Urbana — Agriculture in Wisconsin and the entire Great Lakes will be hurt by a changing climate, says a new report from the University of Illinois and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Changing precipitation patterns, more extreme rainfall events, rising ozone concentrations, and an increase in pests and pathogens will disrupt current farming practices throughout the region.
Farmers in the region are already suffering from wetter spring and fall weather, and the intensity of rainstorms has also increased, says Michelle Wander, University of Illinois Associate Professor of soil fertility and co-author of Impacts on Agriculture: Our Region s Vital Economic Sector. For farmers, these changes mean crop losses and higher costs.
Impacts on Agriculture report can be found at
www.ucsusa.org/greatlakes/glchallengereport.html at the bottom of the page. The comprehensive report on which the agriculture report is based is titled Confronting Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region and can be found at www.ucsusa.org/greatlakes/.
A full article detailing the agriculture report can be found at www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news3045.html.
Sources:
Michelle Wander, 217-333-9471, mwander@uiuc.edu
Steve Clemmer, 617-547-5552, sclemmer@ucsusa.org
Chris Deisinger, (WI Consultant to the Union of Concerned Scientists), 608-283-4261, chrisdeisinger@yahoo.com
