope farmers in the Mississippi River Delta will embrace specialty crop production. Map by Ag & Water Desk / Source: WWF Credit: Created with Datawrapper
Specialty crops make
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