ALS 1024 Podcast: Climate in Agriculture

The podcast discusses the impact of climate change on agriculture and the food supply. It emphasizes the importance of understanding how climate affects food production. Two guests with different backgrounds share their perspectives on the topic. They discuss the significant ways climate change affects agriculture, such as droughts in California. International cooperation is seen as crucial in addressing the global impacts of climate change. The guests predict that without significant changes, there could be a global food crisis in the future. The podcast concludes by highlighting the need for action and measures to combat climate change's effects on the food system. This is our podcast for Digitize Agriculture. The name of our podcast is Climate and Agriculture by Madison Vaughn, Julia Vaccarello, and Ryan Rogers. The topic of our podcast episode will be regarding climate change and its relation to agriculture and food supply. It will focus on the impacts of climate change in the agricultural industry and the effects of these changes on the food industry. This podcast will be relevant to any college students in a related major trying to learn more or anyone that might be able to make changes to help with this issue at hand. The episode will tell the story of how these issues have impacted us already and how it will continue to do if changes are not made. Listeners will be left with a better understanding of the importance of the impacts of climate and how our food is grown and where it comes from. Today we will be interviewing two people. One of the people we will be interviewing is not very knowledgeable on this topic. She is a neuroscience major and the other person is an agribusiness major. So we wanted to get two different perspectives about the topic at hand. Hi, I'm Sullivan. I'm an agribusiness major. I'm Molly. I'm a cognitive and behavioral neuroscience major. So Sullivan, can you describe your background knowledge in the topic of climate change and agriculture? Of course. So as an agribusiness major, a lot of my classes talk about agriculture and what our climate and our environment affects in agriculture. So it's a big part of my curriculum here at Virginia Tech. And you, Molly? I'm not very knowledgeable in this topic. I've only learned a little bit about plants and biology, but I'm really excited to learn more about climate change today. Back to you, Sullivan. Do you think climate change has a direct effect on agriculture, specifically our food industry? Definitely. I mean, if the climate isn't just right for whatever crops are growing, then it's going to affect the food supply, which directly affects the food industry, because that's what they're working with. What about you, Molly? I don't know too much about this topic, but if I were to guess or say something, I would probably also agree with what Sullivan said, that if the climate isn't right, that the crops aren't going to grow as much, and if there's not as much rain and stuff, they're also not going to grow and all that. Thank you, Molly. Okay, Sullivan. In your view, what are the most significant ways climate change is impacting agriculture and our food supply globally? I mean, my mind automatically goes to California and their droughts. I know there's a lot of agriculture and farming up in Northern California specifically, and they are severely affected by the drought, which has been caused by climate change. They can't just really water their crops. They have to really ration it out, and that affects how plentiful their crop is. Okay, Molly, and what are your thoughts? I think that some of the biggest things that are affecting climate change globally is the use of cars, and the combustion harming the atmosphere, and also the use of aerosol sprays. They also really hurt the ozone layers. I think these are also factors that are affecting global warming. Okay, Sullivan. How important is international cooperation in addressing the global impacts of climate change on agriculture and food supply? All right. Well, it takes an army. If one country isn't pulling their weight, then all of the work that every other country is doing is going to be for naught. And so everyone needs to pitch in so that we can make some real change, like substantial change. Chief Molly. Since climate change is a global issue and not national, I also agree that everyone kind of needs to work together since it's not just one country. All countries kind of have to pitch in. Kind of like Sullivan said, I totally agree that you need an army to fight the war of global warming. So for our last question, Sullivan, what are your predictions for the future impact of climate change on agriculture and preventing a global food crisis? Well, I know we're already seeing a food crisis here in the United States, and so going forward, I think that we can predict some detrimental effects to our food crisis globally if we don't make some serious changes now. For you, Molly? I totally agree with Sullivan. I also think that if changes aren't made globally, I mean, we might run out of crops one day. And yeah, that's all I have to say. Thank you, Molly. So to wrap up the podcast, I think we've learned a lot about the effects of climate change on the food system and some measures we can take moving forward to end this problem. Thank you for listening to our podcast, and thank you to our guests, Sullivan and Molly. Thank you.