In all, some 2.09 million bushels, about a third of the crop, are expected to be lost in what farmers say is the worst crop damage in memory.
A bit later, von Bremzen reaches her own birth, in 1963, a year also remembered for one of the worst crop failures in post-Stalin history.
By now, of course, it has become clear that real money is at stake: recent 401(k) statements have been the worst crop in years.
The people who live around the park in Bwindi tend to look upon gorillas as at worst crop-raiding vermin - they steal bananas - at best a potential form of income: gorilla tourism is arranged so that 12% of permit revenue goes towards building schools and roads in the region, thereby giving locals an incentive not to encroach on or poach in the forest.
The storm destroyed 3,107 acres of mango trees and 5,662 acres of bananas were destroyed, with the worst crop damage occurring in Jalisco.
Blistering heat in the US has destroyed 45% of the corn and 35% of the soya bean crop in the worst harvest since 1988.
Greedy for nutrients and notoriously dependent on nitrogen-rich fertilisers, oilseed rape is among the worst arable crops for leaching nitrates into waterways and polluting aquifers.
About 1.47 million lost power, and widespread crop damage occurred, resulting in the worst rice crop in 23 years.
In 2011, Western Australian beekeepers faced a drought that ushered in the worst honey crop in more than three decades.
Purple nut sedge (Cyperus rotundus), arguably the world's worst weed, infests crops throughout tropical and warm-temperate regions of the world.
