- BY CALVIN DANIELS
When I pause to think about the future for humankind, I truly hope the climate change deniers are proven correct. But, what if they are simply in denial, and the current evidence suggesting change is happening, and having a generally negative impact, indicates dramatic changes ahead? If those changes happen, can we adapt as a species? It is a question which is particularly troubling for farmers.
The operation of growing food, from the diesel fuel being burned by tractors to the use of nitrogen fertilizer to grow bigger crops to cattle producing manure, can all impact the environment and be part of what is contributing to climate change. But, the production of food is about as important an enterprise as there is. We might well survive without fuel-consuming airplanes or gasoline-powered cars, but we don’t last long without food.
So farming must continue. It is quite reasonably the last enterprise you would stop in any future attempt to curb climate change if it came to that. Climate change will directly impact the farm sector if it continues.
Shifting weather patterns change what producers in a given area may be able to grow in the years ahead. If severe weather is a more common occurrence moving forward because of climate change, it is also farmers who are going to be impacted rather directly. Droughts, wetter than usual springs, late spring, or early fall frosts are weather events that are bad news for crops. Overall, the farmer of the not too distant future is likely to be growing crops that are not the ones they grow today, and they will be growing those crops under different circumstances in terms of what Mother Nature is doing.
The question, though, which is perhaps most pertinent, yet without a clear answer, is how quickly the changes may happen? If change comes quickly, and there are those fearing we will reach a point of no return sooner than we realize, can the agriculture sector adapt as quickly? If the farm sector can’t keep pace with the changes climate change might bring, the security of our food system will be in dire circumstances, and that is indeed a troubling thought about our future.
Comment on this article at lmtimes.ca/calvin
Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.
