How the Heat Wave is Frying Your Nutrients
Nationwide, agricultural losses are growing each year due to rising temperatures. This year, in particular, was especially hot, as seen with record-breaking the current record-breaking heat waves, which “are projected to become more frequent and extreme as the century progresses.”
Heatwaves affect crops by contributing to droughts, which can damage and limit crop growth. This is especially problematic because the countries that are experiencing heat waves are the major producers of certain crops.
For example, the Western region of the U.S., the leading producers of winter white wheat, produced half of what they usually make. The heat is shrinking the wheat kernels in the crop, thus causing less yield. Seed crops, fruits, and vegetables are also on the receiving end.
Farmers have taken part in trying to prevent losses from heat waves, but to little avail as the methods they used were too high maintenance. For instance, farmers would pick cherries from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. to beat the daytime heat. According to B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherry Growers, 20% of the crop was lost.
Apple farmers from Washington had no choice but to ride the heat out until spring. Fryhover, president of the Washington Apple Commission, says that the growth of apples has been stunted for the time being, but it is still possible for the crop to grow back if weather conditions normalize.
Crop damage from heatwaves and droughts contribute to an annual 10% drop in crop yield. Crop damage is devastating everywhere, but it is ever so more in developing and Third World countries. The reason for this is that they cannot afford to pay for the increasing crop prices as their crop yield is originally small to start with.
As seen in this infographic, droughts normally contribute to 10.1% of crop loss and heatwaves 9.1%. Before 2016, the number of years when crop production was above average and below-average was about the same. After 2016, most of the years had above-average crop production.
The data shows that crop destruction varies as it does not occur every single year; despite this, it is important to realize the issue at hand, as the average impact on crops from heat waves has tripled in Europe over the past 50 years.
In 2018, a heatwave affected Europe, causing cereal production to drop by 8%. In another heatwave during 2019, Europe saw record-breaking temperatures.
As discussed in our previous article on heatwaves, human-caused climate change is their major cause. Manmade climate change began in the Industrial Revolution and has become very prominent throughout the 21st century. Data from 1964–84 and 1985 to 2007 has shown that there was a 6% increase in agricultural losses from the two time periods — 6.7% in the earlier period and 13.7% in the latter.
It is important for governments to start taking action as crop damage will only get worse and worse as time goes on. You can do your part to combat climate change by walking more, using renewable bags, eating less meat, and advocating for change!
