Environmental Sample Writing

Climate Change: Effects on U.S. Crops

With crops in the "breadbasket" of the United States being such a large supplier of grain, not only for the U.S. but also being a leader in exports of corn, soybean and wheat, many Americans seem to have little concern over climate change.There are even many farmers that will deny climate change, but have begun making changes to the way they plant, care for and harvest their crops.The effects climate change will have on our world agriculture is still highly debated, however many have begun to agree upon a few points, sounding off warning bells for our future.

Many crops tend to grow faster in warmer temperatures, which at first hearing sounds more like a positive. However when crops grow faster the seeds have less time to grow and mature before sprouting and shooting up into the crop producing stalks. This in turn leads to smaller crop yield, which equals less food from the same amount of land and labor. Not only has there been an increase in the number of days with warmer temperatures, in recent years there has also been a lack of rainfall in major crop producing states, causing higher drought conditions. There is yet another threat to our crops coming from weeds, pests, and fungi, which all thrive in warmer temperatures. Not only do these thrive and make farming harder, preventing these problems with pesticides and fungicides can cause adverse health problems for humans.

Whether you believe that climate change is happening or not, all you need do is look around you to see the changes in weather patterns and the advances being made to help to continue production of high crop yields. You will see that not only is there cause for concern, but that there are already steps being taken that will hopefully help our future generations to thrive.


Sample Writing for Environmental Field
Word Count: 308 (not including title)