The Environmental Debate, Third Edition

264 The Environmental Debate

Mention that to many farmers and farm groups,

though, and shaking heads and rolling eyes

result. Reality dictates otherwise. “In our area,

I just think climate change is one of the most

important factors impacting agriculture,” says

Don Halcomb, who farms near Adairville, Ken-

tucky, with wife Meredith, son John and his wife

Sarah, and son Sam and his wife, Stephanie.

He says efforts like the campaigns that killed

cap-and-trade legislation several years ago cost

agriculture. Under this legislation, farmers

would have been paid for sequestering carbon

through methods like no-till. This is one way to

reduce gases like carbon dioxide that fuel green-

house gases.

“The cap-and-trade opponents complain it will

cost us in the short run,” he says. “In 2011, when

drought impacted Texas, it caused a $5 billion

loss in agricultural production in Texas alone.

Cargill had to close a slaughter plant (in 2013)

due to lack of cattle. There is a cost to address-

ing climate change, but not addressing it also has

a cost.”

RISKY BUSINESS

Meanwhile, the executives who run agricultural

companies are taking climate change seriously.

Last fall, Greg Page, Cargill’s executive chair-

man, joined former New York City mayor

Michael Bloomberg, former U.S. Treasury Secre-

tary Hank Paulson, and former senior managing

member of Farallon Capital Management Tom

Steyer to issue a report called Risky Business:

Our Nation’s Economy at Risk Due to Climate

Change.

The report found that without adaptation, yield

dips of more than 10% might occur in some

Midwestern and Southern counties over the next

five to 25 years.

“Several years ago, we commissioned a group

of our scientists to look at climate change, to

adapt to it,” says Clay Pope, a Loyal, Oklahoma,
farmer. “Some producers don’t believe in climate
change, but they do believe in drought,” he says.

• Are rainstorms increasing in intensity? Yes,
particularly in the central United States. From
1900 to 1960 in Des Moines, Iowa, just two years
had more than eight days when more than 1.25
inches of rain fell. From 1960 through 2013,
seven years had more than eight days hitting the
1.25-inch threshold. More spring rainfall and
rainfall intensity fuel other maladies.

“Soils become more anaerobic, so seedling dis-
eases become more prevalent,” Hatfield says.
“You also get more soil erosion with all the run-
off from the field.”

When droughts end, they’re ending with a
bang. “Southern Blaine County (in northwest-
ern Oklahoma) received more than 12 inches
of rain in 32 days this year,” says Jeanne Sch-
neider, a research meteorologist who heads
USDA’s Southern Plains Regional Climate Hub
in El Reno, Oklahoma. “This is more than one-
third of the average annual total that fell in a
month.”

WHAT’S GOING ON?

Droughts and floods have occurred since man
shifted from hunting and gathering to farming
over 12,000 years ago. “It’s not that we are seeing
things that have not happened before,” says Sch-
neider. “It’s just that they are happening more
often. This increased variability is the new nor-
mal.”

Fueled by more than 10,000 peer-reviewed stud-
ies, 97% of climate scientists concur that man-
made climate change is occurring. This is backed
by a final draft of the United Nations’ Intergov-
ernmental Panel on Climate Change released
earlier this summer. It states continued emis-
sion of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide
will cause further warming and changes in all
climate-system components.