So there are bigass storms, bigass fires, COVID is still on its death march, and Afghanistan is in the news.

It's like I didn't take Friday off.

Does it feel like Groundhog Day, every day? Yeah...

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And soon, we won't even have melons.

MENDOTA, Calif. — This small town in California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley advertises itself as the “Cantaloupe Center of the World.” But as relentless drought punishes California and the West, the land is drying up and the cantaloupes are disappearing.

Farmers have let large portions of their melon fields lie fallow as they struggle to get by on dramatically curtailed water supplies. Some are giving their vines barely enough water to stay alive in an effort to conserve. In other cases, fields that have already been planted will never get harvested because there’s not enough water for the fruit to survive.

“We could have fields that could burn up because of lack of water,” said Joe Del Bosque, who grows organic melons on a 2,000-acre farm near here and sells to high-end grocers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Del Bosque has cut back his melon crop by 20 percent this year.

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When California ceases being the food capital of the US (and much of the world), it's over.

You heard it here first.

Get the rest of the Morning Sixpack here.

Make it a great day!

Bill

🍺 PS - Buy me a beer to keep the Daily Grind News open for business!