English Survey Finds Happy Farmers

The Web site Farming Futures reports that a survey found 81 per cent of farmers believe that the global climate is changing, and 70 per cent believe that these changes offer them business benefits.

Farmers pointed to longer growing seasons, warmer weather, new crops and new markets as benefits they could see from climate change, and many have begun growing what recently were considered exotic crops - grapes, olives and walnuts. Some are growing crops that can be converted into biofuel to supply new energy markets.

“We’re already experiencing some benefits, but the risk of increasingly drier summers mean our farmers need to plan now for the challenges ahead”.

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future said: “Farmers, like other businesses, are beginning to realise that adapting to and mitigating climate change is crucial to the success of their business.

“Reluctance to adapt could become a concern as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced, so it's important to remember that actions to combat climate change also help to reduce on-farm costs.”

I found the pointer to Farming Futures in an article by Sarah Rich at WorldChanging, which ended with this wrapup:

Inevitably as the actual effects of climate change on agriculture become more and more apparent and demonstrable, the resource pool will grow and address a greater geographic area. Meanwhile, these UK-based organizations provide plenty of fodder for forecasting what fate may await the world's farms and what we might do to steer things in a positive direction.

Replace "agriculture" with "transportation," "construction" or "water supply" and the statement is equally true - people will wait until the problem is "more apparent and demonstrable" before they really engage in finding solutions.

China's Line in the Sand Ignores the, uh, Sand

China used to be able to grow enough food to feed its entire population. It used to be a net food exporter, but since 2004 it has been a net food importer. With one fifth of the world's population, it has only 7% of the world's arable land, so its leaders intend to stem the loss of any additional land to other purposes such as development. Housing, roads and factories have been gobbling up farmland at an accelerating pace. China now has a food security problem.

Reuters reports that in a news conference, Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi declared that the government will hold the line at a minimum of 120 million hectares devoted to agriculture. How this new law will be enforced, given the turmoil of China's booming business development and migration to the cities, remains to be seen.

No mention at the news conference, apparently, of the spreading Gobi desert, which has been claiming Chinese farmland for years. More on that in a future post here.