JACKSON COUNTY, Ore. – Climate change is one of the many factors that drive food insecurity, with shifting conditions and extreme weather events disrupting agricultural productivity.
“As everybody knows, we have been having these unreasonably warm periods of time,” said Alan Journet, the co-founder of Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, a non-profit that seeks to address the consequences of climate change. When it comes to agriculture, Journet says climate change brings hotter growing seasons and drier conditions that affect water availability.
“In this region we’re going to be experiencing more and more of a difficulty in terms of the summer-fall temperature, the growing season temperature,” said Journet.
Climate change also causes rain at higher elevations, which prevents the growth of a vital snowpack. Here in our region, we depend on high altitude snowpack as a reservoir for irrigation water. Consequently, this means less snow-melt is available for farmers to use as irrigation water later in the spring and summer.
According to Journet, the amount of irrigation water that’s available to us is depleting, and that’s going to make agricultural activities more difficult as we go forward. As temperatures rise, this brings more risk for extreme weather events like drought, heat waves, and wildfires. The same is true here in the Rogue Valley.
Chris Jagger is a farmer at Blue Fox Farms in the Applegate, which partners with local food pantries. Jagger, whose farm has been here for over 20 years, says he’s seen climatic shifts happen over time, and has had to adapt as a result.
“The biggest things that we’ve had to do is select certain crops that are grown in different times of the year. Things that we used to be able to carry longer through the spring we cut off sooner because they don’t like the heat.” Farmers have to plan months ahead of time, and Jagger says some crops don’t make it through the summer heat.
“Because it doesn’t rain here in the summer, everything we do here is dependent on our irrigation that we have access to. Luckily we have some of the best water access here in southern Oregon coming off of the Applegate River through water rights. That is something we can adjust over time, but really its just watching the crops and what they need,” Jagger said. With hotter temperatures causing drier soil and vegetation, this makes the threat for destructive wildfires more likely.
“I think the wildfires honestly have been the biggest challenge that we’ve seen come into play since I’ve been farming here. Every season you just know once smoke season starts, it can really affect your crops a lot,” Jagger said.
It’s important for farmers to be prepared, monitor soil health, and plant a variety of crops to compensate for any lost yield. Things like regenerative agriculture can help mitigate the damage, but as Journet says, rising global temperatures continue to impact our food supply.
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