 Hi and welcome to the show. I'm your host, Lynn Weaver, and you're watching In The Studio. The show, the program is brought to you by Davis Media Access and is broadcast on Davis Community Television, that's Comcast Channel 15 and AT&T, U-Verse 99. We're also on the web, so at davisbedia.org, so log on and check us out. My guests today are three prominent UC Davis scientists, Professor Arnold Brum of the Department of Plant Sciences, Professor and Extension Specialist Louise Jackson of the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and Professor and Extension Specialist Frank Midlerner of the Department of Animal Sciences. Thank you all for being here with us tonight and we appreciate your time and your commitment to the community. Our topic today is climate smart agriculture. Scientists have known for many decades of the effects of carbon emissions and other human intervention have had on global warming and the greenhouse effect on the earth, but it wasn't until Al Gore released his documentary, The Inconvenient Truth, in 2006 that the international public became keenly aware of the devastating consequences of global warming and began to worry about it. So nowadays, it's becoming clearer that we may never stop climate change. However, if we're prudent in our policies, we can certainly slow it down and mitigate the reality of a warming earth. So the question is no longer whether Santa Claus will be wearing a swimsuit in the future, but whether we'll be able to adapt in order to survive. Now, agriculture, livestock and plant production is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Populations in the developing world are particularly at risk. They are very vulnerable and food insecure because of the lack of clean water, the lack of resources, education, food safety and other predicaments such as wars and extreme poverty. So they are likely to be suffering the most from global warming, but we all will and our livelihood depends on it. So we are counting on scientists like yourselves, on policy makers and on farmers to find ways and recommend some actions that will mitigate the climate change and at the same time continue to ensure the increasing need for food and sustainability. So how are we going to do that? Well, first, I'd like to ask Louise Jackson, what is climate smart agriculture? Can you give us your thoughts on that? Climate smart agriculture is a term that's coined to look at how agriculture can respond to climate change in a myriad of different ways from many different perspectives. We know that we need to increase productivity, increase food production just to meet the needs of 9 billion people in 2050. We have to do it in a way that uses more renewable resources, that's less demanding of fossil fuels, that reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to climate change. Some of the solutions to this can be very technological. They can be things that people may learn about different soil and biological processes. They may have to do with risk management and insurance and ways that farmers can be compensated for losses or things that might happen in the future that we can't even predict. But at the same time, climate smart agriculture has to be targeted at the resource base upon which agriculture depends. Water, water quality, soil, soil quality, ways that we look at the mosaic of ecosystems in a landscape so that we can preserve the biodiversity that may be, say, an upland that's protecting the watershed. We have to also include aspects of human populations and the risk that severe climate change can result in rural populations migrating to urban areas and being rather destitute when they arrive there. Well, that's a very interesting point. Would you like to comment on what climate smart agriculture is for you? Or how do you see it? Well, we feel that there are quite some changes occurring over the last couple of decades, particularly in the area of animal agriculture. And some of it has to do with climate variability that we find. I'll give you one example. Just a few years back in the summer, two or three years ago, we had an event occurring here in the Samarkin Valley of California where 30,000 dairy cows died throughout a one-week period. And the question was why? Well, because we now have climate events or weather events occurring that were pretty atypical before where you have hot daytime temperatures and hot nighttime temperatures as well. Animals don't recover from it and therefore fall over from heat stroke. So we have more and more of these events and a chain of many events really leading toward us thinking, well, there's indeed climate change occurring, not just weather variability. And it really harms animal agriculture pretty severely. Another example is what we currently experience with respect to feed supply for livestock. Never has feed been more expensive. And the reason why it's so expensive is because we're going from one drought to another, not just in California, but throughout the United States. Yeah, so it's all correlated. Yes. Would you say, Arnold Bloom, would you say that that in a way of climate smart agriculture is adaptation to certain environmental conditions? Well, climate smart involves both mitigation and adaptation. Those terms are used in a way that mitigation is to try to make lessen the impact of what's happening. And adaptation is changes people can make to changes that they cannot prevent from happening. So you can mitigate greenhouse gas by reducing the emissions of it, or you can do something to adapt to the changes those emissions might cause. So the major things that we're concerned with are temperature changes, which are clearly going to have an impact on all organisms and they maybe as anticipated by the end of the century, we may have temperature changes on the water about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. And that precipitation is a little less certain, but we anticipate that the drier places on the planet will become drier and the wetter places will become wetter. In specific California, being one of the drier places, we'll probably see a decrease in rainfall of about 10 to 20 percent. And particularly in this area, everybody's aware of water issues. And as such, if we now have a 10 to 20 percent decline in rainfall, everybody can see how they'll affect not just urban areas, but agricultural areas, especially in the West. By the way, feel free to jump in anytime. I want this to be a very informative discussions and everybody should participate. I wanted to stay with you, Arnold, and ask you, how does climate change impact today's conventional agriculture? And we're going to start with our region. And perhaps then Frank is going to expand that maybe to more for the rest of the world, perhaps give us a bit of an overview. But so for this region, to promote plants, since my last name is Bloom, I tend to be plant-oriented. Well, your plants are very healthy. They bloom all the time. But plants are very vulnerable in ways that animals are not to the anticipated changes. One is that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing, and they've done that during my lifetime in about 40 percent since I started working this field. As anticipated, they'll go up a double or triple by the end of the century. And plants, but not animals, are very sensitive to that increase in CO2 because it's part of their process of photosynthesis, where they take that carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into carbohydrates, into sugars. That's their process of photosynthesis, where all energy on the planet, most of the energy on the planet, arise from that. So as CO2 increases, it was thought that that would be a boon to plant productivity, but it has not proved to be so. That's very interesting. Yes. And that's sort of where my research lies, is that that increase in CO2 often leads to a decline in food quality, the amount of protein that's available in plants today has declined because of that rising CO2. And we seem to find that CO2 interferes with the ability of plants to take nutrients from the soil and convert them into protein in their tissues. And that has an effect not just on humans, but on other organisms that are dependent on plants for their food stuff. Would you say that that's the main challenge for this area, increase in CO2? The issue of climate change is, as we all understand, a very complex one. And you can't say there's one issue because there's many issues working in concert to have a large overall effect. So there's temperature issues like I raised, there are precipitation rainfall issues, there's rising CO2 levels and declining food quality. All those things combine into saying that we have to address those issues not only individually, but together because they'll have a confounding effect. And this is the trend nowadays for science to have more of a interdisciplinary approach to some of the problems. Yeah, in fact, most people call it transdisciplinary. It's not just one or two things, but it's across the board. Yes. And Frank, can you tell us a little more comment on the challenges of global warming rather on conventional agriculture and in the world? Give us an overview in later times, if you could. Lynn, we thought some time ago that conventional agriculture in the more developed world would be more protected, but because we can use certain technologies in order to shield off weather extremes. But we have found that indeed that's not the case. In fact, when you look at a place like California, we find that some of the greatest challenges of animal agriculture are directly linked to a shortage of water or heat events. Shortage of water, not necessarily because we can't provide water to our animals, but because we can't grow the feed for our animals the way we used to. The drought is really, really affecting animal agriculture. And it leads to increased prices. And the increased prices of feed directly affect the bottom line of producers, so much so that approximately five percent of our dairy farms in the state have already gone bankrupt. So, and this is California, where we really have the resources to deal with a lot of issues. In the developed world, we don't have these kind of resources available. And there, if there's a drought, people will certainly lose the likelihood of their animals. They lose drinking water, they lose water as a resource for their livestock and for the crops that these animals need. So, any kind of weather extremes affect animal agriculture throughout the world. The developing countries are more vulnerable than the developed countries, but don't fool yourself thinking, here in the rich developed world we are immune to it, we are not. That's a very good point. And of course, Luis Jackson, you are one of the specialties, of course, is water resources. So, do you also see this as the primary challenge for the future? In some of the research we've done looking at water and adaptation, it looks like we're going to have to diversify the crops that we grow. We're going to have to have sort of a different palette of crops, of crops that are more drought adapted, be more aware of seasonal differences in precipitation and how that might affect the success of different crops. So, water might be a trigger point for people thinking about how to diversify California agriculture. It's not that we don't have a lot of commodities, it's just that they're kind of localized in certain regions and we may end up diversifying those more. Another thing that we're working a lot on is how we can maintain soil fertility with renewable inputs, so that people don't have to realize so much on fossil fuel-based inputs. For example, use of cover crops, of different kind of waste materials and soils to build up the microbial activity and the microbial populations. And in that way, people become more self-reliant and they're not so vulnerable to price flex situations. That's very interesting. That's very interesting. Of course, that will have a huge impact on livestock because if the feed is more resilient, more abundant, less costly, then your animals will be able to survive better, in a way, and cost, would you say that? I would, yes. I'm very curious about what you do. And I'm sure our community will also be very interesting. So, I was wondering if in late times you can tell us, and I'll start with Arnold, if you don't mind, how is your research related to the climate-smart agriculture? And what do you hope to achieve with your research? We've been looking at how plants get nutrients from the soil and convert that into part of their plant body and how rising CO2 levels influence that process. And found quite unexpectedly that, in fact, other people, it had not been reported before that part of that process was fairly well stopped by rising CO2 levels. One thing most people don't realize that the CO2 levels that we have today, the carbon dioxide levels we have today are higher than they've been for the last 23 million years. Fantastic. There's no going back. Yes, the life that we know it evolved for the last 22 million years under CO2 levels, carbon dioxide levels that are lower than they are today. And this has a large effect on how plants and also animals deal with their environment. So, we're looking at what is the cause of this. And part of it is most people had thought that plants waste a lot of their energy. They thought plants were dumb. In fact, they're not dumb. It's just that we didn't fully understand them if we do now. We don't fully understand them. And so, they use part of the energy they expend in a process called photorespiration to convert a low energy form of nitrogen into protein, which is a high energy form of nitrogen. And high carbon dioxide levels interfere with that conversion. And so, in fact, it explains why food quality may be declining somewhat and also explains why insects, for example, have to eat more food to meet their nutritional needs. That's very interesting. In fact, we may have to feed our cows more food because of the protein levels are declining. So, it does intersect. Everything we do intersects. That's why we're transdisciplinary. And this is why you are working marginally together and all the scientists around the world, you keep in touch. I know you're all very prominent and have collaborations all over the world. And so, you're hoping to have a new approach to all these problems, perhaps not new. But anyway, I think I can say new, wouldn't you say? A new approach. And Frank, tell us a little bit about your research. How does it relate to this? I would say that I have three main areas of research. The one is dealing with heat stress in livestock, finding how we can reduce heat stress in cattle and pigs and so on, and how we can help them to deal with weather extremes, with heat events. That's one. The second one is that I'm chairing a global effort on benchmarking. That's what it's called. Quantifying the environmental impact of livestock, particularly quantifying the carbon footprint of livestock. And as I said, I'm chairing a global effort on this issue. But also, I do research here in Davis using what people refer to as bovine bubbles, large structures. They look like very large bubbles and you can put up to 10 cattle into each. And then I measure basically the greenhouse gases that are belched out by cattle or that arise from animal manure and quantify those emissions. And thirdly, I look into ways to reduce those greenhouse gases, both from animals and from the manure, but also from feed, the feed that the animals consume. That's very interesting. So would you say, and this is just a ballpark, would you say that animal livestock production contributes more gas emissions than say car airplanes and trucks and things like that? I would say that livestock is an important contributor to methane, and which is a potent greenhouse gas, whereas transportation, cars, trucks, trains, planes and so on produce more CO2, carbon dioxide. So there are different greenhouse gases. Overall, the use of fossil fuels, which is associated with transportation but also with fertilizers and so on, is the most prominent source of greenhouse gases. But that being said, enteric fermentation, basically what happens in the room and in the first stomach of a cow or a steer or so also contributes to large amounts of methane. And we have found ways and we will find ways to further curb those emissions. That sounds very interesting. Louise, would you like to tell us a little more? I know you've touched on some of the research that you are at the moment involved with, but can you tell me really what do you see as your major contribution to climate smart agriculture? We're trying to understand how people can grow crops, especially vegetable crops, with less inputs, less water, less fossil fuel-based inputs. I mentioned that before, but another thing we've been involved in here in Yolo County is a large analysis of how Yolo County will adapt to climate change. And we had on board the ag commissioner, the farm bureau, many different stakeholders in the county. And people were very involved in thinking of different kinds of solutions. And some of the things that arose from that study is, first of all, that only about half the farmers and ranchers here actually believe that the climate is changing, which is important, because that means that they may not be focused on solutions. That's very interesting. Well, you've sort of introduced my next question, and I'm going to start with Frank. Do you think the major challenges and taboos that you need to overcome with this global climate smart agriculture? Well, what troubles me is that those people who provide us with food, namely farmers, are generally defensive when it comes to discussions about impacts of human activities on climate change. And I think that they are one of the largest providers of solutions to the issue and should be on board and should be enthusiastically on board, because not just do they provide for our food, but they can also do so while minimizing impacts. And there are so many low hanging fruit, no pun intended, low hanging fruit that farmers can use to all of our benefit. Make us as a society feel good about the wonderful food we eat and doing so in a sustainable manner. And I think farmers really need to come on board. Many of them are not, and I think they should. That's something that I'm sure you're working on. Yes. And what a bit, Arnold, what is the major challenge? Just in a sentence or two, as we are winding down because we are getting towards the end of our interview, but I do want to hear about what you think is the main challenge. Well, I think I'd like to emphasize I teach a very large class of undergraduates on climate change. And the point I always like to make to them is that the more I teach about it, the more optimistic I get that there's that's wonderful that there are many things we can do that are not to not require great sacrifice that can have a significant effect on our planet and on our effect on greenhouse gas emissions. And therefore we'd like to get them involved and we have, and I think that can be done with all sorts of the populace. The idea is that we can all benefit from very simple actions. And we just have to make that clear to them what they are and how that can be of benefit without great cause. Well, this is very reassuring and encouraging. So we are just about out of time. So what I would like to say is thank you very much for coming and for sharing your thoughts and expertise with us and Professor Arnold Bloom of the Department of Plant Sciences, Professor and Extension Specialist Louise Jackson of the Department of Water, Land, Air and Water Resources and Professor Frank Mitnone of the Department of Plant Animal Sciences and of course all of you watching at home. Thank you very much. Now if you'd like more information about climate, the climate and especially the global UC Davis is sponsoring, I should have mentioned this earlier, I'm sorry, but UC Davis is sponsoring a global climate smart agricultural conference and these scientists have been involved and I wanted to say that one of the sessions is on March 20th and just at the beginning of the conference will be free and open to the public. So I hope you'll be able to go. And so we are really out of time. So I would like to thank all of you for watching and I'm your host Lynn Weaver. You've been watching in the studio and if you'd like to watch this program again you can log on on to our website davismedia.org and while you're there you can check some of our other programs and archives. So you've been thank you very much again for watching and see you next time.