Wheat May Bake in the Fields, Climate Scientists Warn

(MoneyWatch)  Forget polar bears and Greenland ice caps -- global warming is threatening our food supply, and could bake the grain growing in the U.S. heartland before farmers ever get a chance to harvest it, warn climate scientists at the University of Washington.

Today's report in the Seattle Times -- the Seattle newspaper that's not up for sale -- warns that crop yields in traditional farm belts worldwide could fall between 20 and 40 percent by the end of this century. Rising temperatures are the reason. Scientists say that while more heat causes crops like rice, corn and wheat to grow faster, the faster growth results in lower grain yields.

This would cause serious disruption in world commodities markets, the report says, pointing to the 1972 crop failures in the Soviet Union. Grain prices tripled then, as the USSR bought up grain worldwide to try to fill the gap. And that's not to mention the human toll, particularly in the underdeveloped world, where farming is more of a subsistence issue than an economic one.

This is just the latest in a serious of studies into what effect global warming will have on
agriculture. Wine Press Northwest magazine reported last fall on the work of an Oregon State University climate scientist, who noted that rising temperatures in the region are reducing grape-killing winter frosts.

Fifteen or 20 years ago, when pioneer winemakers started planting pinot noir in the Willamette Valley, "the baseline climate back then was right at the margin," climatologist Greg Jones told the magazine.

But now, killer frosts are rare in Oregon, and growers to the north in British Columbia are successfully growing red wine grapes that used to be grown only in sunny California. That's raising the possibility of opening new wine regions to the north, as well as fears that some parts of California may become too hot for wine production within a matter of decades.