Even where climate change is merely a contributing factor, for example its impact is added to the El Niño effect, the resulting disaster is often amplified many times over. The recent devastation of Cat 5 Hurricane Otis in Acapulco is a tragic example. The effects of climate changes all over the earth can also defeat otherwise potential benefits of natural phenomena. A parched and super-hardened crust, no longer viable for agriculture, can turn into an impermeable lakebed, trapping desperately needed water into a horrific flood zone, destroying everything in its path.
All agricultural products are determined by their immediate environment, an obvious reality but one often taken for granted by consumers used to shopping at large grocery chains. Crops like grapes, coffee and cocoa beans, where flavor and texture – even survivability – are very much determined by where they are grown. Soil, temperature and rainfall are determinative. Kona and many farms in Latin America will slowly lose the ability to sustain their specialized coffees or chocolates. Prices for those highly treasured products will soar, even as some high-end products completely vanish.
But climate change is everywhere, and “everywhere” agriculture is severely impacted. Without containing and indeed countering climate change, you can expect the cost of food to continue to rise… significantly. Since food is an essential component of life itself, those complaining about inflation who simultaneously decry the cost of dealing effectively with climate change by curtailing greenhouse gas emissions are a major root cause of these costs increases. And, no, the fact that we are such an agricultural powerhouse, a major exporter in fact, does not immunize American agribusiness from the crisis. We may develop new processes, more heat resistant crops and more effective water usage, but there is a limit as to far these efforts can go to stop the devastation.
Nowhere is this more apparent that the vegetable capital of the United States: California, and particularly its San Joachim Valley, a region that is slowly sinking from decades of over-pumping of underground water and environmental missteps. With devastation from aridification followed by destructive flooding (see above photos), the prognosis for the Valley this winter is not good. “Barely a year after dozens of powerful atmospheric rivers pounded the state and triggered historic flooding, state officials gathered at a muddy berm and pumping station near the Sacramento River [recently] to highlight the threat of flooding in a warming climate… ‘These flood risks are getting more intense and we’re doing more than ever to protect California from these risks,’ said Wade Crowfoot, California’s natural resources secretary.… More than 7 million of the state’s residents live in an area where they are at risk of flooding, officials said — and many don’t even know it. Every one of California’s 58 counties has had a flooding emergency in the last two decades.” Los Angeles Times, October 25th.
This year, the Central Valley rolled from ultra-dry and parched to some of the worst flooding California has ever experienced, a pattern that climate change plus El Niño is about to repeat, decimating this vegetable producing area even more. Writing for the October 25th Los Angeles Times, Hayley Smith, spoke to Valley residents whose homes are farms were flooded this summer: “‘If we rebuild, are we going to be safe? If we invest our money back into our homes, will our investment be sound?’… It’s a question many residents of California’s Central Valley are asking themselves — particularly those in the fertile southern region.
“Home to more than 4 million people, the vast San Joaquin Valley lies flat and low between the Sierra Nevada and the Southern Coast Range and has long been prone to climate hazards… Lately, however, they seem to be converging at a breakneck pace. The floods arrived after three years of severe drought, while extreme heat, lung-searing smog and hazardous wildfire smoke have become all-too-common occurrences. Meanwhile, the very earth beneath their feet is sinking.
“Experts say it’s not just bad luck that has made the San Joaquin Valley one of the front lines of climate change in America. Dramatic land use changes, a dearth of resources and state support, and a recalcitrant political climate fueled by agriculture and fossil fuel drilling have all contributed to the region’s challenges. How it adapts could be a case study for the rest of the nation.
“As recently as a century ago, the valley was the humid home to ephemeral rivers, lakes and wetlands. But its rapid transition toward industrial agricultural — which turned it into one of the most fruitful food production regions in the world — sapped the valley’s water and aridified its landscape… ‘In my opinion, the San Joaquin Valley is the region of California that has suffered the most extreme transformation in the whole state,’ said Angel Santiago Fernandez-Bou, lead author of the San Joaquin Valley Region Report for California’s fourth climate change assessment. ‘Basically, we have destroyed 95% of the original wetlands.’
“Even Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, was drained to make room for fields of cotton, tomatoes, almonds and other crops. Once every couple of decades, it refills in dangerous and dramatic fashion, as it did during heavy rains earlier this year… Land transformation in the San Joaquin Valley has decreased its natural resilience to extreme environmental events such as drought, floods and heat, according to Fernandez-Bou, who is also western states senior climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“And it is getting more extreme. His regional report predicted that all valley counties could go from four or five extreme-heat days per year to as many as 68 by the end of the century. Already, Fresno saw 65 days over 100 degrees last year, and Merced recorded its hottest temperature ever, 116 degrees, in September 2022… Although climate change is exacerbating those extremes, he and other experts said the region’s bowl-shaped topography also contributes to heat and other hazards, as it enables smog, fine particulate and wildfire smoke to get trapped inside the basin… ‘You have wildfire smoke, you have pollution from the cities that blows in here, but there’s also a lot of dust being made through the tilling of the soil,’ said Chantelise Pells, community engagement director with the nonprofit SocioEnvironmental and Education Network in Merced.
“The San Joaquin Valley has some of the worst air quality in the nation , and consistently fails to meet federal health standards for both smog and particulate air pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency… The compounding hazards mean many residents are faced with the dilemma of turning on air conditioners that they can’t always afford to use, or opening their windows and suffering from poor air quality, pesticide exposure and extreme heat, Pells said.” Think of the exposure of poor migrant farmworkers to the heat and pollution as they work in the fields (if the fields are still there)… or the poverty levels of long-term families in the region. Add massive flooding to the mix… and well, hell on earth has a new definition.
I’m Peter Dekom, and while consumers will pay mightily at the checkout stand, residents of the San Joachim Valley are paying an even higher price.
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