For decades we’ve been hearing reports about droughts in California and the South-West. Down South, in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas… and in the parts of California that haven’t caught fire… we have increasing flooding. Since the turn of the Century, climate deniers were once able to ignore how the weather was changing. For their evidence, they either used increasingly outdated and suspicious data from the Petroleum industry, or they simply said some scientist somewhere didn’t fully agree about every detail of Climate Change. Even if that “scientist” was in some field that had nothing to do with climate.
Looking back, the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”, the single most hated documentary by the petroleum-protecting Right, has been far too…. ahhh… conservative? Compared to the predictions it made, some elements of environmental collapse have been even faster than predicted. Climate scientists told us that the rare mega-wildfires in California would become more frequent. And they have. Once-every-decade (or two) fires have become an annual event, with bigger fires every year, and some fires setting (and beating) records several times a year. In 2016 alone, California had TEN of the biggest wildfires in history.
Even more importantly, further defying the climate deniers, places with similar environmental conditions are beginning to experience the same annual mega-fires. Environmentally driven annual fires began in California, but similar circumstances have created seasonal wildfires in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Australia, and Siberia. Fires in Siberia alone are now bigger than all other wildfires… combines (yep, that includes California). An area half the size of the United States is on fire and growing.
But fires and floods are only part of what’s happening. As carbon in the air rises, the temperature becomes warmer and that will devastate US culture, including the very food we eat. Of course, our dwindling water supply will create deep divides in places like Texas and Arizona where water is becoming scarce. Who gets the next liter of water? Farms or homes?
What about states like Georgia? And the humble Georgia Peach. Every year, all over America cooks and connoisseurs await the new summer crop of Georgia peaches. Think about the peach pies and crumbles that define the summer for many families. Yet, in Georgia and elsewhere where peaches are grown, farmers know that peaches require a bit of frost earlier in the year to produce a perfect peach.
Unfortunately, Georgia and other traditional peach-growing states are becoming too warm to profitably grow peaches. South Carolina and California have already taken over as the primary source of American peaches. Soon these farms will close and new farms will be established further north. Somehow the Tennessee Peach sound just doesn’t sound right.
Not just peaches are being affected. Consider the apple, the most American fruit there is! Apples often require a frost, especially the popular MacIntosh. In Florida, oranges and citrus fruits, the most iconic produce from Florida, is in decline and may soon be gone as invasive species and diseases are spreading more quickly in their ever-warmer summers. If your family still drinks orange juice, look carefully at the container. Chances are that while it may be “packaged” in the US, it probably comes from Brazil or South America.
How about wine? Many states grow wine, but the Napa and Sonoma valleys of California are considered the best-growing areas. American wine was once considered to be second-class (at best). After decades of work and experimentation, California wines began winning global competitions. The world began to see Californian wines as world-class. Now, California wines are under multiple threats. California has many micro-climates, where one side of a hill has very different temperatures and moisture than the other side of the same hill. That’s why California produces so many types of wine. But rising temperatures are damaging these “pocket environments”, and dwindling water resources are killing crops. Add to that the smoke from the wildfires, which taints the wine. Over time, smoke particles will settle into the soil and change the all-important chemistry of the soil.
What goes on beneath the waves is invisible to most Americans. That’s why few realize what Maine lobstermen have been talking about for years. Lobsters and other sea life are on the move. Lobsters love cold water, and it’s what makes the Maine Lobsters so desirable. But as the ocean continues to warm, they have moved to deeper and deeper waters. To get the cold water they seek, they are moving to the cooler waters in the north. That’s right, soon Maine lobsters will become Canadian residents. For years climate scientists have warned us that we will see environmental refugees. Who would have thought that the Maine Lobster would be our first agricultural refugee?
You may be thinking, “Fewer peaches, less perfect wine, and no Maine lobsters? Is that it? Is that the worst of climate change?” No, it’s not. That’s just a few examples. Just about everything in agriculture is about to change. American agriculture has been and remains the most productive in the world. This productivity came at the cost of a century of matching crops with the right soil and weather, finding or creating the right variety of crops that would be the most productive, and being near enough water (or building extensive water infrastructure. And, of course, putting railroads and highways in the right spots to efficiently move crops to market. It took us 100 years to get this just right. The weather is changing rapidly. We may not be able to move farms and railroads around fast enough to keep up, and productivity will fall. This loss of crops will not be limited to just the US.
Grains are the primary source of calories for America, and the rest of the world. Corn, Wheat, and Rice are what we eat. If we do nothing, we will have much smaller crops. Alternatively, we can invest in new railroads, waterways, financial incentives to move farmers, and a lot more if we want to maintain historical yields. Will we learn to accept new foods that are more adaptable to our changing climate?
American agriculture will still be big. Yet, it feels like we will lose something important as climate change forces us to change our food culture. Local farmers are all but gone. Yet, especially as we had into Thanksgiving, we should all write our congressmen and women and tell them that they still have time to make up for years of climate denial. They can still take actions that will preserve America’s food culture.
What do you think? Does it matter to you if our agriculture changes? Share your opinions with our readers and let us know!