The cost of China’s food staples have remained high all year, and are now at record levels. The contributing factors are many, but the main ones are persistent bouts of cold during the first quarter of 2019, increased cloud cover limiting sun hours and now June’s record precipitation.

Welcome, China, to the next Grand Solar Minimum.

Vegetable prices usually see a sharp seasonal decline in the summer, but that isn’t expected to occur this year given China’s chronically short supply — the price of veg is currently 18.4% higher than the previous 3 years’ average.

Zhang Jing, chief analyst at China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, explained that a number of factors were at play, including a declining vegetable planting area and increasing labor costs.

However, the biggest factors were undoubtedly the frequent bouts of anomalous cold that whipped through the country during the first quarter of the year — seriously restricting the development of open-field vegetables — and now June’s record amounts of rain, responsible for flooding tens of thousands of hectares of crops.





Over 860K residents in central China’s #Hunan province have been affected by days-long freezing rain and snow, which has damaged 79,560 hectares of crops and caused a direct economic loss of about 819 million yuan ($119.3 million), local authorities said Friday. pic.twitter.com/lp3mafy46q — People's Daily, China (@PDChina) January 4, 2019



In fact, excessive rainfall and limited sun hours have been affecting China’s crops all year, according to Jing, as the influx of Cosmic Rays continues to increase global cloud cover — the result of low solar activity (see below).

The heavy deluges have killed at least 20 people in eastern and southern China over the past few days alone, and have left thousands more stranded, according to Chinese officials.

215 homes and 77,400 hectares of crops have been destroyed by the downpours thus far, which are expected to continue for the rest of the week (data courtesy of the Chinese Government).

In Guizhou province, an entire town was submerged under 2m (6.6 ft) of water.

While overall, 2 million people are thought to be affected.





Bad weather triggers floods in E and SW China, millions affected pic.twitter.com/vDrqYPe4oz — CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) June 11, 2019

Flood In Fujian Province,China.We hope no one will hurt. pic.twitter.com/kzaTGlL63b — Candy. Liao Dust Supression,Dust control (@Candy00134143) June 10, 2019



COSMIC RAYS, CLOUD SEEDING AND GLOBAL COOLING

Galactic Cosmic Rays are a mixture of high-energy photons and sub-atomic particles accelerated toward Earth by supernova explosions and other violent events in the cosmos. Solar Cosmic Rays are the same, though their source is the sun.

Cosmic rays hitting Earth’s atmosphere create aerosols which, in turn, seed clouds — making cosmic rays an important player in our weather and climate (Svensmark, et al).

During solar minimum, like the one we’re entering now, the sun’s magnetic field weakens and the outward pressure of the solar wind decreases. This allows more cosmic rays to penetrate our planet’s atmosphere.

With this being a Grand Solar Minimum we’re entering, Cosmic Rays should be off the charts, and that’s exactly what researchers are seeing:







Along with an uptick in localised precipitation, increased cloud cover has another major implication for our climate:

“Clouds are the Earth’s sunshade, and if cloud cover changes for any reason, you have global warming, or global cooling,” — Dr. Roy Spencer.

The upshot of our descent into this next Grand Solar Minimum will be a cooling of the planet.





Prepare.





Grow your own.





Grand Solar Minimum + Pole Shift



