This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Mathieu Comijn inspected rows of potatoes in a field of cracked earth and browned leaves, pulling from the ground tubers barely the size of pingpong balls. "How do you expect to make fries out of these?" asked the Belgian farmer in frustration as he uprooted another plant and examined it.
"Normally, they should be at least four times this size," he said. Like many Belgian farmers this summer, Comijn's harvest in Amay, near the eastern city of Liège, has been hit by a devastating combination of weather extremes. First, a spate of heavy rain and storms at the end of spring weakened the soil.
Then, as elsewhere in Europe, exceptionally hot and dry conditions followed—blamed by scientists on man-made climate change. That caused the soil to harden into compact clumps in which potatoes "cannot breathe properly" and struggle to grow, the farmer explained. "It's a disaster," the 30-year-old told AFP.
"I've never seen anything like it." The problem for Comijn is that all these rows of Bintje potatoes, a prized variety in Belgium, were destined to become long, golden fries—a beloved staple in a country dotted with "friteries" or "frituren," street stalls specializing in the stuff. Yet with just a month to go before the harvest, set for around Sept. 20, none are larger than the palm of his hand. The only silver lining is that their flavor has not been spoiled by their diminished size.
Comijn's father, Stephane, has been so distressed by the situation that he refused to visit the field for several days. "It's too painful," said the septuagenarian, wiping his forehead. The former head of the family farm struggles to remember weather this dry in the region—except, perhaps, during a historic heat wave in 1976.
But good harvest or bad, the Comijn family, who grow 500 hectares (1,236 acres) of potatoes, still have supply contracts to meet. As the world's top exporter of frozen fries, Belgium applies strict rules to its potato trade. Before the harvest, growers and processors negotiate both delivery volumes and prices.
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