Climate Change Will Hit America in the Breadbasket, Scientists Say

Scientists are sounding the alarm about an apsect of climate change that will hit us right in the........basket.....Breadbasket-that is.

"The breadbasket or the granary of a country is a region which, because of richness of soil and/or advantageous climate, produces an agricultural surplus which is often considered vital for the country as a whole. In the United States, this region is called the Corn Belt, or (occasionally) the "Grain Belt", and it generally extends from the Canadian border between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes down through the Texas Panhandle.."

The outlook suggests that the most suited region for U.S. crop production will shift northward as global temperatures increase. Although it's dangerous to read too much into one year's statistics, North Dakota surpassed Kansas as the nation's top wheat-producing state last year, due primarily to Kansas droughts.

Theoretically, reduced production along the southern edge of the country's grain-producing regions should be offset by increased production along the northern edge. The Corn Belt (and Soybean Belt) is already pushing up past the Canadian border, and Canada's wheat-producing zone is creeping farther north. But in reality, the shift is still likely to produce a net loss in crop production, said Jerry Hatfield, director of the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment.

This is a multi-layered issue as there are several factors including: population growth, drought, increase in powerful storms, and shifting of farmlands to name a few.

"We're going to consume soil resources, because the urban population that we're going to build up is going to consume more land as well," he said. "We'll lose other parts of the land because of excessive erosion and degradation that occurs. As we move agriculture north, we're going to be putting it in areas that don't have the same water-holding capacity, nutrient-holding capacity."

Hatfield said the world's increasing population, plus the rise in per capita consumption that comes with economic development, will add to the pressure. Between the year 2000 and 2050, "we basically have to produce the same amount of food as we've produced in the last 500 years," he said.

As the world population grows so does consumption but there will be less fertile land to use as more and more land is developed. So, in the end of it all-We're Screwed! Either we screw ourselves and stop our current system of consumption or we continiue to use up the Earth's natural resources and the Earth will put a stop to things for us. I say we're in a real life "Kobayashi Maru" situation; a no-win scenario. What says ATS?

www.nbcnews.com...

I'll have to buy a couple of extra twenty five pound bags of bread flour in case it goes way up in price. That way my bread basket will be more secure.

America produces enough food to feed the entire world. We will be fine. Maybe instead of shipping so much food overseas and wasting so much we will have to conserve more and utilize our resources more efficiently but America will be fine. There is ALOT of land not in use.

Now if you can get the morons in SoCal to quit building mega apartment and condo complexes on every open strip of land in basically a desert!!!!!!!

The Southern areas will still be able to produce grains by planting earlier in the spring and later in the fall.

The article loses what little credibility it had when it cites Paul Erhlich, who predicted in the 1960s that:

The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate

E.G, more 100% pure BULL#

RELAX - it's just leftist propaganda and drivel

Overpopulation is a myth. When they say there isn't enough resources, they simply mean there isn't enough money in it. IE: Feeding the world is too expensive.

If the land dries up, then we must start getting into vertical hydroponic farming. You can route water to the area if need be. And the destruction of the soil table would cease.

What they are really saying is that we are due for another drought like the dust bowl, that way they can say "see we told you so".

I know that many factors were involved, but it was still a drought.

No weather event can happen anymore with out the "climate change" hype.

They have pushed it in the media so much for so long that people have litterally been brainwashed.

I see it clear as day. Throughout human history we have had to adapt to the environment around us. Now people seem to think that it shouldn't change and that it should stay peachy forever.

Well politics has definitely worked and the climate doom porn flows every single damn day.

It's cold here, it sucks, just sayin.

I live in an Illinois in an area that some farmers were getting 250+ bushels of corn per acre. Every year it goes up and up. A few years ago when spring planting season would seem to come earlier there was talk among the local farmers that they could possibly get 2 crops in one season with just a couple more good weeks. The corn here grows 10 ft tall, and while that sounds good they were actually looking for varieties that mature shorter because it would take less time for it to be ready. The last couple years the weather wouldn't have made this possible at all so that talk is less prevalent right now. If we start having longer summers and shorter winters you can bet it will be back on their minds.

Also to add that the earth can still support a much larger population. There are still many places that crops could be planted that aren't. Places like cloverleafs on the interstate, front lawns of homes, ect. There is still more we can do before desperate measures like population reduction becomes necessary.

a reply to: SouthernForkway26

Every year it goes up and up.

Ain't GM crops grand?

a reply to: lostbook

Well something has to hit the United States

Empire has to die, whether by climate or war or something, act of God, something will eventually take United States out

originally posted by: AzureSky
Overpopulation is a myth. When they say there isn't enough resources, they simply mean there isn't enough money in it. IE: Feeding the world is too expensive.

If the land dries up, then we must start getting into vertical hydroponic farming. You can route water to the area if need be. And the destruction of the soil table would cease.

Please can I think like you? Point me in the direction where I can find more information about overpopulation being a myth? Please share.
On resource scarcity, well, its true. Do some reading about global Helium reserves and what Helium is really needed for and you'll never buy a Party balloon again.
If the land dries up, what happens in your proposed plan if the land also dried up where your water source is and there is no water to route?
Problematic, and would make your carrots a whole lot more expensive.
Vertical hydroponic farming? Looks good on tv. I somehow get the feeling you aren't from a farming background.
How on earth are you going to plant 4000 acres of wheat in a vertical hydroponic system? That's a normal crop size here. And harvest?
All for it when you solve that little impasse. Thanks for all the advice, I'll head to the pub and let the locals know its all solved.

originally posted by: SouthernForkway26
I live in an Illinois in an area that some farmers were getting 250+ bushels of corn per acre. Every year it goes up and up. A few years ago when spring planting season would seem to come earlier there was talk among the local farmers that they could possibly get 2 crops in one season with just a couple more good weeks. The corn here grows 10 ft tall, and while that sounds good they were actually looking for varieties that mature shorter because it would take less time for it to be ready. The last couple years the weather wouldn't have made this possible at all so that talk is less prevalent right now. If we start having longer summers and shorter winters you can bet it will be back on their minds.

Also to add that the earth can still support a much larger population. There are still many places that crops could be planted that aren't. Places like cloverleafs on the interstate, front lawns of homes, ect. There is still more we can do before desperate measures like population reduction becomes necessary.

How is a significant reduction in reproduction a desperate measure? It seems entirely reasonable to me.

Not to take the steam from my own thread but there's a great thread by Rezlooper about the increase of Methane Gas. It's all related:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Yep, as things get cooler the ability to grow corn will fall off because the ideal climate for growing corn will shift. And the south doesn't have the best soil for corn growth.

I guess that means we'll have to find something other than corn syrup to put in our food.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: SouthernForkway26

Every year it goes up and up.

Ain't GM crops grand?

Well Phage, you know that the irony here is that GM crops might be what prevents mass starvation in the near future.

a reply to: lostbook


What will happen is that much of the rest of the world will get scorched and the breadbasket will flourish. We will be selling grain to China for 10 times a bushel of what its going for now.

originally posted by: lostbook

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: SouthernForkway26

Every year it goes up and up.

Ain't GM crops grand?

Well Phage, you know that the irony here is that GM crops might be what prevents mass starvation in the near future.

Actually, they're more likely to cause it. We've moved into mono-crops: a single variety of GMO corn or potatoes produced by Monsanto and a growing contract. When something unanticipated comes along that is lethal to those mono crops, there'll be a famine.

a reply to: Phage
Eh, they are what they are. A good friend of mine is a farmer and they use the 'cutting edge' corn and soybean seeds every year. According to them this is what they have to do to keep from being taken over by the big corporate farms. They understand the GM crop situation as well as anybody, and it makes them restless to talk about it. They act as if they don't have much of a choice but to grow the latest and greatest if they want to stay in business for themselves. The biggest problem for them as far as farm management is that basically Monsanto has them by the you know what's. I know they've been pissed off before by what has been sprayed on their soil. Some of the spray application stuff is part of the 'seed package' they get every year.

a reply to: Tangerine
Chinese style reproduction programs are not desperatation, per se, but it isn't the design by nature. One child per family will lead to a significant reduction of people in the next generation though. A smaller next-generation population will only become more economically trapped especially by social programs in a debt-based economy. If the earth is capable of supporting more people yet people are discouraged to do so then my comspiracy mind tells me that this is their real agenda; greater social debts for the next generation.

My long-term prediction is that GM crops will keep marching on, and in the future people will have developed resistance to them or will die from them. I think that the GM fields here are possibly contributing factors to global warming. It seems like the humidity is so thick now in the summer and gets worse every year with these dense as can be fields. It's funny how here in the corn desert it's actually easier to breathe in the towns and cities than in the country where the corn can be suffocating.