Tag: Agriculture

Wildfire season has officially started in the Golden State. Water scarcity and water management – once California’s marvel of engineering – are primarily to blame, as are thirsty crops.

Beware the “zombie trees”. In early May, scientists discovered a smoldering, smoking sequoia tree in Central California’s Sequoia National Park. It has been burning silently since August of last year when lightning ignited a wildfire that spread across a sizable swath of the Sierra Nevada and took five months to contain. Twenty-twenty saw California’s worst wildfire season on record; 9,279 fires burned a stupefying 4.2 million acres of forest and vegetation, torching 10,488 structures and killing 31 people. Governor Gavin Newsom called it a “climate damn emergency”.

He might be equally eloquent this year. The wildfire season, which typically lasts through October, started on May 15 when the Palisades brush fire, a mere 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles, forced the evacuation of some 1,000 residents and scorched land that hadn’t burned in 75 years.

“One single almond needs about 4.2 liters of water to grow. A one-liter carton of almond milk contains anywhere from 16 to 135 almonds, that means between 125 and 940 liters of water go into making one liter of almond milk.”

Anyone who has ever built a campfire knows that you need tinder, kindling, and fuel; tinder is the stuff that will ignite from an ember or a spark – dried leaves, pine needles, grasses, and such; kindling will get the fire going; fuel is what keeps it aflame. The most populous state in the country is a parched expanse of tinder, with severe to extreme drought conditions in the mountain range that provides about a third of California’s water. In spring, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is normally at its peak, yet on April 1, it was down to 5% of average, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

Drought, without a doubt

Californians are surely going to feel the effects of their soon-to-be-drained reservoirs, just as they did in 2012 – 2015, the state’s driest consecutive four-year stretch since record-keeping began in 1896.Still fresh in mind, this extended drought turned into an all-out crisis. Crops and gardens withered, salmon streams dried out, and ski slopes turned into gravel runs. Statewide,

officials ordered urban residents to reduce water use by 25%. They hired water cops to enforce the rules, prompting people to think twice about flushing toilets (the water-thrifty slogan “If it’s yellow, let it mellow” has been adopted from San Francisco to London, and Cape Town), forcing hotels to cut back on laundry service and restaurants to serve less of that formerly free-flowing beverage. All the while, homeowners used smartphone apps to turn in neighbors that over-sprinkled their lawns – massive residential water users, so-called water buffalos, still spill over 15,000 liters a day.

More alarmingly, thousands of rural wells ran dry, requiring the state to truck in costly emergency drinking water to underprivileged communities.

From 2014 – 2016, the agricultural sector lost 3.8 billion USD and more than a half-million acres of farmland, taken out of production for lack of irrigation water. An estimated 21,000 jobs disappeared in 2015 alone.But it didn’t stop there. The extreme aridity killed more than 100 million trees and weakened millions more, sparking – literally – a catastrophic turn of events: The graveyard of trees fueled California’s wildfire epidemic.

The nation’s thirsty fruit basket – a marvel of modern engineering, a catalyst of conflagration

Moving vast quantities of water remains California’s proudest feat of engineering; it has transformed its arid, mountainous countryside into the nation’s most bounteous oasis. The state’s constructed landscape turned it into an agricultural powerhouse that produces one-quarter of the United States’ food. Some of America’s greatest public infrastructure accomplishments were created to spur this development, among them nearly 1,500 reservoirs for water that is redirected from the mountains to the coast and from north of Sacramento, where three-quarters of the state’s precipitation falls, to south of the state capital, where three-quarters of its water is used, 80% of which by farming.

As the name suggests, the Central Valley is far from any northern cloudbursts. This verdant basin is California’s agricultural hub, fed partly on groundwater, which has seen a fair share of farming-induced contamination calamities. To irrigate the crops in the hot, dry summer months when water is most needed, the Central Valley depends on the state’s extensive network of water storage and delivery systems that collect winter rain and spring snowmelt.The Golden State produces more than 400 agricultural commodities, collecting billions in revenue and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. They include forage (grown for animal consumption), fiber, grains, legumes, vegetables, fisheries, and livestock. But fruits and nuts are its real celebrities. The state grows nearly two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts and is the primary or sole producer of almonds, clingstone peaches, grapes, pistachios, and walnuts. Based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Agriculture Statistics Service, and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization

these gustatory superstars collectively cover over 2 million acres and generate more than 14 billion USD, comprising more than 28% of the states direct agricultural value. The crux of this stale biscuit, however, is that agriculture requires a superabundance of water. Almond orchards, for example, need more than 40 inches of water each year, yet many of the state’s prime almond-growing regions receive less than 10 inches. Almond cultivation has doubled in the last decade as it’s a high-value crop. High returns make it lucrative for farmers to invest in deeper wells that intensify groundwater depletion. One source suggests a single almond needs about 4.2 liters of water to grow. A one-liter carton of almond milk contains anywhere from 16 to 135 almonds, which means between 125 and 940 liters of water go into making one liter of almond milk. Consider that next time you pour the popular stuff in your coffee!

Avocados are heavy drinkers too. California is the United States’ largest producer of everybody’s favorite toast topping. More than 3,000 avocado growers occupy approximately 50,000 acres. On average, 250 to 300 liters of water are required to grow one “alligator pear”.

California’s engineered landscape was not designed to accommodate current nutritional fads or farm practices, nor was it made to adjust to the rapid climate change that continues to cause more extreme precipitation patterns. The dry years are simply becoming drier, forcing cities and farmers to deplete underground aquifers.

California’s cows aren’t keeping it cool

Of course, this warming is also exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions, some 20% of which originate “within the farm gate”. California is not only the country’s fruit basket; it’s America’s larder and largest dairy producer. But its cows – with their methane-producing metabolism – are further raising temperatures and causing even more drying. According to the North Carolina Institute of Climate Studies and the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, California’s emission pathway will cause historically unprecedented warming by the end of the 21^st century. Even under a pathway of lower greenhouse gas emissions, average annual temperatures will most likely exceed historical record levels by the middle of the 21^st century – contributing to yet more wildfires.

Overall, the western fire season has extended by at least 84 days since the 1970s. Cal Fire, California’s fire protection service, no longer considers there to be a wildfire “season”. The state is a year-round campfire that just won’t go out.

The still-burning sequoia in the Sierra Nevada is like a dinner guest that refuses to leave, hoping she’ll be invited to stay for breakfast. She’s not alone. In the high northern hemisphere’s boreal forests, “zombie fires” smolder through the non-fire season and flare up the following spring. A recently published study in the journal Nature suggests that these “overwintering” blazes could become increasingly merciless as the climate warms.

Tag: Agriculture

Images of turtles entangled in plastic often hit the headlines. If not directly killing marine animals, plastic debris breaks down into tiny pieces called microplastics. Now found in every corner of the planet, including some of the Earth’s most remote places like Antarctica, seafloors, and groundwater, microplastics have turned into a plague that keeps on spreading. So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a recent study discovered plastic fragments in the air we breathe. But we should nevertheless be alarmed by the news.

While we use plastics in nearly all aspects of life, the way we produce, distribute, consume, and dispose of food notably fuels our global appetite for this petroleum byproduct. In fact, food and drink packaging alone accounts for 16% of all plastics ever produced. Microplastics have infested the entire food chain, polluting land, water, and atmosphere with disastrous environmental and public health consequences.

Land pollution – Microplastics flushed down the soil

The agricultural sector contributes greatly to the problem, using 6.5 million metric tons of plastic annually. Representing 40% of the total agriplastic market, mulching – covering soil with a plastic film – is a significant contamination source on farms. The practice helps prevent weeds, conserve water, control temperatures, accelerate growth and prolong seasons for certain vegetables. But it also causes widespread soil and crop contamination. Paradoxically, despite the existence of plastic-free alternatives such as wood chips, leaves, grass trimmings, or straw – which all have the added benefit of enhancing soil quality – organic farmers still favor mulching because it increases productivity without prohibited fertilizers and pesticides.

Beyond plastic mulch, tunnels, greenhouses, and seed coatings – yes, as crazy as it sounds, seeds are coated in plastic – sewage sludge is by far the largest source of microplastics on farmlands. Whether poured directly on soils or first processed as biosolids, this fertilizer resulting from sewage treatments accounts for 92% of microplastics contamination on farms. The impact of such large-scale use remains unknown. Still, a 2019 Kansas State University lab experiment showed that wheat grown with microplastics contained 1.5 times more cadmium, one of the most toxic components in sewage sludge. The experiment also found drainage problems in plastic-contaminated soils.

Water pollution – Plastics dumped into the ocean

Although microplastics “only” account for 8% of the total mass of debris found in the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, they represent 94% of floating fragments. These very particles take off and travel in the atmosphere when powered by waves and wind. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a study from Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, estimates that there are 35 times more marine habitat-threatening microplastics buried in the depth of the seabed than floating on the surface. What’s more, fishing nets make up the vast majority of larger debris in the oceans. Some of this plastic eventually enters our food chain, from the plankton that krill eat to the salmon fillet on your plate. Microplastics have even found their way into groundwater.

Air pollution – Microplastics dispersed into the atmosphere

We force-feed our lands and waters a colossal quantity of plastic, only for them to chew and spit it back out into the atmosphere. Once in the air, microplastics can travel for up to six and a half days, accumulating organic pollutants, exposing the ecosystems to additional air pollution, and posing risks of respiratory diseases for humans, according to a study conducted by researchers at Utah State University and Cornell University.

Not only do we breath plastic particles, but we also eat a credit card-sized amount of microplastics each week. This can affect our immune system and facilitate the transmission of toxic chemicals and pathogens. We ingest microplastics and related chemicals through seafood but also through direct transfers from food packages. Bisphenol A is one of such substances. It’s a carcinogenic endocrine disruptor now banned in baby bottles in most industrialized countries but still allowed in most low-income countries as well as in water bottles and soda cans.

Yet, despite such alarming evidence, plastic production continues to rise. Researchers project it’ll quadruple by 2050. By then, we will have generated 26 billion metric tons of plastic waste, further contaminating soils, waters and air. What is it going to take for our food systems to learn that what goes around comes around?

Tag: Agriculture

Over millions of years, the Earth gave us a truly astonishing number of living species. For most of human history, we have made use of this biodiversity and even added to it. Since the Industrial Age, however, we resorted to assaulting it, endangering the Earth’s wildlife and vegetation, and, in some cases, even driving them to extinction. In the last century, we have stepped up our offensive against nature, threatening entire ecosystems and our planet’s biosphere. According to numerous experts, the main brute in this one-sided fight is our modern food system. The way we produce, distribute, and consume food has become a savage destroyer, transforming landscapes and plundering natural resources so that we can choose what we wish to eat.

In total, up to one million plant and animal species face extinction, many within decades, because of expanding monocultures and other human interventions – a quantity and a pace exceeding the mass extinction that occurred during the Triassic and Jurassic periods 200 million years ago. Without drastic action to conserve habitats, the rate of species extinction will only increase, concludes a landmark report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

But wild animals are not the only ones threatened with extinction. As of 2016, 9% of all domesticated breeds used for food and agriculture have vanished, with at least 1,000 more in jeopardy.

Food production depletes freshwater resources and, because agriculture relies heavily on chemicals, it contributes to the acidification and contamination of waterways and marine habitats. In turn, this threatens the dynamics of ecosystems and the species within them.

Based on the practice of growing a single crop, intensive agriculture endangers biodiversity in both the plant and animal kingdoms. Three crops – wheat, corn, and rice – account for more than half of the world’s caloric intake, and a large portion of them goes to animal feed. As fewer kinds of these crops are grown in increasingly similar cultivation systems, industrial monoculture will further reduce genetic variation. Meanwhile, other grains, fruits, and vegetables are being phased out or outright lost, adding to impaired resiliency.

Through its contribution to climate change, the food system becomes an indirect driver of biodiversity loss. Climate change alters the suitability of habitats, causing sensitive species to die out or move elsewhere. In some cases, other species move in to occupy the territory left behind. These alterations compromise the overall resilience of the ecosystem in question.

Key figures from the IPBES report include:

More than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now dedicated to crop or livestock production.
Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the global land surface, and up to US$577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss.
In 2015, 93% of marine fish stocks were either fully fished or overfished and only 7% were harvested at sustainable levels.

More info:

GLOBAL ASSESSMENT REPORT BIODIVERSITY ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

FOOD PLANET PRIZE REPORT: BIODIVERSITY

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