{"id":475053,"date":"2026-09-29T07:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=475053"},"modified":"2026-09-29T07:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T14:28:10","slug":"no-npr-climate-change-is-not-challenging-new-yorks-apple-growers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=475053","title":{"rendered":"No, NPR, Climate Change Is Not Challenging New York\u2019s Apple Growers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Two<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A recent interview from NPR affiliate WAMC Northeast Public Radio\u2019s \u201cNortheast Notebook\u201d titled \u201cApple growers confront climate change, fuel challenges for 2026 harvest<\/a>,\u201d blames low apple production in New York on \u201cincreasingly unpredictable\u201d weather. This story is promoting a factually inaccurate narrative. If climate change was harming New York apple production, there would be evidence of this in apple production and yields over the long term, but this is not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WAMC published a transcript of an interview style report conducted with Hudson Valley apple growers, who WAMC says \u201cencountered a late April frost, skyrocketing diesel prices, and a federal crackdown on foreign labor in 2026,\u201d which have created \u201cuncertain economic conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sam Dingman, reporter for the WAMC\u2019s Northeast Notebook, claimed that apple farmers need to guard themselves \u201cagainst unexpected losses from increasingly unpredictable spring weather,\u201d ultimately blaming climate change for allegedly worsening growing conditions for apple farmers in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it is true that a late spring frost can damage yields for a season, this is normal weather variability, not climate change. Also, the good news is that late spring frosts are becoming less frequent. One need only look at the April minimum temperature data in New York<\/a> to see that cold snaps are not becoming more extreme or unpredictable during apple bloom season. In fact, previous decades saw larger variation between April lows than recent years. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Line<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Farmers have have had to deal with bad weather every season, some worse than others, throughout history. The fact that spring blooming seasons are slightly longer today than they were a hundred-plus years ago, does not indicate trouble for crops, rather the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a> show that apple production and yields in New York have risen 35 percent from just 1980 to 2025, with 2025 having seen an all-time record for production. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Bar<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

If long term climate change was damaging apple production, one would expect long-term damage to be indicated by the data, but it is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous Climate Realism<\/em> articles have covered similar claims about apple production from the U.S. at large<\/a>, and even Kashmir<\/a>, and in both of those cases the data showed the same thing: apple production and yields have increased across the United States and the world amid the modest climate change of the past century. That is despite the fact that in the United States at least, the acreage devoted to growing apples has declined in the past few decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course apple growers in New York and elsewhere may be experiencing difficulties, like higher costs due to skyrocketing diesel prices and a federal crackdown on foreign labor, and that might have made a compelling story, but those factors have nothing to do with the story\u2019s lede, \u201cClimate Change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NPR\u2019s affiliate station in New York is promoting a lot of nonsense in this story, in line with standard climate alarmist propaganda. One bad season for apples on certain farms can\u2019t be blamed on climate change, that\u2019s the truth the data shows and nothing but.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent interview from NPR affiliate WAMC Northeast Public Radio\u2019s \u201cNortheast Notebook\u201d titled \u201cApple growers confront climate change, fuel challenges for 2026 harvest,\u201d blames low apple production in New York on \u201cincreasingly unpredictable\u201d weather. This story is promoting a factually inaccurate narrative. If climate change was harming New York apple production, there would be evidence of this in apple production and yields over the long term, but this is not the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":475054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"Discover how New York's apple production thrives despite climate challenges, debunking myths around climate change impacts on farming.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Debunking Climate Change Myths: New York Apple Production Thrives","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691845843,691818056,691845499,691845844,691818867,691819821,691834505,691845842],"class_list":["post-475053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apple-production","tag-climate-change","tag-cold-snaps","tag-hudson-valley-apple-growers","tag-new-york","tag-npr","tag-u-s-department-of-agriculture","tag-wamc-northeast-public-radio","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1ZA9","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":242533,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=242533","url_meta":{"origin":475053,"position":0},"title":"Sorry, OZY\/The Drop, Climate Change Did Not Cause 2022\u2019s Decline in Kashmir\u2019s Apple Production","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/31\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Data from the United Nations shows that, amid normal annual ups and downs typical of agriculture, apple production in India-administered Kashmir has increased considerably over the recent period of modest warming.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1365.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1365.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1365.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1365.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-1365.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":472791,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=472791","url_meta":{"origin":475053,"position":1},"title":"No, Climate Change is Not \u2018Squeezing\u2019 the World\u2019s Vineyards","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/21\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"It has become one of the settled rituals of the climate-activist press: almost any hardship afflicting any agricultural sector, anywhere in the world, is now reflexively laid at the door of \u201cclimate change\u201d. 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