May 10 2010
Food~Blog 3
Climate change can effect the world and everything around us. It may not seem like it, because of all the other posts my classmates and I have posted, but climate change can also effect food. Agricultural foods such as fruits, and vegetables are effected by weather such as droughts, floods, and very strong storms. Farmers are having a hard time, because the soil is either too wet, or too dry to plant anything. Some ways that the climate is affecting crops growing is temperature, CO2 levels, pollutions levels, and change in average rainfall. It never is the perfect temperature, and in a way the plants are getting confused about how the weather is going to be and they aren’t growing. There are also risks with food availability. With so many people in the world, and crops that don’t grow. It is hard to say what will happen, but we do know nothing good is going to.
We need to seriously re-examine our predictions of future global food production,” said Steve Long, a crop scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US. Output is “likely to be far lower than previously estimated”. The weather may not be perfect for the crops, but believe it or not, all of the carbon dioxide in the air can actually help them grow. This happens through the process of photosynthesis. But, we do have ways that we can reduce greenhouse gases. We can enrich soil with carbon, which benefits the crops. We can plant perennials in case other plants end up dying, and they can act as a back-up plan. We can use manure management for livestock, since 14.5 % of greenhouse gases come from the livestock. Lastly, we can restore wetlands, because that is where a lot of our plants grow. With these few helpers, we can increase food production.
Allissa:
Great to see a student thinking about the bigger picture–nicely written. I remember reading that changes in temperature can change the width of the belts in which crops like wheat grow. These changes can be very small but can have profound effects on the volume of food grown. The oceans produce 10% of the world’s protein and should be of concern also when we talk about climate change and food sources. On a lighter note — Effect is the noun and Affect is the verb (sorry can’t help it, it’s in my teacher DNA!)
I like this article about food. Food is the best thing the world could happen. What I like about your post is that you broke it down to what part of global warming is affecting agriculture. I also like how you stated some sollutions to reduce “the bad stuff” in the atmosphere.