Climate Change’s Effect on American Agriculture

Author: Bryan Lin

Editors: Alex Yang , Elizabeth Li 

Artist: Alvina Zheng

Believe it or not, your breakfast table represents a story of struggle. The coffee beans that make up your morning cup of coffee are climbing up mountainsides, forcing farmers to relocate from the land their families have farmed for generations. The wheat in your toast faces increasing heatwaves that threaten to wipe out whole harvests in days. Even the orange juice in your pitcher is fighting its own battle as droughts and floods plague Florida’s citrus groves, both in the same season, which would have seemed impossible not too long ago. What we’re witnessing in real time is nothing but an agricultural collapse, one driven by rapidly changing climates.

Across the globe, farmers are faced with a problem known as “climate variability,” which is essentially the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns. For example, California’s Central Valley, which contributes about 25% of the nation’s food, is facing problems related to water reserves. Surface water deliveries, water from rivers, reservoirs, and canals distributed through government irrigation systems to Central Valley Farms have dropped by 41%, forcing farmers to increase groundwater pumping (extracting water stored in the ground, which in itself is not good for the environment if done on a massive scale and too quickly) by nearly 4.2 million acre-feet. This situation has become so problematic that some farmers have resorted to switching their crops entirely. According to NPR’s (National Public Radio) reporting on California's agricultural transformation, water scarcity is leading farmers away from their planting norm, causing a switch towards planting higher-value, lower-water specialty crops. This shift in crop selection is one of the many effects brought about by climate variability, which itself stems from our warming climate. Where previously farmers could rely on relatively accurate precipitation patterns to plan their crops, now they must deal with the ever-changing and unstable weather. Should the situation become more severe, more and more farmers could switch to growing different crops, causing a large shift in what's grown in not only the states but also countries all across the world. 

Another example comes from the Midwest, where corn production has also taken a hit due to climate change. As average temperatures increase, corn yield sees a direct decrease. This is due to corn’s sensitivity to temperatures above 86°F, which is an issue when global temperatures are increasing and most days are around that mark, if not exceeding it. Droughts and excessive moisture issues have also contributed heavily to decreased corn yields, nearly 37 percent in some parts of the Midwest, according to a University of Illinois study published in Global Change Biology. This unpredictability that is now attached to the weather is extremely frustrating. One season they might deal with drought but the next, they could be plagued with endless rainfall. This forces farmers to constantly adapt and change how they approach farming, which can ultimately cause a switch in crop production or more expensive equipment to try and continue farming as they have in the past. 

Climate change and the variability it brings is putting serious pressure on farmers all across the states, if not the globe. From the droughts in California to the heatwaves in the Midwest, how Americans farm is being fundamentally changed. If these problems keep getting worse, we will likely see big changes in what is grown in the U.S. and higher prices for the food we eat.

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