From Climate REALISM
By H. Sterling Burnett
The Associated Press (AP) published an article claiming that climate change is causing storms to worsen and jeopardizing corn production, prompting farmers to consider a new variety of short corn. This story is false in almost every way. When farmers consider a newly developed variety of corn, it is because of skillful marketing by the company developing the crop, not because of changing climate conditions. Wind speeds and storms have not increased and will not increase in the foreseeable future, and corn yields and production continue to reach records for existing corn varieties.
In the AP story titled “'Short Corn' Could Replace Massive Corn Fields Overtaken by Climate Change,” the news outlet writes:
A late-summer land tour in the Midwest means venturing into the corn zone, winding between 12-foot-tall green, leafy walls that seem to block out almost everything except the sun and the occasional water tower.
. . .
But soon that towering corn could become a miniature of its former self, replaced by stalks half the height of the green giants that have dominated the fields for so long.
The short corn, developed by Bayer Crop Science, is being tested on about 30,000 acres (12,141 hectares) in the Midwest with the promise of offering farmers a variety that can withstand strong storms that could become more frequent due to climate change. (emphasis mine)
However, the facts tell a different story. Long corn is in no way “steamed.” Corn yields and production continue to reach new records with some regularity, and there is no evidence that storms are becoming more frequent or wind speeds are increasing.
First to the latter point. The AP and other mainstream media outlets typically consider reports and statements from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as authoritative on climate change. When it comes to the impact of climate change on wind speeds and damaging storms, the IPCC's latest report is clear: no changes are currently being observed; and even in the most extreme climate scenario, no change is expected in the foreseeable future, at least until the year 2100. (see image below)
So much for the AP's claim that increasing winds pose a threat to corn production.
Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) also show no impact of climate change on corn yields or production in the United States or worldwide.
A recently updated USDA report said corn yields in 2024 are expected to hit a new record, up 0.5 bushels per acre from the previous estimate and up a full six bushels per acre from the previous record set in 2023 . (See graphic, below)
Data from the FAO confirms the USDA's findings on corn production in the United States and also shows that corn production and yields also regularly reach records worldwide. Between 1990 and 2022 (the last full year of FAO records), the three decades that climate alarmists commonly claim were the warmest on record:
- Corn yields in the United States have increased by almost 60 percent.
- Worldwide, corn yields have increased by more than 54 percent.
With record yields, plant production has also repeatedly set new records between 1990 and 2022. (See graphic below)
Even if, contrary to AP's assumption, corn production is not affected by worsening climate conditions, Bayer's short corn variety could prove beneficial for farmers. It appears that according to AP “[t]The smaller facilities also allow farmers to plant more densely, allowing them to grow more corn on the same area of land, increasing their profits.” The shorter corn may also use less water. Both conditions should, in theory, make corn production more profitable regardless of climate change, so there is some good news in the AP's otherwise unjustifiably ominous climate change story.
H. Sterling Burnett
H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy and managing editor of Environment & Climate News. In addition to directing the Heartland Institute's Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy, Burnett compiles Environment & Climate News, is editor of Heartland's Climate Change Weekly email, and host of the Environment & Climate News podcast.
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