Rising global temperatures could damage crop production, reports the Associated Press, but farmers also need domestic oil and gas production to increase, Louisiana’s agriculture commissioner says.
“Climate change is real,” Commissioner Mike Strain told the Press Club of Baton Rouge, adding that carbon capture is the answer because much of Louisiana agriculture relies on fossil fuels for fertilizer production.
However, hundreds of environmental groups have called that a false solution. Carbon capture has to be part of the solution, but is not improving as fast as solar and wind energy and electricity storage, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported recently.
Over the past century, Strain says, slight temperature increases have increased crop production. “But now we’re on the other side where the increases in temperature will decrease production in plants and in animals. So we must be cognizant of that,” he says. Read the full story.