As the global climate crisis worsens, so does the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events – and it's putting the global food supply at risk. Extreme weather lowers yields, affecting the cost and availability of staples, like grain and fruits. Cheddar News sat down with Damian Mason, farm owner, agricultural economist, and author of "Food Fear" to discuss how the climate crisis is causing food shortages.


Opening Bell

How the climate crisis is causing food shortages 

here with more is Damien Mason farm owner, agricultural economist and author of Food Fear. Thank you so much for being here. Damien, we gotta talk about the effects of this climate change and what is happening to the food shortages. Why is this happening? Well the good news is the United States of America. We adapt better and we adapt to climate, logical issues better than say developing countries. Those are where those are the countries where you're going to see the biggest amount of pain Shannon here in the United States, we've genetically been altering crops. And I know that some of your listeners saying, wait a minute, he sounds like one of these pro farm guys because I am, You know, we genetically engineered corn beginning in the 1920s, to tolerate drought. I just um I just point this out because we are gaining about two bushels per acre each year on our corn production in spite of what you might say is some changes. Climatologically. I live here in indiana, we get about five inches more precipitation now than we did 100 years ago. So there is some climate shift going on. But we are adapting pretty well and it's been good for our corn production or soybean production because the genetic engineering and the science that we've done in the fields in America at the land grant universities to create a more resilient seed and therefore plant it's the developing countries that are really gonna be harmed because they don't have as much technology at Agron ah Mickley and agriculturally and therefore it's going to put more squeeze on them to get more yield. So that's where the challenges. And I guess I would also say the food scare right now is probably more about global conflict and supply chain issues than it is weather, but the weather is certainly not not to blame. Well, if we did want to focus on the weather aspect of it, how much of the U. S. Food supply is at risk. Would you say both the stuff we grow here as well as stuff that we have imported? Sure weeds, pretty skinny. United States Department of Agriculture numbers came out june 30th. We have about 47 million acres of wheat here. We're not certainly as big as Ukraine and Russia and and a couple other countries. Australia is a big wheat producer now, so we it's pretty skinny in terms of our supply and then also in terms of the Western States. So the one thing I guess we would see is we'll see lower yields of wheat in our Western States and our planes, is it to be concerned. Yes. Are we gonna starve no big picture, 20% of the calories consumed in the world are wheat based were a little less than that here. But in poorer countries that go with more plant based or more breads and flowers and things like that. So it is a concern when you talk about the wheat issue globally, especially with china hoarding and then Russia disrupting the wheat flows. So there's gonna be a lot of hardship, it'll be less stated here even though our, our crops are skinny and our wheat yields look like they're pretty paltry compared to what a boom you would be. We're going to be a little better off than the rest of the world. But no wheat is bad. I should also point out that it was a lot worse about 90 years ago during the Dust Bowl. So we're not there yet, but we do have some skinny wheat harvest coming in in the west right now. Well, as much carbs as we eat in our household, I'd say more than 20% is consumed in my house. But I get what you're going there. So talk to us now about where the droughts and floods are and what crops are already showing signs of less output. Yeah. So if you look at the reports, the texas, wheat production part of texas, Oklahoma Kansas going up the plains. That's the breadbasket. Really, if you will, we were pretty dry. Once you got west of the Mississippi we started getting dry certainly once you get west of about Omaha Nebraska, we started seeing signs of some real dryness there. So let's not mistake though, those areas are always pretty dry. So it's not unheard of that. They've been dry again this year. I'm in the midwest, the eastern corn belt as we call it and we had a very, very short supply of rain in june, we're getting rain right today and people are doing dances around here because it's amazing will we be off on yield as the question Shannon? And the answer is probably just by a little bit, we are not going to ring the bell on yield like we did last year when we set harvest records. This is a bad year for that to happen given the global conflict. And I would say that the good news is our resilience comes in our technology and our ability to, you know, we've got people now managing irrigation using one third as much water as they used to. And it's all done on their smartphone. So that's the good news for us here in the United States. I'm glad there's some good news when we look at some of the disparities that we've seen in the past just this year, we've seen some of store shelves looking pretty bare, but in some part was due to the trucking shortage or the supply shortage of things. Getting to those stores. Do we see that this climate change is having an impact on store shelves as of yet, probably more of a distribution issue and global conflict than it is. Climatological. You know, um I prepared for this interview with the article out of the Guardian that talked about chili peppers and wine, you know, there probably are vineyards that are struggling a little bit because it's gotten very hot and their chardonnay type or pinot type grapes can't handle the heat. What I think the answer is can we breed a better grape? Can we breed a grape that can handle that? Um I was on cheddar about 34 months ago talking about coffee because we heard that in brazil, the coffee crop was getting hurt. That not only hurts our availability of coffee, it hurts the people that produce it are some of the poorer people in the world. So when we see storage, store shelves that are absolutely vacant, likely not here, but again, it's usually if you look at where food issues resonate the worst. It's among the poorest and we will probably not face that here, There will. And that being said, there will definitely still be price increases. This wheat situation is going to mean that your bread gets more expensive, your bowl of wheaties gets more expensive, your coffee is already more expensive. We switched off in this household from the fancy stuff down to the more, shall we say, middle, middle class middle class coffee. So we're gonna see some shortages. Yes, but it's not going to be, it's not gonna be a food riot shortage. No, well luckily you always keep a bottle of wine on hand at your desk just in case there is a shortage, you're set, you're ready to go now. We know why they call it a crisis. It's because of the wine, but what sort of action can we take personally as consumers, people out here everyday shopping or what have you to help maybe reverse this crisis? Is there anything that we can do at all? And do you see any examples of who else is already making progress with this effort? Well, there's one good thing. The business of agriculture and some of my friends with extreme Ag have been very forward thinking about signing up for carbon credits and there are corporations that say we want to offset our carbon and you can do that through companies like for instance Nori that has sponsored me where you go in there and you can buy carbon credits and all that. So the farmers then say we'll keep cover crops on, We will till less which is better for the environment and then you pay us so that we can make those adjustments to our farming practices and we store more carbon. That's one good thing that's happening. You know, I would point out that windbreaks and conservation tillage again. This picture was only taken in the 19 thirties and this is what the Great plains of the United States look like during the Dust bowl. We we've been dry but we don't look like that and that's because of genetic advancement, technological advancement and some of the crop practices. So what can the consumer do? Consumer can realize that out here in agriculture, we're doing a lot of good for the environment. Yes, we have an outsized impact on the environment because we used diesel every day with all the tractors and the trucks and the equipment that we need to move the food around and produce it. Um, if the consumer could realize that, hey, we're not out here Destinroying things, we're definitely doing a better job than we did just 30, 40 years ago by the environment. The consumer also probably needs to realize that we are unable to move, you know, into like electric batteries and all this. You can't power 400 houses horsepower tractor on batteries very practically. So I think there's going to be some understanding that if there's an environmental challenge, we're gonna step up to it, doing the things we can do, cover crops, reduce tillage, uh, you know, those kinds of things less tillage equals less erosion equals less carbon being released equals less diesel, but we can't make a wholesale adjustment and still put those store shelves, you know, stock store shelves if you put too much regulation on. So, I guess from a standpoint of agriculture, we'll keep doing everything we can. But give us some time to make the adjustment because nobody wants a food scare. Right? Exactly. Well, it might be the perfect time to start that at home Guard, just in case you're always covered. All right. Mr mason farm owner, agricultural economist and author of food Fear, Thank you so much for joining us