How will global warming affect your countries farmers and the local economy?
By pandaeyes
@pandaeyes (2065)
February 23, 2010 5:01am CST
The area in which I live has farms which grow fruit and cereals and plants for vegetable oil production. There are a few animal farmers too with sheep and cows.
If the weather were to grow warmer, I think the scope for growing fruit would be widened but I think the animals would have less grazing and so would become less common on farms.
That would affect the price of wool and meat and milk .
More scope for fruit and vegetables would make it more likely that those prices would reduce I think as we would be able to import less from over-seas.
How would the climate changes affect your local farms and economy?
2 people like this
9 responses
@jb78000 (15139)
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23 Feb 10
it would depend what the effects were, they aren;t just everywhere getting a bit warmer. at the moment we are experiencing more extreme weather - heavier rain, colder winters, hotter, drier summers. more droughts and colder winters aren't good. on the other hand milder temperatures overall in the north might be an advantage. one of the main concerns in north western europe is if the gulf stream cuts off - this keeps the climate warmer than it would otherwise be. in this case global warming for us would at least to start with mean we were much colder.
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@pandaeyes (2065)
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23 Feb 10
I imagine the farmers must adapt by growing colder weather crops for areas where the climate becomes colder.
I can see that the weather will be more unpredictable too,not just warm or cold but storms too.
1 person likes this
@Fulltank (2882)
• Philippines
23 Feb 10
And one of the effect of global warming is either too much water or lack of water. In the later effect, majority of all living things in Earth needs water to survive. Too little or lack of it will make plants and animals under productive. Plants and animals may only produce little food for humans. Or worst they may die and the domino effect ultimately affects those that belongs to the top of the food chain, us.
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@pandaeyes (2065)
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24 Feb 10
It is a scary thing to think about .
We are draining the earth and ultimately it might just return the favour.
I think that humans are very arrogant in using everything to the point of exhaustion
@pandaeyes (2065)
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23 Feb 10
They use greenhouses quite a lot here already.
I think in the 16 and 1700's the climate was warmer and people grew much more exotic fruit .
We can grow tomatoes outside but the greenhouse varieties are often better and things like peaches will only grow here with heat added.
1 person likes this
@Biomechanoid (2922)
• Estonia
23 Feb 10
I think that if the climate was about to go warmer, the farmers of our country would have benefits from that. Perhaps we would have two farming seasons instead of one, so it would allow our farmers to harvest more crops from the fields throughout the year. I don't think it would somehow affect the prices. I think that tourism organizations would also enjoy a benefit from the climate warming. Our summers would be hotter and perhaps last longer, so there would be more tourists flowing to our country. Although our country would benefit greatly from the climate warming, I still don't want such changes to take effect, because it would totally ruin the climate of southern countries.
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@pandaeyes (2065)
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24 Feb 10
We would most likely have warmer summers too and longer.
If it is warmer in the poles,the ice melts and so there is more water and floods.
The mountainous regions become flooded and that effects the low lying land and so farmers will not just experience warmer seasons but also be unable to cope with the flooding when it is raining. Where I live there are hardly any mountainous areas but in other parts of the UK there are areas already becoming flooded more often.
@umabharti (3972)
• India
23 Feb 10
Yes too high are the rising prices of cereals and vegetables .Everything is gone up from past years.The climate also changed.We can just care about not increasing unnecessary things.
2 people like this
@pandaeyes (2065)
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23 Feb 10
There is a lot of talk here about using less energy for everyday living.
Some People think that their little efforts don't mean anything but they will if everyone thinks about it.
It is like the ants, if one were to move its nest from place to place while all around just sat and watched, it would never achieve safety, but all the ants together can move the nest in a much shorter time and save the colony.
So it is with the energy use of a country.
Many people are now growing vegetables in their gardens or even in pots on their window sills because costs have gone up in the shops due to weather spoiling the farms crops.
1 person likes this
@basqui (3888)
• Philippines
23 Feb 10
my country is experiencing water shortage now, some electric producing dams are even feared to stop from producing current because it's slowly drying up... we're even experiencing wildfires now and farms can't produce crops because irrigation system's can't supply much water to supply water...
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@pandaeyes (2065)
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23 Feb 10
The fires will affect the crops too ,especially cereals because they need the drying out and catch more easily.
Our climate is quite varied still but I think it will get much drier.
We haven't experiences fires here yet but there have been a few places flooded with swollen rivers.
1 person likes this
@ethanonthemoon (1494)
• Quezon, Philippines
24 Feb 10
Philippines is still an agricultural country.
El Nino, particularly, will greatly affect the productivity of lots of Filipino farmers. As of now, we are importing rice from Vietnam and Thailand which are countries that second to the Philippines in the 70's. Now we are the ones who are importing rice from them.
1 person likes this
@pandaeyes (2065)
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24 Feb 10
Is it a trade agreement though?
We have trade agreements with europe which involve us exporting meat and crops and importing almost the exact same things.
I think it is procedures of that kind that are not helping matters.
So much energy wasted in gaining the same results that were originally started off with.
@pandaeyes (2065)
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24 Feb 10
Our prices are very steep too compared with peoples income.
If nobody bought anything, we would be rich in money but starving and homeless.
Petrol costs in the UK are mostly made up of tax as it is but a small fluctuation in the price of oil leaves almost everyone here struggling to find the extra amounts to just afford to get to their place of work .
@pandaeyes (2065)
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24 Feb 10
You mean that farmers with technology will cope?
I don't know.
I think that even pesticides and gm crops will not manage to outdo climate differences.
Look at what happens if it rains early in the harvesting season? The crops are spoiled and the price of bread and pasta and all those other things which rely on cereals, are affected immediately.
If there is a bad tomato crop in Europe, we find the price of everything with tomato in it has shot up even though that crop can be grown in greenhouses away from the weather..
