What's Happening Now

Roscommon/Crawford Chapter

Farming and Climate Change

Today's news is all about the corona virus, so it is easy to let climate change concerns slip to the back burner of our collective consciousness. One of the immediate effects of the virus is how quickly it provoked food shortages and yielded bare shelves at grocery stores. Everyone hopes these shortages are temporary; that once the virus disappears the world food supply will return to normal. Given the lack of progress in combating climate change, that is unlikely. The fact is "climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity, and agriculture feels its effects in profound ways," according to a leading supplier to the international agricultural industry.

As you know from reading our Climate Change Blogs, effects of climate change include drought, severe heat, flooding, storm and fire danger depending upon where you live. All these things hurt agriculture.

Still think climate change won't affect you? Here is another question - do you like to eat? According to ag experts, your food bill is about to get higher unless farmers adopt changes to combat the negative effects of climate change. They explain that today's crops and ag practices will have difficulty with the increasingly severe environmental changes.

Let's look at just three foods; rice, wheat and corn, the world’s three leading food crops; together they supply 42 % of all calories consumed by the entire human population. If anything happens to upset the supplies of these three crops, you can be certain that world-wide prices for food will rise as people will pay any price to keep their family food supply intact.

That 42% of calories provided by rice, wheat, and corn is nearly half of the calories consumed by many nations, but it provides nearly 100% of calories for poorer regions. In our land of riches, the three staples are almost incidental to the things that we eat since our farmers have given us an unequaled supply of food that includes meats, vegetables, dairy and other processed foods of all types. Yet, roughly one-half of the world's population, including virtually all East and Southeast Asia, is wholly dependent upon rice as a staple food. Approximately 200 million small farmers grow rice for the 3.5 billion people who live in these areas. By 2030, rice yields will have to rise by 30 percent—from the same area of arable land, to guarantee food security. Why? because many of the current rice fields are in low lying areas that are susceptible to flooding and consequent loss of plants. Sea water intrusion into low, coastal areas will also cause salt poisoning of the rice fields, further reducing suitable land for future cultivation.

The story for wheat and corn is also dire because of expected water problems. There will be higher sea levels from melting ice and higher rainfall amounts IN SOME AREAS. On the other side of the spectrum, climate change also creates conditions that lead to drought. Wheat farmers in the Midwestern United States require about 20 inches of rainfall per year, but in some years, they only get half that. With drought as a considerable factor, recent studies indicate that wheat harvests will decline by 6 % for every degree of climate warming. Furthermore, our continuing rise of CO2 means that more drought will cause lower wheat yields. Unfortunately, we love our bread in America. With continued growth of the world's population it is predicted that demand for wheat will increase by approximately 60 percent by 2050. (see https://www.cropscience.bayer.com/people-planet/climate-change)

In some parts of the world, many are already struggling to meet food demands and governments are taking steps to increase land for farming and animal husbandry. Deforestation of the amazon rain forests and draining of wetlands are examples of changes underway in response to the desire for more food. Both these changes are harmful to the health of the planet by increasing the amount of carbon polluting our atmosphere and reducing the ability of the natural ecosystems to absorb and store carbon. Fortunately, technology in America is helping farmers grow enough food on less land, but other regions in the world have less technology and are unable to match these improvements.

One example of new technology is associated with the ages-old process of tilling the soil. For eons, farmers plowed their fields in the spring before planting, confident that tilling the soil would reduce weed growth and allow the planted seeds to sprout and grow. New technology has proven that tilling is unnecessary for plant growth and is increasing soil's contribution to climate change by the release of CO2 as carbon is brought to the surface. It has now been proven that tilling is unnecessary; furthermore, ‘no-till’ avoids use of gasoline needed for tilling. ‘No-till’ farming has increased in America; latest data indicate more than 1/3 of all US farms now practice some form of no-till including Michigan farms with several on the Leelanau Peninsula.

Another promising technology is the use of newly developed microbes that will help crops extract nitrogen from the air, radically reducing the need for man-made fertilizer and offering a step towards a carbon-zero approach to farming.

U.S. farmers are leading us forward by increasing food supplies and working toward carbon free operations. We should follow their lead and make the changes we can in daily life to insure the health of our planet. Stay tuned for our suggestions on what we can each do to help.