LDN - Features

Spring 2021 Logan County
Farm Outlook Magazine

Solving the biggest upcoming dilemma for mankind
By Jim Youngquist

[March 26, 2021] It is believed that by 2050 mankind will be facing the greatest challenge of this age, but it is not climate change. With the current pattern of population increase, it is widely accepted that this planet will expand from the current estimate of 7,800,000,000 people (March 2020) to more than 10 billion people by 2050. The dilemma is not the size of the population, but how to feed everyone.

Agricultural technology has dramatically increased crop yields in the last fifty years with hybridization, GMOs, better farming practices and incredible advances in farm equipment and machinery. U.S. grain farms have increased in size from an average of 205 acres during the 1950s to 444 acres in 2020, with some now as big as 10,000 acres under production with a lower percentage of the total population farming. Ag technology has made it possible for fewer people to produce bigger crops and better yields.

Putting more acres in production, farming under glass with hydroponics, developing super crops and other amazing technologies are on their way. These great technological shifts in agriculture may not, however, be enough to bridge the gap in food production in the next thirty years by themselves. The necessary conditions to produce greater yields might come from a very controversial source: increased CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere.

Yes, as we all have heard, carbon dioxide is at the heart of another controversial subject: climate change. This article is not written from the point of view of confirming or denying the theory of climate change, but instead to say that CO2 in the atmosphere may have both beneficial and detrimental effects. While the claims of climatologists may or may not be true regarding catastrophic climate change, the population explosion on the earth is on a definite course: more people, and they all have to eat.

The current global average level of CO2 in the atmosphere is around 400 ppm (parts per million), up from around 280 ppm at the start of the industrial revolution. Some agronomists and environmentalists say that our current increased crop yields are due to both advances in hybrids and GMOs and from this current high level of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Plant function is a simple process called photosynthesis. The plant takes in water and micronutrients, then takes in CO2, and from these simple ingredients create food (sugar). The plant itself is mostly made of carbon, and the seed, like a kernel of corn, is about 45% carbon. The availability of atmospheric CO2 regulates the growth of the plant and the production of its seed. At 250 ppm atmospheric CO2, photosynthesis stops; at 180 ppm, you have total plant death.

Former Greenpeace International President Dr. Patrick Moore says that the industrial revolution came around at exactly the right time in history to save the planet's plant population from extinction because of plunging levels of atmospheric CO2. If the plants die, he said, all life on the planet dies.

U.S. Representative Lamar Smith, then Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology made this claim in a July 24, 2017 op-ed published in the Daily Signal: "A higher concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere would aid photosynthesis, which in turn contributes to increased plant growth. This correlates to a greater volume of food production and better quality food. Studies indicate that crops would utilize water more efficiently, requiring less water. And colder areas along the farm belt will experience longer growing seasons."

A higher concentration of atmospheric CO2 allows a plant to function more efficiently. The plant can take in the CO2 through the stomates (microscopic pores with doors that open and close on the underside of leaves) faster at higher levels and close their doors sooner, allowing less water to be given off to the atmosphere through transpiration. This means less water is used for crop production. The plant grows faster, yields grain at a higher level, and more people can be fed. Other agronomists say that higher levels of atmospheric CO2 fends off plant stress better during drought conditions.

Greenhouse producers have long used the practice of injecting CO2 into their greenhouses to a level of about 1,000 ppm at night in order to produce better plants at a faster rate. This process is an inexpensive way to increase yields, speed production, and use less resources (water and fertilizer).

Dr. Patrick Moore claims that in order to produce the volume of food necessary to feed the burgeoning population of 2050, we will have to use new and different farming techniques, including increasing the level of atmospheric CO2, not lowering it.

[to top of second column]

The pervading atmosphere of debate in this country has produced what is currently being called "Cancel Culture," which calls for censorship if anyone speaks anything other than the accepted narrative. The current pervading narrative in our scientific community is CLIMATE CHANGE. Any exploration of the validity of these crop production claims regarding the benefits of elevated CO2 are quickly quashed, the speakers labeled climate skeptics, defunded and blacklisted. Articles supporting views other than the current narrative are taken off the internet at greater and greater regularity.

While there are some remaining issues with grain production under greater concentrations of CO2, such as the claim that the grain will contain less micronutrients, these issues may be resolved in other ways with technologies if the scientific community will allow the research.

The challenging future is right around the corner. The best advances are often found when people work together with open minds.

"Agriculture (Species: Maize) -- Summary," CO2 Science

"Climate Change History"

"Crops play a major role in the annual CO2 cycle increase"

"Does Rising CO2 Benefit Plants?," Ask the Experts:

"CO2: Friend or Foe to Agriculture?"