Amid rising global temperatures, New Mexico farmers are struggling to produce stable crops. According to reports by Public News Service, farmers are up against extreme weather, making it difficult to plan ahead.
What's happening?
Farmers in New Mexico have been facing droughts and wildfires, both of which have disrupted crop yields.
According to program co-director for the American Friends Service Committee Sayrah Namaste, extreme weather events in the state have created "really hard odds for farmers to be up against."
Namaste discussed some of the extreme weather events with Public News Service, highlighting record-breaking heat for weeks as well as the state's worst wildfires and drought.
"It's accelerating so fast that it's hard to even keep up with what they need to do," Namaste told Public News Service. "You know, it used to be you had guideposts, you had dates and it's not anymore. The climate is so chaotic that it's very hard to know, and that's just not happened for generations of farmers."
Why is farming in New Mexico important?
The farming crisis in New Mexico demonstrates the impact of the climate crisis on the nation's food supply and the need for action. As of 2018, there has not been an update to the Farm Bill, per reports by Public News Service. While Congress continues to remain divided on the bill's details, farmers continue to struggle to keep up with unstable weather patterns.
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While extreme weather has always been a part of Earth's history, more intense droughts, heat waves, and storms are driven by the use of dirty energy. These nonrenewable sources of energy emit harmful, planet-warming gases into the atmosphere, which results in extreme weather events.
What's being done about the impact of extreme weather on farming?
Scientists point to climate-smart agriculture as the main solution against extreme weather. With sustainable farming practices, farmers can become more resilient against the climate crisis.
Namaste also discussed how many farmers in New Mexico have been planting a diversity of crops and sequencing them to ensure they have at least one crop available even if all others fail.
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