How Does Climate Change Affect Agriculture and Consumers?
February 22, 2009 by Tommy Linsley
Filed under Climate Change
The effects of climate change on agricultural production:
What does it mean to consumers?
The effects of climate change on agricultural production go much deeper
than the impact of unusual weather. However, that is the basis for many
of the problems that farmers are facing. Some of the stressing facing
farmers: the pesky weather not only causes floods and droughts that can
affect an entire year of production, but predicting when these might occur
has become even more of a guessing game than in the past.
A warmer climate also means that pathogens -bacteria,
fungus, molds- and harmful insects that have been more
easily controlled in the past become more and more
problematic. Out-of-season rains in the vegetable
growing areas of the world can cause massive outbreaks
of fungus problems. By the same token, late
freezes can wipe out entire fruit crops and that stress can be seen in these
trees for years to come.
Unusually warm winters can cause rodent and insect populations to spike out
of control. And, though an increase in the levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere can facilitate faster growth and more biomass production,
actually getting a crop to market is wildly complicated by these new
factors that emerge with each growing season.
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- How Does Climate Change Affect Agriculture and Consumers?
- Unusual Violent Weather
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- Fighting Drought Years
