Global Warming And Its Effects On Agriculture – A worker moves a pile of almond trees during an orchard removal project in May 2021 in Snelling, California. With a drought emergency in California, water shortages in the Central Valley are forcing some farmers to harvest crops that need more water. Credit: Justin Sullivan Getty Images

U.S. farmers face multibillion-dollar losses from Climate change-induced warming, and public insurance programs protect them from catastrophic losses.

Global Warming And Its Effects On Agriculture

The spending threatens to hit the domestic agricultural sector and American taxpayers, who subsidize federal insurance programs that insulate farmers from economic shocks such as falling crop prices and income volatility, according to new research.

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Stanford University climatologists in the U.S. Examines the impact of global warnings on the crop insurance program, which was established by Congress in the 1930s to revive domestic agriculture in the wake of the Dust Bowl.

Climate-fueled temperature increases cost farmers an estimated $27 billion in insurance payments between 1991 and 2017, the study found. That loss was about 20% of the program’s total payouts during that period.

“This is further evidence that global warming is already affecting people and ecosystems, and that [climate change] is costing billions of dollars in economic costs,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford.

“And that’s important for understanding climate change, understanding climate risk and … evaluating the value of both mitigation and adaptation actions,” Diffenbaugh added.

Climate Change And The Future Of Agriculture

Using temperature records and Department of Agriculture data on crop insurance payments, or indemnities, the researchers examined the relationship between insurance losses and temperature variation at the county level across all 26 growing seasons. Then, using climate model simulations, they calculated insurance losses in a hypothetical scenario—also known as a “counterfactual”—in which global warming did not exist.

“By comparing actual claims and actual claims combined for all counties for the entire [United States],” Diefenbaugh said, his team was able to attribute $27 billion in insurance claims and payments to climate-related trends.

“This approach determines whether compensation in a given county is higher or lower in a year in which the temperature or precipitation is above or below the average for that county,” the researchers wrote.

In 2012, for example — when much of the U.S. experienced severe drought and record summer temperatures — crop indemnities exceeded $18 billion, making it the most expensive year for the insurance program. The study estimates that climate-related temperature trends are responsible for $8.8 billion of these payments.

Climate Change & Crops

That’s a critical finding, Diefenbaugh said, as a growing body of research shows that “we can expect the same conditions as what happened in 2012 under the current climate — and even if the goals of the Paris Agreement are met and global warming is kept to less than 2 degrees of warming.”

The study comes as lawmakers and regulators pay more attention to the risks posed by global warming to financial sectors, the financial system and the global economy more broadly. President Biden signed an executive order in May that launched an administration-wide effort to address the risks posed by global warming to public and private property.

Environmentalists, climate finance experts and some researchers say the U.S. needs to prepare more quickly for the economic consequences of rising temperatures.

“It’s clear at this point that we haven’t adapted to the climate change that’s already happened,” Diffenbaugh said. “And as this study shows and as other studies have shown, it’s costing us a lot.”

Food Supply And Security Concerns Mount As Impacts Stress Agriculture » Yale Climate Connections

Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2021.E&E News provides essential news for energy and environmental professionals.

Discover world-changing science. Browse our digital archive dating back to 1845, with articles by over 150 Nobel Prize winners. Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are the main drivers of climate change. Scientists now predict – and it is already proving true – that there will be drastic changes in normal weather patterns such as rainfall and temperature. It is also true that climate change poses many threats to our current food system, increasing the risk and uncertainty of farmers. Shifting our food production systems to more sustainable practices will help reduce agriculture’s role in climate change and make the industry more resilient and adaptable to ever-changing conditions.

Along the food production and distribution chain, there are activities and products that generate varying amounts of associated greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are known as the “carbon footprint” and the larger the Carbon footprint, the greater the contribution to climate change. (These days, the term “carbon footprint” is used as a catchphrase for all climate-changing greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide or other carbon derivatives.) 1 For example, some vegetables can be grown according to ecologically sound agricultural principles. have a very low carbon footprint, while animals raised in factory farms with large uncovered animal waste ponds can have a higher carbon footprint. 2

Agricultural activities such as fertilizer processing, use of farm equipment and use of synthetic fertilizers also have carbon footprints. In the US, agriculture accounts for nine percent of GHG emissions. The greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO

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) being the most prominent, increase the planet’s ability to absorb and retain heat and thus contribute to climate change. Other GHGs involved in agriculture include: methane (CH

O), generally associated with artificial fertilizer use; and carbon dioxide, both from the burning of fossil fuels and from grassland degradation/deforestation. 34

Not all food is produced in the same way: some foods use more land, fertilizers (synthetic or organic) and energy and therefore have a greater potential to contribute to climate change – a larger carbon footprint.

A 2017 Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) report studied 197 foods and analyzed each food’s entire life cycle to estimate its climate warming potential. 5 The report found that the food with the highest carbon footprint was traditionally beef. When one pound of conventional feedlot beef is produced, 26 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent are emitted. (“Carbon Dioxide Equivalent” or CO

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Eq, is used to “normalize” the various strengths of many greenhouse gases, including nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, and methane, into standard units. Read more about this measure from Yale Climate Connections.)

Industrial meat and dairy production requires large amounts of animal feed, which is grown with artificial fertilizers. Production of synthetic fertilizers contributes to total CO

O), another potent greenhouse gas (see Conventional Crop Production below). 67 Animals that chew the cud (called ruminants) also emit significant amounts of methane when their bodies break down food in their intestines (called gut fermentation). Methane is also produced by confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which process manure anaerobically (without oxygen) in manure ponds and pits. 8 As a greenhouse gas, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.9

Globally, livestock contributes 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities. 10 However, a better way of raising beef exists. More sustainable animal husbandry and welfare practices can use manure as fertilizer — instead of synthetic fertilizers — to help land capture and retain carbon. Rotating pasture-raised animals and crops can help “sequester” carbon, improve soil and prevent water pollution.

Climate Change Is Hitting Farmers Hard

Farmers who raise cattle on pasture can use farm, livestock, and waste management programs that reduce emissions associated with cow manure. 11 The Food Climate Research Network reported on several studies that examined the ability of pasture-raised cows to sequester carbon in soil. 12 The group found that the sequestration potential of grazing management could offset “20 to 60 percent of the annual average emissions from grazing.” Another recent report also showed that well-grazed beef can sequester significant amounts of carbon produced on farms, even suggesting negative carbon benefits are possible. 13 With small herd management of pasture animals, manure is composted directly into the soil and becomes fertilizer for healthy pastures, while releasing less methane. 14

Efficiently reducing livestock’s contribution to greenhouse gases is an important endeavor, but there is only one reason to produce beef more sustainably.

Anaerobic manure digesters are sometimes promoted as a means by which confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) can dispose of their animal waste in an environmentally and climate friendly manner. Digesters use a combination of microbes, heat, water, and agitation to process waste, producing methane gas that can be used for energy, liquid manure that can be used for fertilizer, and solid manure that can be used for composting and cow bedding.

Despite federal and state financial investment in the new technology, skepticism about digesters is growing. A 2016 report by Food and Water Watch detailed ways that digesters fail to follow through on their promise to clean up waste and reduce greenhouse gases — and instead serve as a subsidy to the CAFO industry, which adds to the closed model of food production. 15 by food

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