Food Production in a Climate Changing World
With rising temperatures around the world, the pressure on food production is heating up.
“In the western Sierra Nevadas, the air is filled with smoke and haze from wildfires. In the Central Valley south of Sacramento, dust whips across fallow fields, thanks to lack of rain and a record drought. Near the coast, people worry about bigger storms.”
In recent years, climate change has become an undeniable force in public discussion. Climate change impacts nearly every global environmental process, from water to soil to the sun and air. All of this has had — and will continue to have — a drastic impact on our ability to sustain food production.
According to the EPA, since 1901, the average surface temperature across the contiguous 48 states has risen at an average rate of 0.13°F per decade, and since 1970, the rate has more than doubled to an average of 0.26°F to 0.43°F per decade. This rapid warming is occurring due to increases of CO2 in the atmosphere driven by exponentially increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The added CO2 thickens the “greenhouse blanket”, thus trapping heat that would normally have been released, back in the Earth’s atmosphere. This causes global warming at an exponential rate. Since the latter portion of the 1970s, the rate of warmth in the United States has been significantly faster than the global average of 0.15°F. In fact, 2005–2014 was the warmest decade ever on documented and this winter is shaping up to shatter temperature norms as well as the warmest winter on record.
The unseasonably warm temperatures can be partially attributed to this year’s strong El Niño, a periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean that brings warmer air and more moisture to North and South America. However, global warming is also contributing to the warmth; as of 2012, we’ve raised the temperature of the planet .8°C, causing enormous amounts of damage throughout the world. A third of summer sea ice in the Arctic has disappeared, meaning that the deep ocean, previously covered in ice now absorbs solar heat instead of reflecting thus contributing to even more temperature rise. Oceans have become more acidic, and frequency of floods has increased in many areas while other have experienced devastating droughts.
These extensive environmental shifts have clear and radical impacts on the food production industry in the United States, specifically in California, where much of U.S. grown produce is harvested. Food crops are extremely sensitive to climate change. As global population continues to soar, the pressure put on an already challenged food production process has increased drastically. While the extent of cropland reductions fluctuates due to enormous uncertainties surrounding global climate changes, it is abundantly clear that global warming will alter production of vital crops. According to the Center for International Earth Science Information, “rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and potatoes” are essential food crops for people in both North America and Africa. While some benefits, such as longer growing seasons due to increased temperature have been suggested, increased frequency of flooding can cause catastrophic losses to produce yield. Extreme summer heat can endanger food security, diminishing crop yields, increasing water consumption and plant development.
A perfect example of these intense effects occurred in 2003, during the European heat wave. The extreme heat caused 20 to 35 percent drops in the yields of key food crops. Summer heat is only projected to increase; however the severity and the pace of climate change also affect agricultural production. In California, the production of one kilogram of corn requires approximately 1,400 liters of water; a kilogram of rice needs 4,700 liters; and a kilogram of cotton needs 17,000 liters. Without adequate rain supply, these crop fields require copious amounts irrigated water, thus necessitating large amounts of fossil fuels to draw water from deeper depths.
These impacts are felt from Europe, to California to right here in New York City. David Rowley, the primary farmer at Monkshood Nursery, a vegetable farm located in Stuyvesant, Columbia County has distinctly felt these environmental effects. Rowley says that climate change impacts have had palpable effects for his crops. “I’ve had to put more effort into greenhouse production than into outside production as a consequence of losing my crops. It seems that the weather systems are becoming more concentrated all at once, so like we’ll have mediocre weather and then we’ll have storm that’s just insane and just wipes everything out.” This unpredictability of weather has caused widespread losses throughout recent years and has had impacts on the farms ability to survive and profit. When asked if he felt that these losses were increasing in frequency, Rowley responded, “I think it is increasing in severity, so it’s about trying to prepare and work around that so that there are not such dramatic losses.”
The effects of climate change and rising temperatures have clear and powerful impacts throughout the United States and beyond. With the rapidly increasing atmospheric temperatures, social and political changes have been slow to adjust. If these changes continue to occur unchecked, the severity and frequency of climate extremes, including heat waves, floods and droughts will occur. Already, the frequency and extent of wildfires, both in California and throughout the United States, have had significant impacts on agriculture and food production.
California provides food for most of the country, despite its nearly constant fight against drought and other climate change issues. These environmental issues have severe consequences for humans as well, especially for those who work on the California farms. Increasing droughts in California over the last decades, with the California entering its fifth year of severe drought, contribute to incidence of wildfires. From 2001 to 2014, there were an average of 8,093 wildfires per year, with average of 2,272 kilometers of damage for each instance. In a 2014 study, the American Meteorological Society concluded that man-made global warming is a cause of the exacerbation of the “areal extent and frequency of extreme fire risk”. The increased temperatures and droughts contribute heavily to the wildfire’s spread. This impact can be seen in the progression of drought throughout just one year in California and the subsequent drastic impacts on wildfire frequency and extent for the following year .
These environmental changes and increases in temperatures and incidence of fires have enormous human impacts as well. The individuals who work on these farms have an increased threat of injury both from the heightened fire risk and the dangerous increases in temperature. Since 1995, there has been a significant spike in the amount of deaths classified as heat related in the United States according to the EPA. Farming in general is one of the top three most dangerous professions in the United States, a large part of which can be attributed to long hours of work in the heat and sun. Among farm workers, heat stroke is the number one leading cause of death, a fact that can only be exacerbated by overall increasing of temperatures. Farm workers, often paid by piece (meaning amount they harvest), face economic pressures to continuously work without break, a dangerous fact with the ever-increasing temperatures throughout California.
Not only do climate change and rising temperatures have negative environmental impacts, but also severe detrimental human impact as well. The environmental and physical cost of food production will only increase with temperature rise and greenhouse gas emission, a fact that demands intervention. From the farm workers who experience a vast array of negative physical impacts, to producers who face rising costs of food production and transportation, to the citizens around the world who face rapidly diminishing food security and accessibility, it is clear that temperature rise due to climate change demands immediate attention and ultimately, action.
