Transcript: Farming in the Face of Climate Change: Adapting to Unpredictable Growing Seasons
CLARICE: Hello, everybody. And welcome to this week’s episode of Environmentally Speaking.
MARISA: Hi, everyone. This is Attorney Marisa Desautel. I’m an environmental lawyer here in Rhode Island.
CLARICE: And I’m Clarice, coming in with questions, topics, comments. And, Marisa, I’m going to start off this week with a question for you.
MARISA: Oh, boy.
CLARICE: Do you have a green thumb?
MARISA: I’ll give the lawyerly answer to that. It depends. Why do you ask?
CLARICE: Because today we have talking about how the recent climate change and how everything is getting warmer and colder and rainier and all of these crazy climate swings is affecting the growing seasons.
MARISA: Oh, this is going to be a dark and sad depressing episode, right?
CLARICE: I’m going to go with weird.
MARISA: I’m comfortable.
CLARICE: So what does it depend on for you? Is it the type of plant, or is it the place that the plant is like indoor versus outdoor?
MARISA: Indoor versus outdoor.
CLARICE: Okay.
MARISA: Outdoor plants, once potted, require so much irrigation that I cannot keep up, so I do enjoy a rainier summer only for that reason, this summer included. I did not have to do a lot of watering, so I appreciate that. But I find that by this time of year anything that I’ve planted in a pot is not looking good.
CLARICE: Gone. Gone. Gone. I have to say I am the same which means I limit the amount of outdoor plants we have to two areas, our back deck and our front steps. And if they’re not in those places, that’s it. It’s not happening.
MARISA: Do you water them daily?
CLARICE: Yes. And I have set a daily reminder on my phone because if my phone does not go off at 6:30 every day to water them it’s not happening.
MARISA: It’s not happening. Okay.
CLARICE: It’s absolutely not happening. But what we’re really going to be talking about isn’t what we’re trying to keep alive in our houses. What we’re actually going to be talking about is the growing season specifically and how it’s affecting Rhode Island farmers. So as you had mentioned, this summer has been a little bit rainier — a little bit meaning a lot rainier — than normal seasons. And I had talked about a couple seconds ago how this season has been definitely hotter. Our winters are a bit milder. Everything’s a little off. What is that doing for the growing season? Everything. It’s changed everything.
[0:03:12] MARISA: When you say growing season, what does that mean exactly?
CLARICE: So from my not green thumb — I guess from my brown thumb everything — from what I — certain crops, certain plants all have different growing seasons and it’s all dependent on certain things you can plant in the spring and certain things thrive in that spring cooler season.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: Certain things thrive in that summer heat and need to be harvested in the heat, certain things in the fall, so on and so forth.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: Certain things will die in the winter. Because our summers are getting warmer, our falls are getting warmer, a lot of farmers right now are experiencing a second growing season which weirdly enough they’re getting a benefit from.
MARISA: Wait. A second growing season in the fall?
CLARICE: Yes.
MARISA: For fruits and vegetables or flowers?
CLARICE: For fruits and vegetables specifically.
MARISA: That seems like it’s not something I’d want to eat like genetic mutation —
CLARICE: No.
MARISA: — zombie cucumber.
CLARICE: Not a zombie cucumber. There’s just more time.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: They just have time to grow because normally in this second extended fall season where it would be colder it’s not, so they can squeeze in a second set of crops when it would normally be too cold.
MARISA: Yeah. That’s not good.
CLARICE: And it’s things like — it’s not good.
MARISA: That’s not good.
CLARICE: It’s not good.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: But these farmers have adapted and they’re taking advantage of it. Specific cool-weather crops that they can extend and plant more of because they’ve got more time, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, kale, those are crops that we’re seeing more of and are kind of — we’re getting the benefit of. That being said, because we’re getting these warmer falls, we’re also seeing an impact on things that do not do well in the warmth.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: So specifically the article that I used to reference was a fantastic article from ecoRI.org. They talked a lot about the hydrangea season is completely messed up.
MARISA: Oh, thank God literally. Thank God you’re talking about this because —
CLARICE: Oh, I was like, what.
MARISA: This is how you can tell you’re middle aged. My hydrangeas have done nothing and I’m so sad about it because normally they are beautiful for such a long period of time and they’re verdant. They’re very green and —
[0:06:10] CLARICE: But no flowers.
MARISA: But no flowers this year.
CLARICE: I bought fertilizer for them.
MARISA: What happened? Did it work?
CLARICE: Nothing. Nothing. I thought it was me. I blamed myself. No.
MARISA: Yeah. Yeah. Me, too. Okay. So this is — okay. So I’ll take it with a little bit of positivity. It’s not us.
CLARICE: So the hydrangea season is all out of whack. This warmer weather means invasive bugs and pests that would normally die off now are living longer lives, so they’re eating more crops. They are growing more.
MARISA: Oh, my God.
CLARICE: I mean, the fact that we can have more broccoli and kale, sure, that’s one more plus, but think about our previous episode where we talked about how there was a drought and some of the Christmas tree farms had to close.
MARISA: That’s right.
CLARICE: There’s this pro and con. The growing structure that these farms are used to whereas maybe in like tulips, you plant tulips in the colder season so early spring or late fall. That’s all thrown out of whack because it’s now getting warmer earlier and staying warmer longer. All of these planting schedules and cycles are all being disrupted. This erratic weather pattern, when it’s dry it’s drier than it’s ever been.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: When it’s raining it’s raining harder and longer than it’s ever been. These farmers are now having to take more extreme mitigation measures to fight this weather. We’re now having to irrigate like they’ve never done before and reroute rain. We’re getting to a point where there’s no middle ground.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: These mild days aren’t happening anymore.
MARISA: Yeah. And I often have thought about, and I’ve seen in a few instances, some varieties of plants and flowers that don’t bud historically until early spring, but you’re seeing them come out in January or February and then we get a cold snap and they die because they came out too early.
CLARICE: Yeah. The article talked a lot about how — oh, I have to find the exact wording, but they talked a lot about how there’s this span of the country that’s — I think it’s heartier. Essentially what they’re saying is there’s a heartier weather portion or a heartier weather season and what’s happening now is because the temperature is getting so hot and so cold in such a short amount of time and we’re seeing these massive dips things are dying so quickly.
[0:09:00] MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: So it’s exactly like you’re saying. These flowers are blooming so early because they’re thinking, okay, it’s summertime, or we’re getting to that —
MARISA: It’s time to come out.
CLARICE: Exactly.
MARISA: Yay.
CLARICE: It’s time to come out and then we get a frost.
MARISA: And then no.
CLARICE: And they die.
MARISA: And they die.
CLARICE: And that’s happening to crops and it’s happening on a larger scale. And these fluctuations are just things that — what are we going to do with. And it’s such a natural thing. It’s not like we can sit here and say, what can we do, how can we pivot and adjust. So another thing that farmers are doing to adapt are sort of these greenhouses that aren’t necessarily using power, so it’s a lot of — I’m sure if you’ve — you’ve driven through Middletown where you’ve seen these like large hooped greenhouses.
MARISA: Yeah. Yeah.
CLARICE: Hoops of pipes with fabric over it, that’s one thing to kind of try to control the temperature. A different type of crop rotation, you don’t want to keep planting the same crop in the same soil over and over again, so they’re switching out what different things that they’re planting. Some folks are thinking of switching to turf farming which can be profitable, but it involves a lot more use of fossil fuels and other sort of, I guess, powered machinery.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: But it’s less environmentally friendly.
MARISA: And a lot of water.
CLARICE: Exactly.
MARISA: It’s my understanding that turf requires a ton of irrigation.
CLARICE: Yeah.
MARISA: So that’s fine when you’ve got a supply, but in a year with drought none of this is good.
CLARICE: It’s all frightening. And, you know, we’re talking right now exclusively about crops, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this also affects animals, too. So we’re talking about, you know, chickens. When can we let chickens out. When can we let cows out. What does this affect have on their quality of life in the meantime, so this is affecting all of our food sources, whether you’re vegan, vegetarian or not, on a huge scale.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: And it was a really interesting article that kind of talks about the different things it touches on and it laid out some really interesting facts, too. Apparently out of the continental U.S. Rhode Island has experienced the most overall warming out of any other state.
MARISA: Get out of here. Is that because we’re the smallest or because people just don’t stop complaining about things or both?
CLARICE: I love that answer. I can only guess it’s because we’re the smallest. I can’t see it being actual temperature. It has to be smallest.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: Because, I mean, us versus something like Arizona or New Mexico, that’s insane.
[0:12:01] MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: But it does have some other really interesting facts such as like how from 1950 to 2021 the average rainfall has increased by 16 percent. I mean, there are some cool numbers in here. And it talks a lot about how farmers are pivoting and adjusting. Some of the small benefits about how they’re trying to make the best of it, like I said, by extending crops, changing crops, but overall things to watch out for. How are we going to adjust.
MARISA: I guess more indoor gardening.
CLARICE: How are we going to remember to water them?
MARISA: Well, hopefully people that do it for a living are more adept.
CLARICE: I hope so.
MARISA: I’ve been fairly quiet on this episode because you’ve had the facts at your fingertips, number one. But, number two, I’m just real amped up to talk about ecoRI. I know that you cited the fact that today’s subject is a result of the article that they published. They’re just a fantastic news outlet. They’re very local. I had the opportunity to meet with one of the owners Joanna. She’s fabulous. She’s got a wealth of information and her staff are on top of what’s happening environmentally in Rhode Island, so I’m a huge fan of that organization.
I also wanted to mention that they have an annual event every year called the Zero-Trash Birthday Bash and it’s a celebration of the organization itself. This year they’re turning 14. It’s a wonderful event. It’s a lot of fun. They’re super smart about where they locate this event. This year it’s at Proclamation Ale Company in Warwick, Rhode Island. Who doesn’t love to drink beer and celebrate and have a good night out? So I did want to — we credit them for this episode, but we also get a lot of information from them for both this podcast and as part of the law firm. Thanks a lot to ecoRI.
Please keep doing what you’re doing and I cannot recommend enough supporting this group. Without sponsorships and funding they wouldn’t exist, so if you’re inclined to go out and have a beer with some other environmentally friendly, environmentally like-minded people, the event will be held on September 10th. It starts at 5:00, goes until 8:00. Again, it’s at the Proclamation Ale Company in Warwick September 10, 5:00 p.m. I’ll be there. If you want to hang out with someone cool, maybe find somewhere else to go. No, really, it’s a great event and I’ll be there, so I’m supporting it.
CLARICE: And we’ll include information about that in the show notes, as well. That way you can click on the article or the Zero-Trash Bash right in there.
[0:15:07] MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: Awesome. Yeah. So let us know how have your outdoor gardens been doing? Are you going to be joining us for this awesome celebration? Write in. You can reach us on the socials at Desautel Browning Law. We are on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. You can watch videos on YouTube. You can e-mail us at Marisa@DesautelBrowning.com. You have to change the name. I got instantly better telling people where we are.
MARISA: I was going to say since the farm became Desautel Browning it’s not a problem for you. You’re nailing the outro.
CLARICE: You know what, thank you, Karen. That’s what this is.
MARISA: Thanks for listening, everyone.
CLARICE: All right. Thank you all.
