WATERMAN, Ill. (CBS) – Illinois is the largest producer of soybeans in the US, most of which is used to feed the chicken and beef eaten by consumers, but climate change is impacting local farmers and could ultimately affect what consumers in pay the store.
About an hour west of Chicago, the pace is slightly slower in DeKalb County, where Ryan Frieders, a seventh-generation farmer, and his family grow crops on about 2,400 acres, an area about ten times the size of Millennium Park.
“We have some of the best soils in the world,” Frieders said.
And no one keeps a better eye on the weather than a farmer.
“Honestly, I think I have five different weather apps on my phone, and I probably check them more than 10 times a day,” he said.
The land has been in the Frieders family for sixty years, and Ryan’s father, Ronald, lives just a few miles away.
“I graduated in 1970, left high school and started farming with my parents,” says Ronald Frieders.
According to the eldest Frieders, the weather has “always been a challenge”, but it seems that challenge is becoming more and more extreme.
“Everything seems to be changing, temperatures are getting higher than normal and water levels are lower than normal,” Ronald said.
Ryan added that they will face extended periods of lack of rain, or what could be called a “sudden drought.” Sometimes they encounter more rain than normal, which can delay the planting of their crops.
“It affects our entire year on the farm,” Ryan said.
The changes all align with projections from the Fifth National Climate Assessment for Midwestern agriculture in a warming world, including:
- “Excessive spring rain delays planting.”
- “Rapid Transitions Between Floods and Droughts.”
- “Warmer temperatures put stress on crops.”
Ronald said 2021 was the most difficult harvest he has ever experienced.
“Our crops have been destroyed,” he said.
That came about as a result of worsening wind damage from thunderstorms, which a new study says is also linked to climate change. Ryan said the changes in weather patterns and their effect on crops are also impacting farm income.
Michael Langemeier, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, said the weather changes are something farmers are increasingly talking about.
“I don’t know yet if it has a major direct impact on what consumers pay,” Langemeier said.
He and his team surveyed 400 farmers nationwide. He asked farmers how concerned they were about changing weather patterns, and about 25% said they were “very concerned” or “fairly concerned.”
“I thought that was a relatively high percentage,” Langemeier said.
He added that farmers did not talk much about what these changes could be attributed to: “They just talk about it as something else, and we have to think about how we are going to respond to these changes.”
Ryan said it may be difficult to understand how glaciers melting at the Earth’s poles will affect their farm, “but then you see things happening that aren’t the same as they used to be, and you tend to wonder if the things are more related than before. You ever thought that.”
Frieders’ farm has installed solar panels to reduce their carbon footprint and has made adjustments to their operations in response to changes in the weather.
Data from the Illinois Soybean Association shows that crop yields have not changed significantly over the past decade.
