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NickB79

(19,976 posts)
Wed Jun 18, 2025, 08:16 PM Jun 18

Children born now may live in a world where the US can only produce half as much of its key food crops

Source: CNN

Rising global temperatures are set to devastate food crops across the world, with particularly alarming impacts projected for the United States, where production of key crops could plummet 50% by the end of the century, according to a sweeping new analysis.

Of the many impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis, damage to the global food system is one of the most terrifying. But the overall impact of climate change on crops — and how much it can be offset by farmers’ adaptations — has been hard to establish and hotly debated.



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/18/climate/food-crops-heat-rain

17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Irish_Dem

(72,240 posts)
1. Maybe this is why Trump is reducing the US population.
Wed Jun 18, 2025, 08:21 PM
Jun 18

There will not be enough food to feed Americans.

DSandra

(1,626 posts)
3. America has plenty of food production
Wed Jun 18, 2025, 08:30 PM
Jun 18

America makes enough to be able to export lots of food, as much as $173 billion as of 2023.

Irish_Dem

(72,240 posts)
8. After four years of Trump ruining agriculture, meat packing, etc., this may no longer be the case.
Thu Jun 19, 2025, 05:47 AM
Jun 19

NickB79

(19,976 posts)
14. Mostly thanks to extremely destructive, unsustainable practices
Thu Jun 19, 2025, 09:29 PM
Jun 19

Vast inputs of fossil fuels for diesel, herbicide, pesticide and synthetic fertilizer.

Unsustainable use of irrigation, draining irreplaceable aquifers.

Tilling practices that have eroded vast amounts of topsoil that will take thousands of years to restore, if ever.

None of this can go on indefinitely.

AZJonnie

(1,022 posts)
2. That doesn't appear to be factoring in the fact that fossil fuels will start to run out long before 2100
Wed Jun 18, 2025, 08:27 PM
Jun 18

Esp. if world population continues increasing.

This is important because, in a nearly-literal sense the whole world eats fossil fuels. Between the petrol/diesel to run the farm machines and trucks that bring food to market, and the hydrocarbon inputs needed for fertilizers and pesticides, the ONLY reason there are anywhere near 8B people on earth is the energy provided by fossil fuels.

So not only will the climate itself be screwed in terms of crop production, but also the hydrocarbons needed to produce and distribute the food in the first place will start to run out as well (or effectively already have run out by 2100).

Barring some techno-miracle, kids today are F***ED.

markodochartaigh

(3,334 posts)
5. RuBisCo activase is heat intolerant
Wed Jun 18, 2025, 08:55 PM
Jun 18

and many grain crops are grown in areas where there are many days close to the maximum level of tolerance. Without RuBisCo the photosynthesis that most staple crops need to produce our food cannot happen.
It has been almost two decades since I saw Col. Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell's chief of staff, give a talk where he said that he had been told by a NASA climatologist that, under a worst case scenario, there would be only enough arable land on the Earth for 400 million people by 2100. Since then it seems that the IPCC worst case scenarios are routinely exceeded.

SpankMe

(3,527 posts)
6. We're already seeing it
Wed Jun 18, 2025, 09:20 PM
Jun 18

They're currently growing decent quality wine grapes in Oregon and England because it's becoming too hot in California and France. Climatic conditions for grapes is moving north.

Scenarios I've read about are that the average green belt for agriculture is moving north. In the next 50-100 years, Canada will be shockingly suitable for crops that we grow in the US now.

markodochartaigh

(3,334 posts)
13. Unfortunately in Canada
Thu Jun 19, 2025, 09:55 AM
Jun 19

the rocky Laurentian Shield covers most of the third of the country which gets the most rain.

Rhiannon12866

(238,738 posts)
9. I thought he was encouraging women to have more kids - what are they going to eat?!
Thu Jun 19, 2025, 07:28 AM
Jun 19

Thanks to him, children already born are starving to death after he canceled U.S. aid!

hueymahl

(2,815 posts)
10. Similar predictions have been made since at least the late 60's
Thu Jun 19, 2025, 07:51 AM
Jun 19

Yet has never come to pass. Click-bait doomerism.

NickB79

(19,976 posts)
15. We're currently at the highest CO2 levels in 20 million years
Thu Jun 19, 2025, 09:32 PM
Jun 19

Back when seas were 75' higher, forests grew at the North Pole, and alligators swam in the Midwest.

Nothing doomerism about any of this. There are massive, rapid changes on the horizon, most of them really bad for a global civilization built on a relatively stable, cool climate over thousands of years.

hueymahl

(2,815 posts)
17. Of course not
Fri Jun 20, 2025, 12:13 PM
Jun 20

Articles like these consistently discount the advance of technology to solve food production problems. Not once in modern history has a prediction like this one been accurate for any time period longer than a couple of years. Technology and human ingenuity are always solving the problems and will continue to do so.

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