When you think of global warming, do you think to research the changes in wheat prices? I definitely did not connect the two initially, but my post about the Marmots rose a few questions in my head about crops. Obviously, if animals are being impacted by climate change, crops and farming will also be affected. I started to do a little research and found that droughts and floods have ultimately affected farming, and wheat farming specifically.
Experts argued that wheat prices were changing because of new Russian export policies which banned wheat exports. However, the evidence proves otherwise because there were droughts and floods across the world.
In Canada there were harvesting problems because of too much rain.
Conversely, Australia experienced a drought this year.
The United States had a plentiful harvest this year, but they do not know how much wheat they should plant for next year because of environmental uncertainties. Farmers need to be able to predict how much wheat to plant, and this planning is done after they determine demand. But demand is no longer easily determined because it is impossible to try to predict floods and droughts in other countries.
Ultimately, the only way to fix this problem would be to stop climate change. Too much, or too little, rain can be dealt with by farmers because they can plan for what they expect. However, if the environment reacts unexpectedly and floods it creates trouble for those farmers which planned for droughts.
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