Is climate change responsible for the decline in crops?

The recent decline in agriculture production

The recent rise in food prices has become a center of attention for many people around the world. Throughout the past few years, grocery store prices have skyrocketed, which happens for a huge variety of reasons. Along with pandemic and war, climate change is a leading cause of this decline. Among the foods that have been most impacted are soybeans, olive oil, rice, potatoes, and cocoa. And since shortage leads to price increase, people around the world have been struggling to find good quality food. 

The connection between climate and agriculture

Climate change could technically have either a good or bad effect on agriculture. Although it has the capability to lengthen the growing season and expand usable land, it also causes a lot of inconsistency in growing seasons. Overall, climate change harms the agriculture industry because no matter how much it may yield crops in new regions, it’ll end up harming crops in different regions. This causes farmers to have to predict where crops will be able to grow in advance, which isn’t reliable. Climate change also doesn’t necessarily affect temperature alone–it also can lead to shifts in the patterns of frost, precipitation, wind, and land quality. Each of these factors affect the growth of crops in a different way. Firstly, frost can be a huge problem because it can stunt plant growth in the best cases, and damage and kill plants in the worst. This means the entire growing process has to start again. Precipitation is one of the biggest influences on the success of a harvest. Drought, defined as the absence of precipitation, can lead to plants not getting the water they need, killing them. But too much rain is also a big problem. Excess water can create flooding in croplands, limiting access of farmers to their crops. Without care, the plants may die. The water can also remove nutrients from soil or promote mold growth, meaning plant growth would be less successful. In addition, rain causes delays in planting that eventually results in delays in harvesting. Wind can lead to topsoil being blown away, which is the layer of soil containing the most nutrients that plants need to grow. Strong enough wind can tear leaves and flowers off plants, or pull the entire plant out of the ground. Climate change causes new combinations of all these factors that are impossible to expect until mass amounts of crops start to die. 

Impact on the general public 

These changes in agriculture have left us with less food availability, less access to food, and lower quality of food. Although developed nations may have some capabilities to respond to these changes quickly enough, there are many areas where that’s not possible. Other factors such as population growth can also make the problem more difficult to manage. Climate change can also ruin the transportation paths that are necessary to get food to people. For example, most of the grain in the US is transported via waterways, which are susceptible to drought. If water levels drop beyond a certain point, the waterways lose viability as a form of transport and the few alternate pathways for grain transport become quickly exhausted. Overall, this makes it a lot more difficult and expensive to access quality food for everyone. 

Possible solutions

Speaking generally, there are two approaches that can be taken toward restoring the agriculture industry to its former abilities to feed more people. One is by adapting to the changing Earth. Farmers can start looking at the patterns of climate change and how it’s affecting their crops, and use that information to decide how to change their practices. Techniques such as diversifying plots, improving soil, and conserving land can all lower the risk of crop damage from climate change. Sustainable farming has started to become widely regarded as the best way to guarantee that crops grow and their needs are met. The other approach to these shifts is mitigation. Since climate change is the root cause, addressing it first would create ripple effects that would eventually start to solve these problems. In general, we should try to do a mixture of both–continue encouraging a recovery from climate change, and at the same time we should continue to prepare ourselves for the near future as well, not just the distant one. 

Works Cited

“Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Supply | US EPA.” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 4 June 2024, https://www.epa.gov/climateimpacts/climate-change-impacts-agriculture-and-food-supply. Accessed 7 August 2024.

Detlefsen, Lisl H. “How Does Weather Affect Farming?” American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, 6 March 2023, https://www.agfoundation.org/news/how-does-weather-affect-farming. Accessed 7 August 2024.

“Prices for these crops are most impacted by climate change.” The World Economic Forum, 12 February 2024, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/02/climate-change-food-prices-drought/. Accessed 7 August 2024.

Reyes, Joaquin. “Part 5 Climate Change Comes to Piedras Gordas.” Sustainable Harvest International, 29 December 2015, https://www.sustainableharvest.org/blog/climatechangecomestopiedrasgordas?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwtsy1BhD7ARIsAHOi4xbs8w8UJYwcA18uXOCBHmXGJWkh_t1ZhixNJcamWyQARmxuoWHd3YkaAsI6EALw_wcB. Accessed 07 August 2024.