Climate Change and Its Impact on Tobacco Quality

[Sigmund]

We talk a lot about lower quality and blame the industry for the decline is quality of blends. Its almost definitely true that blends are cheapened by profit mongers BUT if you look up articles on climate change and tobaccon crop quality there are many.

Apparently climate change is impacting farmers and their crops via increased temperatures and drought. So is some of what we experience as a decline also related to this...not just corperations penny pinching?

It makes sense to me that if you need X tons of tobacco to produce your product its possible that the bar has to be lowered in order to fill the need. If tobacco farming is managed the way it was when I was young growers had to have a license and it was hard to get one becuase they only issued so many and growers didnt give them up. If climiate change is having an impact the industry cant simply shift growers from one part of the country to another quickly in order to have the most ideal conditions (If those can even be found). If tobacco is moved from one location to another it is highly likely that different soil condidtions would at least have subtle changes on the flavor of the crop.

Im Just curious how much of a role this plays in the demise of certain blends.

 

[Homer]

Is there such thing as climate change?

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Good Lord Almighty...

 

[BingBong]

The increase in carbon dioxide has meant bigger crops, because plants love it. Commercial greenhouse growers pump the stuff in to get more crop yield. In general, it's a Good Thing.

Climate variations will always have effects on crops, good or bad. It was ever thus.

If blends are less tasty than they used to be, I imagine that fewer additives are used nowadays. Not so much of the civet extract etc.

 

[Grangerous]

Weather… Yes. It changes. A wine producing region should know this best, maintaining centuries of records.

But to suggest that entire regions will soon have to stop growing a particular crop and begin growing it elsewhere… is a bit of a stretch. IBTL

We are on a planet hurtling through space which has had multiple Ice-Ages and periods of Ice Melt and will continue to do so. What the hell are you smokin?

 

[Sigmund]

Plants do not like drought.
Areas that used to get rain often dont get as much and patterns change
In the EU Snow fall in ski areas have resulted in closed businesses.

What Im saying is areas that got rain dont get it as much. Its clearly shifted.
Farming doesnt shift as fast and tobacco quality suffers.
If tobacco isnt as good it stands to reason that blends will suffer.

I guess the aniti science folks want to pretend the world hasnt changed

 

[Grangerous]

What’s Shifted is terminology.

Remember the term Global Warming? It’s inaccurate so the new cry is Climate Change.

It used to be called Weather.

Pino Noir. A difficult varietal.

1. France: 78,090 acres (31,602 hectares)
2. USA: 56,829 acres (22,998 hectares)
3. Germany: 27,636 acres (11,184 hectares)
4. New Zealand: 13,625 acres (5,514 hectares)
5. Italy: 12,496 acres (5,057 hectares)
6. Australia: 11,875 acres (4,806 hectares)

Total Vineyard Area – 260,647 acres (105,480 hectares)

(Source: University of Adelaide, 2021)

Records are kept for the growing seasons for all crops.

I don’t see any basis for your suggesting that tobacco farming is soon to suffer.

The science of supply and demand is what affects the tobacco industry.

And where did this pressure come from? Not the weather but from Political Climate Change

 

[khiddy]

Wow. @Sigmund is raising a legitimate question based on observation of real-world happenings, and folks would rather laugh it off as some sort of political question unworthy of discussion?

I guess it should be no surprise that some of the same codgers who spent decades exacerbating the climate change situation through terrible policies and practices are not interested today in contemplating the results of their unfettered exploitation, and would rather sit on their hordes of tobacco and scream at us young-un’s that it was better back in their day.

The more the world changes, the more it stays the same. Ironically.

 

[Infantry23]

The more the world changes, the more it stays the same. IrIronically.

I think that's his point.

 

[fireground_piper]

In general, tobacco is a fairly resilient plant.....especially when compared to a lot of other things. Considering main growing region encompass a huge diversity of climates from tropic island to Africa to USA to Canada......it's rather flexible.

The bigger issue, in my opinion, is the human nature to want to do this thing in this area because that's what we've been doing and that's what we want to keep doing regardless of regularly changing factors. Like WHY do we force a major avocado production out in California when they historically have an arid climate? And at the cost of incredible irrigation requirements to do so?

If people were more flexible in all crops grown, there'd be more flexibility in growing with shifting weather patterns on static farms.

 

[pappymac]

The weather can definitely affect the quality outcome of a crop of anything. I remember talking to Mark Ryan and him explaining one of the historical problems with growing perique has always been the weather. When the weather is good, the crop is plentiful and good. When a hurricane or two blows through the area, the crops suffer.

Farmers can fight certain things when growing things. It is possible to irrigate during dry spells but that doesn't work as well during a drought. (You have to have water available to use for irrigation). Farmers growing the same crop in the same field every year are going to have to fertilize to maintain a quality level.

 

[MattRVA]

It wouldn’t surprise me, hell it has been unbelievably dry here this year and probably subsequent years as well. I’ve noticed soil degradation in my area. I wouldn’t be surprised if pollution is also catching up to us and affecting the soil.

 

[Sigmund]

Despite humans being frightened to face consequences of their own behavior.
Despite humans wanting to illogically fight absolute data
Facts illustrate that crops are strained.
Strained crops generally create inferior product.


I dont know why I bothered to post this on a forum that happily hosted a thread that made fun of and called those with an education stupid.

The Internet: Empowering Stupidity Everywhere.

As a side note. Increased stress by an increase temp and low rainfall do increase nicotine (much like weed and thc). However, that does not speak to the flavor and complexity of flavor.

 

[Homer]

I don’t deny climate change. I live in EU and believe in science.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Every meteorologist in the world agrees that the climate is changing. That is not a political statement. Stop being thick. What is political are the stupid ideas to offset it, and whether man caused it. That said... I am not in the loop on discussions amongst commercial tobacco growers. So, I can only speculate. But, there are far greater things affecting agriculture in the US. Sure, irrigation is expensive, even if you have your own water sources. Also, labor. Try competing against retail at $18-22 and hour, when they can't even keep the floor staffed. Farmers aren't making a fortune off of their crops to begin with. Add in the temptation to just develop your farmland and make a few million building houses, or keep pushing dirt for mere pennies. I know what I chose, and I now have three homes.

Quickly, housing demands, labor costs, and dropping crop prices are driving farmers out of the business. And, once the land is developed and roads are built, you aren't going to get that cropland back. More and more, we are importing our produce. Climate change is real, but it just isn't as much to worry about to the farmer as the rest.

And, we went over a full month here with no rain. My yard was crunchy to walk on, and I have only mowed it maybe six times this year, and I love to mow my yard.

It kills me how people won't believe their own eyes, because of their extreme politics, but yet they believe aliens are real, and educated people are stupid. Gossip papers that we used to make fun of in the checkout line at grocery stores, and the extreme "Believe it or Not" shows we watched in the 80's is now something people take seriously. People actually believe in Bigfoot, aliens, and ghosts. We are in the midst of a renaissance of stupidity.

 

[Sigmund]

A nation and people that claim to believe in God cant swallow climate change....go figure.

I wonder why I left...

As for blends of tobacco...garbage in, garbage out....

I cant prove it but there is plenty of evidence to support agricultral strain. Coming from farm country (and a farm) I have difficulty believing that tobacco quality is not impacted.

 

[Mrs. Pickles]

It looks like there’s only a few studies that consider future weather models on tobacco cultivation. Some in Indonesia and one concerning Zimbabwe.

As pipe people, I suppose we’d be more interested in seeing that kind of analysis for the Balkan areas or maybe St James Parish, the places that produce traditional cornerstones of pipe blends.

In any case, tobacco farming is already in decline in those places for reasons other than the weather. It seems likely to me that more immediate economic pressures will push perique and some oriental tobaccos out of existence before too long.

 

[fireground_piper]

"Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools"

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

Despite humans being frightened to face consequences of their own behavior.
Despite humans wanting to illogically fight absolute data
Facts illustrate that crops are strained.
Strained crops generally create inferior product.


I dont know why I bothered to post this on a forum that happily hosted a thread that made fun of and called those with an education stupid.

The Internet: Empowering Stupidity Everywhere.

As a side note. Increased stress by an increase temp and low rainfall do increase nicotine (much like weed and thc). However, that does not speak to the flavor and complexity of flavor.

Except for hot peppers . Those guys love the abuse and the more you abuse them, the more they deliciously abuse you when eating them in chili tacos or other stuff

 

[Sigmund]

I didnt realize it until recently but one of the professions with the highest suicide rate is farmers. My mind always went to law enforcement but its further down the list. Probably because of peer support and a lot of preventions and awareness raised in the last decade or two.