Far from sleepwalking into an unmitigated disaster, farmers appear to have adapted quite well to the challenges posed by climate change. Or maybe climate change was just a fiction all along. Note how routine advances in crop genetics and machinery design are presented as responses to climate change as opposed to something that the ag industry, driven by the profit motive, has always done.
Spring wheat, used to make high-quality bread, yielded 58.8 bushels per acre this year, according to the government data release. That’s a gain of 77% from 30 years ago, based on a three-year average. Canola yields nearly doubled, reaching 44.7 bushels per acre, also based on a 1994-1996 average.
While most climate science paints a bleak picture for global food supply, with a study in Nature this year forecasting up to 40% reduction in North America’s wheat harvest by 2100, the agricultural experts Reuters interviewed said that with climate adaptation strategies the prairies can continue to produce bigger and bigger crops in the future.
Much of the increased production has come thanks to the use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers (that don’t contain iodine), along with genetically-modified Frankencrops.
And after all this, how much more prosperous is the average farmer? I imagine the reverse has been the case.
Why are greater yields so desired anyhow? And by whom? If it doesn’t benefit the farmers, nor the local consumers (as prices continue to only go up), you can guess who is pushing for it. With the end result being that we have products whose quality has greatly declined and that has generated intolerances and gut issues for millions.
If farmers could sell their own crops at market prices, they would make more than enough. And locals would again receive high quality local products. But a few well-connected POSs that have cornered the market and who own politicians would lose points on their shares, so we just can’t have that.
On the one hand, I’d argue with your about the GMO. It’s selective breeding, not test-tube CRISPR alteration. BT corn, bacilis thuringensis, the only genuine Frankenfood crop I know of, and it is supposed to all got to ethanol. (Supposed to, I’m sure some gets in your Campbells Creamed Corn one way or another.) If there are other crops that are genuine GMO and not merely selective breeding, let me know.
On the other hand, a guy can’t make a living for himself off a 100 acre farm with some sheep, cattle and a cash crop, much less have a family. That used to be the Southern Ontario standard. Now farms are thousands of acres, guys are running herds in the hundreds, and they still aren’t making money after taxes and mortgages are paid.
Given the wildly increased yields since the 1960s, that’s “interesting” ain’t it?
The post below discusses the unnatural creation of semi-dwarf wheat and its effects. Similar things have been done to other grains.
https://grainstorm.com/pages/modern-wheat?
To me the real question is, how were farmers able to make a living on a 100 acre farm, but can’t today?
In the same way that a man used to be able to provide for himself and his family such that his wife didn’t also have to work. And generally lived on a larger plot of land than is common today.
Of course, this was prior to big government and central banksters purposely and permanently creating inflation…
Dude. You linked a hippie flour company. THEY got their info from a questionable pop-medicine guy.
A great dane and a chihuahua are both dogs. That’s selective breeding. Remember the goats that produced spider silk proteins in their milk? That’s what GMO is. Goat plus spider.
Sorry Phantom, I’m usually only spending a few minutes a day at SDA, and trying to find a site while at work is far more challenging than it used to be. The algorithms in most browsers push the most BS sites “debunking” truth while pushing lies. Historically I could have used Duck Duck Go, Opera, or even Yandex to get reasonable results w/o having to read to page 60 of suggested sites. Brave is the only semi-reasonable search engine I know about today. So how about this one:
https://foodtrients.com/health/is-frankenwheat-fueling-the-type-2-diabetes-epidemic/
That’s not to say that this is the end-all-and-be-all, but a quick browse shows roughly what I was talking about.
A comparison of two Costco KS brands. First is US, the second is Canadian.
Mission tortilla chips are made with GMO corn. Tastes 100 times better than Que Pasa “organic” chips. Dry cardboard has more flavour than Que Pasa chips.
Farmers can sell their own crops now, thanks to the marketing freedom provided by Stephen Harper and his conservatives when they abolished the monopsony known as the communist Canadian Wheat Board.
“the communist Canadian Wheat Board.”
Which only exerted control on *western* Canadian farmers, too….Ontario and Quebec could do as they pleased.
I always thought Atomic Energy Canada should be renamed the Canadian Particle Board…
If the climate warms, farmers can grow crops and varieties that have grown better further south. A tough concept for academics to grasp, but it beats starving.
… and don’t forget the added CO2 benefits!
Carbon Dioxide Fertilization Greening Earth, Study Finds
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth-study-finds/
BTW : CO2 levels have decreased significantly from early Earth time , and continue to decrease. One researcher predicts that humans in the far future will be actively burn dirty coal to rejuvenate Earth’s CO2 in order to survive as a civilization.
CO2 is plant food.
Burned coal ash is potash (crop fertilizer).
So, sure, why not.
.
CO2 is plant food.
Burned coal ash is potash (crop fertilizer).
So, sure, why not.
.
.
Also, increased CO2 levels make crops grow better! Sounds like a good thing, for Canada, now if only we could get our other resources to market at FAIR MARKET VALUE, why, we could be one of the most prosperpus and profitable countries on earth, except our government thinks that’s baaad!!
Also, increased CO2 levels make crops grow better! Sounds like a good thing, for Canada, now if only we could get our other resources to market at FAIR MARKET VALUE, why, we could be one of the most prosperpus and profitable countries on earth, except our government thinks that’s baaad!!
Imho, the main only reason “farmers appear to have adapted quite well to the challenges posed by climate change” is because they’ve been dealing with “climate change” – IOW different weather – for hundreds if not thousands of years of human history. Why insult your own intelligence when you can insult others’?
Indeed. Just don’t insult vacuously, it riles Marmot.
60 years ago my father used to brag about 35 bu/acre barley. Today my brother brags about his 100 bu/acre barley. It’s mostly genetics increasing yields plus making the plants Roundup resistant. Today, fields have not a visible weed because Roundup puts the crop way ahead of weeds. In 1960, some fields looked like all weeds. Today everything is chemically fertilized, in my area with nitrogen in particular. I remember farmers in 1960 bragging how they didn’t waste their money on fertilizer. Back in the day the average bigger farmer raised 200 acres while today they farm maybe 2,000 acres.
oh lOOk. the glow bull propaganda backfired!!!!
The previous article in link sort of counters this article, grains are fine with early rains, later droughts. It’s the opposite you really don’t want.
But climate change Is primarily about co2. Plants like co2.
we are looking like another cool wet summer in australia, climate change ? who knows but I am sure they will trumpet it as yet again the hottest ever while at the same time there is almost no really hot days.