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Have you ever wondered how climate change will impact our ability to grow food? (Part 2)
There are some effects of climate change that resonate more personally for me. I don’t just mean suffering through the more frequently occurring high heat days with no air conditioning, although that does stink. I’m referring to my fondness for nurturing plants and gardening. Growing our own fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs is a tradition in our family, and I’m concerned about the influence climate change will have on our food supply and our own ability to grow food regionally.
In part 1 of the blog post, we talked about what climate change is. In this post, we will focus of how climate change could potentially disrupt our food supply. Crop production, whether it be agriculture or your home vegetable garden, is weather sensitive. Growing food crops is influenced by the region’s climate and aspects of the climate such as temperature, precipitation, and frosts. Read on to learn more.
Have you ever wondered how climate change will impact our ability to grow food? (Part 1)
We’ve all heard of global climate change and global warming. In my previous career as a botanist at a natural history museum, we discussed our role as members of the scientific community in monitoring global climate change and ways in which the museum collections could be utilized for that purpose. I also learned that our local ecosystems are shifting due to the changes in regional climate and weather. This hit home for me. Having worked extensively in our northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania ecosystems, I’ve grown to love our native habitats. It wasn’t until I was taking an introductory class in Sustainable Agriculture that I even thought about how changes in local climate and weather patterns will impact our ability to grow food though. As someone who enjoys growing my own food and having food readily available to myself and my family, I’m apprehensive about the influence climate change may have overall on food production and regional availability.