Fortified By Global Warming, Crop Production Keeps Breaking Records

According to James Taylor's article in Forbes.com, bolstered by increasing soil moisture,longer growing seasons, warmer winters, and the fertilizing effects of more atmospheric carbon dioxide, crop production continues its long and impressive run of ever-increasing yields as global temperatures warm.

The unrelenting increase in global crop production is especially noteworthy given the Internet’s fear-mongering flavor of the week. An article sensationally titled, “Fortified by Global Warming, Deadly Fungus Poisons Crops, Causes Cancer,” has people without access to scientific data believing global warming is harming crop production. The “poison corn” article follows fresh on the heels of another Internet fear-mongering story last month. Claiming global warming is decimating wheat crops, Newsweek reported, “If humans want to keep eating pasta, we will have to take much more aggressive action against global warming.”

Unfortunately for fear-mongers, I happened to be researching global crop production this week and found some politically inconvenient crop data. Notice, mind you, that none of the articles claiming global warming is causing a crop crisis ever talk about such apparently irrelevant things as crop production trends in the real world.  So if you happen to be doing an Internet search regarding global warming, you are likely to come under the impression that the latest and greatest crop data show global warming is decimating corn and wheat crops. And, given the fear-mongering Internet stories at this time last year about global warming destroying rice crops, that leaves us little to eat except liver, gruel, and whatever else global warming alarmists believe are the most unpalatable foods for human consumption.

Global production of corn, wheat and rice have allmore than doubled since 1970 as global warming occurred. Corn production, the current flavor of the week for Internet fear-mongering, has more than tripled since 1970. So, too, has global vegetable production as a whole.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports similar good news in the United States. Corn, wheat and rice production are all experiencing long-term upward trends. Indeed, corn and rice production have more than tripled since 1970.

Importantly, higher crop production is resulting from higher yields per acre rather than merely an increase in land dedicated to crop production. According to the USDA, rice yields per acre are up 45 percent since 1970, wheat yields per acre are up 50 percent since 1970, and corn yields per acre have more than doubled since 1970.

In short, global warming is creating a timely one-two punch benefiting crop production. Global warming is (1) opening up more land for economically feasible crop production and (2) creating beneficial growing conditions that are increasing yields per acre on agricultural lands.

All the fear-mongering Internet myths in the world can’t change those facts.