Wednesday, December 30, 2009
(photo: Greg of Marin)
American farmers will have no shortage of challenges in the coming decades, thanks to global warming. A new federal study, sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, details how changes in weather and climate will affect crop and livestock production.
For instance, crops such as wheat, canola, flaxseed and sunflower are likely to experience higher chances of failure due to rising temperatures and fluctuations in rainfall. But farmers growing soybean, cotton, beans, and tomatoes may experience higher yields and need less water for these crops, due to higher amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
However, farmers may have a great struggle with weeds in the future. Experts forewarn of an increase in “invasive” weeds, which thrive off carbon monoxide, and a weakening of glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the United States, which doesn’t function well under higher CO2 conditions.
Ranchers, like farmers, will have to deal with a proliferation of pathogens and parasites, which will benefit from earlier springs and warmer winters.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
The Effects of Climate Change on U.S. Ecosystems (U.S. Global Change Research Program) (pdf)
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