I live in an agricultural area, and I can tell you that the drought last summer took a terrific toll. The leaves on the corn plants looked positively withered. As I recall, many farm states declared a state of emergency last summer for the farmers because of the weather. Senator Conrad, too, was prepared to be a one-man fillibuster for emergency aid to farmers. I don't think you can ignore the serious impact of changing climate.

I don't know why this isn't talked about more when people talk about climate change. As we accelerate change to a hotter climate it will effect soil, water, and crops directly via elevated temperature. Crop yields will decline and land suitable for growing crops will diminish.

Our modern lifestyle has abstracted us from nature and deluded us into living as if we depend on the "economy" for our survival. We actually depend on agriculture for our survival, which is 100% dependant on a healthy natural world that grows plants easily. Getting enough food to survive with as little labor involved makes everything else that we call the "ecomomy" possible.

that climate change is having: prices.  All of these bullshitter denialists that complain about the cost of mitigation are totally overlooking the severe economic impacts of doing nothing.

We've been being hit for 20 years:

"... Precipitation in the US was above average in the center, while large sections of the East, Southeast and West were drier than average. The global average temperature was the warmest on record for the December-February period.

... In January, the coldest climate was registered in Southern Plains and in the West, determined by upper-level wind patterns. States like Arizona, Texas and even Southern California experienced snow and ice, with California suffering important losses in orange production.

... The conclusions [of a draft IPCC report] are negative for agriculture: it appears that the global warming process has produced damages to almost every commonly grown grains over 20 years. The damages are estimated at $5 billion.

Warming temperatures from 1981 to 2002 cut the combined production of wheat, corn, barley and other crops by 40 million tonnes per year."

Agriculture, not just some generalized idea of plant growth, depends on stable weather patterns and don't let anyone tell you different (it is a common denial argument that warming will improve crop growth.) Varieties often have to be carefully adapted to a local climate, with many aspects of plant growth being carefully timed to seasonal cues.

Also, warming temperatures help insects proliferate. Insects reproduce along a timeline that progresses in "degree days," in other words, if you multiply the number of days by the number of degrees during which the temperature is above a set point, you get the degree days. Insect life cycles and reproduction rates thus speed up in warmer weather, slowing, or even stopping, in colder weather.

I took a lot of insect pictures when I visited Costa Rica last summer, and you just could never escape the bugs. That's what you get when it's warm all the time. They were everywhere, all the time, except in those places that were sealed and air-conditioned. Global warming is going to be bringing those sorts of conditions farther north. What fun.

from that same website. Byline is Reuters March 16th,2007.  From a draft U.N. report,which is to be released in April:

Global warming has cut about $5 billion worth of the world's most commonly grown grains over 20 years, according to a new study.

Warming temperatures from 1981 to 2002 cut the combined production of wheat, corn, barley and other crops by 40 million tonnes per year, according to the peer-reviewed study published in Environmental Research Letters on Friday.

"Most people tend to think of climate change as something that will impact the future," Christopher Field, a co-author on the study and ecology expert at the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, California, said in an e-mail response to questions.

"This study shows that warming over the past two decades has already had effects on global food supply," he added.

Wow. Yeah, my first thought in reading this diary was why is production down across the board? Yikes.

in his book, Collapse. A small shift in climate tips the Australian wheat belt over the line from having enough rain for dryland wheat farming to having too little. The drought there may be the beginning of a permanent change which could eliminate one of the world's more significant grain exporters.