For decades I have been infuriated by articles in The Economist, The Telegraph et al. suggesting that higher CO2 levels and rising temperatures would be a good thing for Europe’s farmers, increasing the rate of photosynthesis and hence yields. A few people further south might suffer (they don’t have much money anyway) but at least we would be OK. What are these pillars of rationality writing now as Europe burns? Perhaps that it is too late to fight climate change so we had better adapt and go with it, or, if we reduce our use of fossil fuels at all, it must be a “gentle transition”?
It is both tragic and laughable that we seem intent on spending our last dollar of discretionary capital, not on transition, but on AI and vast data centres whose purpose will be to persuade us to buy more of the crap that has got us into this mess. The reality, which has evaded these economists but which any gardener and farmer knows, is that yield and quality are more often determined by the extremes than the averages, and the frequency of extreme weather events falling outside crop tolerance is increasing faster than averages are moving.
On our farm in the French Vendée, temperatures above 32°C have caused aubergines to abort their fruit due to stress; runner beans in the UK have done the same. We would have been able to top up from Spain but our growers there are suffering similarly, if not worse. Our UK tomato, pepper, and cucumber season is barely three months but is, so far, faring better with the growth potential boosted by high temperatures and sunlight, balanced out by losses due to stress.
Those with irrigation have now, pretty much, run out of water and are keeping what is left for the high value crops. Half the carrots have failed and potato yields will be down 25%. In the south-west, much of our summer broccoli, Tenderstem, cauliflower, and Romanesco has traditionally been grown on unirrigated ground. Many will now fail, with the remaining crops having drastically reduced yield and compromised quality. As our reservoirs run dry and our crops die, data centres will have plenty of water and energy and leapfrog the planning process. It seems they are needed for the only sort of growth that matters. You can’t eat it and it’s killing our planet but who dares impede a tech bro?
Image by Geoffrey Moffett via Unsplash; a data centre in Coleraine, Northern Ireland
Our News from the Farm posts come from Riverford. They are the digital versions of the printed letters which go out to customers, every week via Riverford’s veg boxes. Guy Singh-Watson’s weekly newsletters connect people to the farm with refreshingly honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of producing organic food, and the occasional rant about farming, ethical, and business issues he feels strongly about.
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