Agricultural trade publications and the 2012 Midwestern U.S. drought: A missed opportunity for climate risk communication

Climate Risk Management

Michael Dunn¹  Sarah P. Church²  Katie Fagan²  Melissa Widhalm²  Linda S. Prokopy²  Nicholas Babin³  Cody L. Knutson⁴  Tonya Haigh⁴  Silvestre Garcia de Jalon⁵  J. Stuart Carlton⁶ 

[1] Centre for Ecosystems, Society and Biosecurity, Forest Research, Northern Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9SY, United Kingdom;Department of Forestry & Natural Resources, Purdue University, 195 Marsteller St., West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA;Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Sierra Nevada College, 999 Tahoe Blvd., Incline Village, NV 89451, USA;National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 3310 Holdrege St., Lincoln, NE 68583-0988, USA;School of Energy, Environment, and Agrifood, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, United Kingdom;Texas Sea Grant College Program, Texas A&M University, PO Box 1675, Galveston, TX 77553, USA;

关键词: Social Amplification of Risk Framework;    Risk perception;    Climate change;    Drought;    Agriculture;    Farm magazines;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.crm.2016.10.006

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The Midwestern United States experienced a devastating drought in 2012, leading to reduced corn and soybean yields and increased instances of pests and disease. Climate change induced weather variability and extremes are expected to increase in the future, and have and will continue to impact the agricultural sector. This study investigated how agricultural trade publications portrayed the 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought, whether climate change was associated with drought, and whether these publications laid out transformative adaptation measures farmers could undertake in order to increase their adaptive capacity for future climate uncertainty. We performed a content analysis of 1000 media reports between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2014, sampled from ten agricultural trade publications. The results lead us to suggest that trade publications’ 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought discussion lacked information that would allow farmers and agricultural advisors to assess climate change risk and subsequent potential adaptive management strategies. Agricultural risk from climate change is very real, and farmers will need to adapt. The agricultural trade publications studied missed an opportunity to convey risk from climate change and the transformative adaptation practices necessary for a sustainable and resilient agricultural system.

【 授权许可】

Unknown