How climate change has affected agriculture and increased food insecurity in New Jersey

Olivia Bowman 

Final Portfolio, 2022

JPW: Health and Environmental Writing

Professor Pearson

Final Explanatory Story

Climate change is affecting NJ’s fruit production, and hurting farmers in the process

The state of New Jersey is nicknamed the ‘Garden State’ for a reason. With over 750,000 acres of farmland and more than 10,000 farms growing over 100 different types of crops, the state is among the leaders of national agricultural production, according to the New Jersey government website. 

New Jersey’s blueberries, cranberries, corn and apples feed the nation. 

However, the state’s agricultural systems have been facing their biggest challenge yet in some of its most recent years: climate change. 

Weather events such as excessive heat, early freezes, flooding and drought have caused significant challenges for not only the production and distribution of crops, but for the lives of farmers and their families. 

Dr. David Robinson,The New Jersey State Climatologist and distinguished professor 

at Rutgers University wants people to understand that climate change would be happening no matter what. But the choices and actions of human beings are making climate change happen more quickly and drastically.  

“In terms of climate change… this would have happened if there were humans roaming the earth or not. But it occurred in a longer duration and more extreme with these record temperatures. Duration, extent and extremes have changed [because of humans],” Robinson said. 

One of the biggest climate challenges for fruit production in New Jersey is early freezing. This is when the days are warm but the nights see frost. 

This makes fruit trees that bloom during the day lose all of their flowers as soon as night hits, killing the chances of them producing fruit. 

One of these affected types of trees is the peach tree and Devin Corina, the Executive Director of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey has seen this first hand. 

Corina has not only worked alongside farmers who experience extreme heats and early frosts but has struggled with these issues on his own New Jersey farm. 

“In 2018 there were three days out of the entire summer that it didn’t rain. We were living in mud. In 2019 we experienced early frosts that killed fruit trees and in 2022 we saw tons of heat. It has been extremely hard on every farmer,” Cornia said. 

2021 produced two times less peaches than in 2015 and the numbers keep going down, according to nj.gov. 

“It is insanity. Late spring gets warm early and our fruit trees start budding up and if they bud too early they get frosted out. That could kill any chance of profitability from your crop,” Cornia said. 

Click here for an interactive map of average New Jersey frost dates from Plant.com.

Once these climate changes like heat and early frosting have harmed the agricultural systems of the state, it comes down to the consumers and people of the state. 

The prices of fresh food have been going up because of the limited amount of crops or crops that have died too early in the season. This in turn affects the health and wellbeing of New Jersey’s populations because people have less forms of fresh food. 

“This year the summer drought was so intense. This results in reduced crop yields and increased farm prices and increased food prices making [fresh food] less accessible. Farmers are getting squeezed more and more. So at the end of the day, everyone hurts,” Cornia said. 

The people of New Jersey are getting less and less fresh foods as a result of climate change. 

When food supply falls due to climate change, food demand does not stop. Because of that increased demand, prices rise and residents are pushed further and further into food poverty. 

“…there is an increasing strain on the ability to produce enough food to sustain a growing population in the United States and around the globe,” Indiana University said. 

However, the good news is that despite all of the negative effects that climate change is having on the state’s agriculture, farmers are coming up with new practices of farming and are constantly adapting. 

There is also hope that new farming practices like urban and vertical farming will help alleviate some of  New Jersey’s food insecurity issues as well. 

Dr. Robinson said that not all hope is lost for the state of New Jersey’s agricultural system. Some innovative practices include vertical farming and urban farming practices. 

“[Before] people did not think of innovative [farming] practices when they thought about climate change,” he said. “They did not look at the innovative nature of humans and their ability to adapt. There are workarounds… and farmers are adapting.”

(fig. 1) 

Reference: Rutgers Climate Resource Center

Peach Production versus Price over the past 22 years, Olivia Bowman 

References: nj.gov/agricultureannualreports

(fig. 3) 

Reference: NJDCA

Final Solutions Story 

Olivia Bowman 

Urban farming may be a future solution to food insecurity and combating climate change in NJ

Strawberries flower in late summer, when the fall breeze is finally coming in little bursts throughout New Jersey.

At the College of New Jersey, this time of year is student Emily Riotto Alejandro’s favorite time of year to peek at the flowering strawberries at The College’s Campus Garden. 

The sophomore education major said that seeing these fruits have been some of the most rewarding parts of growing the garden. 

“Watching the strawberries flower has been such a pretty experience,” Alejandro said. 

However, there are other aspects besides the beauty of fruits in the Garden that drew Emily to participate in the growing of food on the campus in Ewing, NJ.  

One of those is the issue of food insecurity plaguing the nearby city of Trenton as well as other parts of the state.

The Trenton Health Team Reported that the CDC found that only 2.4% of Trenton [food] outlets offer healthy food. 

“The city (pop. 85,000) includes three grocery stores — and most Trenton residents do not live within half a mile of them. Residents must either find transportation–often requiring multiple bus routes–or shop at local corner stores lacking fresh produce and other nutritious options,” the Health Team reported in 2021. (Fig.1)

Emily said that the whole basis for the Community Garden is to try and help alleviate some of the food insecurity of the area, with the garden falling under the “Environmental and Food Security” division of the college. 

One of the main ways that the garden is reaching out to the community is to bring their fresh produce to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK).

“I consider gardening a promising solution for food insecurity in Mercer county due to the fact that it puts people’s food in their hands,” Riotto Alejandro said. “We live in a food desert so it’s important for the community to be empowered to grow their own food. I think that vertical gardening is especially important in Trenton due to the city’s limited space.”

Vertical gardening has not only been linked to being important for urban agriculture because of its benefits within city limits, but also because climate change has only further limited the ability for people who live in food deserts to receive fresh food. 

North of Trenton, in the city of Newark, NJ residents are not only facing food deserts in the largest parts of the city but also the effects of climate change first hand. (Fig. 2) 

City Bloom, which is a part of the Greater Newark Conservancy, is an organization committed to urban farming in multiple areas in Newark. 

According to their website their mission is to foster collaboration in the community at the intersection of environmental, food, and racial justice to promote the health and well being of Newark residents. 

This group created the largest urban farm in the state of New Jersey spanning three acres in the city. 

Malcolm McClain is the Director of Urban Agriculture at City Bloom in Newark. 

He says that although climate change is an implicit part of their program at City Bloom, it is a large one. 

‘We are feeling the impacts of climate change based on our food production. Our crop yields are less than what they are used to a couple of years ago. We are adjusting to climate issues. More broadly the city of Newark faces its own set of challenges in terms of climate change,” McClain said. 

McClain mentioned that Newark struggles with storm water management issues that cause flooding as well as being affected by the Heat Island Effect. 

City Bloom was able to have an irrigation system put in place in their farms recently, there is still a need for a lot of extra watering during heat waves. 

“There is an emerging urban agriculture movement in Newark. There are a lot of people converting spaces to gardens and farms. This is in addition to their 9-5 jobs,” McClain said. “However, they cannot dedicate all of their time and money to this. So they can’t afford the irrigation systems. We are seeing more impacts on them in terms of heat.” 

Even with these climate challenges, urban farming is still one of the most promising solutions to food deserts and poverty-based health crises in the country.

“Today, 800 million people around the world rely on urban agriculture for access to fresh, healthy foods. Urban agriculture is versatile, allowing for different crops to be grown. This provides urban communities with direct access and control over nutritious and locally-produced food, which creates jobs and boosts the local economy,” the Borgen Project, a non profit designed to help alleviate poverty and hunger, reported in 2020. 

McClain said that he feels confident that urban farming will not only help alleviate hunger but also open up conversations around food, agriculture, poverty and racial justice. 

“We want to educate our residents. This way they can begin to change the world,” he said. 

Figures: 

(Fig. 1)

(Fig.2) 

Olivia Bowman 

Final Reflection Paper

Writing about the environment was something that was brand new to me this semester. I am actually glad that I took this class my senior year. There were a lot of strategies that I learned in other classes, like Data Journalism, that I was able to utilize in this course. 

One of the biggest skills that I took from Data Journalism to this class was how to read and interpret data. We worked with all kinds of data and statistics from a wide range of topics in my Data class which allowed me to be confident in digesting the statistics from this class. 

When talking about the environment and science in writing this semester, there was a wide discussion about how to write for your audience. We discuss how it is important to present data in a way that your readers can understand. This is not something that I had thought about before in such detail. Previously, I would try to present my statistics clearly, but I suppose I just thought that if I were accurate people would understand what I was writing. I did a project on the PennEast Pipeline two semesters ago. In this project, there were many times where I had to explain the definitions of fossil fuels and what they are used for. I used a lot of statistics and definitions that may have actually been more confusing than helpful. And after taking this class and discussing writing for your audience, I would like to go and modify that project. I think that using more simple and concise language would keep readers more interested, especially when discussing the environment. 

Writing for my audience was a pretty new concept for me and I am glad that I learned more about it in this class this semester. 

As far as big challenges, I think that narrowing down my topic was one of the most difficult things to do in this class. I definitely experienced this in my first Explanatory Story submission. There were so many avenues that I could go down about agriculture and the environment that it became overwhelming. For example, discussing failing agriculture due to climate change could lead to the topic of over-priced fresh food, which could have led into food deserts and the social issue of race and food. This could go on and on. And while those are all interesting topics, I had to reel myself in a bit in order to narrow my focus. I think that in my Explanatory Story, I tried to fit all of these topics into one article, which made my writing more confusing and less organized. Cutting myself off was difficult to do because I just wanted to keep writing and writing about how all of these things are related to one another. In my research, I found myself going down a number of different avenues related to agriculture and climate change that did not have to do with my original topic. 

However, in all of this information, I found that my interviews were what was able to narrow down my topic the most. I found that through my interviews, I was able to tailor the conversation to focus on the topics that I was really interested in writing about. 

During interviews, I like to write questions beforehand but also I like to have more organic conversations. In my reporting, I find that the most storytelling happens with natural conversation. And then because the conversation was on the record, I can use the stories that people tell me as anecdotal ledes (which are difficult for me to write) or as great quotes relating to the story.

As an example, in my conversation with Malcolm McClain of City Bloom, I used my questions to narrow down the focus of our conversation. McClain had a lot to say about racial disparity and social justice in his interview. However, while extremely important, I did not want that to be the focus of my solutions story. So instead, I asked him how his group has been affected by climate change and what solutions have they implemented to combat it. He then spoke about the heat island effect and irrigation systems that the urban farms in Newark, NJ are using. Fortunately his mentioning of the heat island had to do directly with what we discussed in class. Because of this I wound up putting his quote about it in my story. 

My discussion with Malcolm is where the topic of advocacy came up. He talked about how his group is helping children in underserved areas have access to education about fresh produce and the importance of it. He also talked about the education they give to young adults who are living in Newark about the principles of farming in an urban area. City Bloom is working hard to cross over social justice and environmental activism and education. 

Personally, I was very intrigued by this and would be very supportive of this group. I would have loved to advocate for them through my writing by telling my audience how great it was to speak with Malcolm or how wonderful their mission is. However, as much as I would like to do that, it is not my role as a journalist. It is also not my job to advocate for more climate change activism and attention in my writing either. 

To distinguish between journalism and activism, I gave the facts. That is one of the most basic principles of journalism– to tell the truth. I researched statistics about the successes and failures of their program and did a lot of digging into urban farming itself and how it relates to climate change. I gave direct quotes from credible sources and used statistics wherever I could. I did not say “I”, “me” or “we” in my writing and kept my own opinions separate from my work. This way, I was able to ensure that my own thoughts and emotions surrounding my topic were not leaking into my writing. 

One of the most important tools that we learned about this semester was data visualization. This connects to my recent comments about presenting clear and concise data. When we had a guest speaker talk about data visualization, I was really able to see how many ways there were to visualize data. It was not just bar graphs but also interactive maps, timelines and line charts. One of the best examples of this that we saw in class was the New York Times heat map. This is an interactive map that the NYT uses to show different temperatures around the country. You can click around states and different years to see increases or decreases in temperatures. They also use a similar one for COVID statistics. I personally love these maps. You can click on the location that you are the most interested in learning about and do not have to go digging too deep for the numbers that you need. 

These types of tools can help people have a reference for what they are reading. Generally, people’s attention spans are very short but having a visual keeps people on your article longer. If they do not want to read, it can still get the point of your article across. This is important especially if you have written a longer piece. Both interactive and static data visualizations throughout your piece help readers stay on track in your story and keep scrolling through it. If there is an interactive data visualization at the beginning of the article, people may be more likely to click and keep reading. While static ones coming in throughout your piece can keep the reader engaged. 

This semester, our discussions about data visualization, statistics, the weather, and climate change with guest speakers were the most valuable part of the class for me. I enjoyed discussing these topics with experts and being able to ask them direct questions and get feedback related to my topic. I used a lot of their suggestions to strengthen my Solutions Story especially. The guest speakers were my favorite part of the class this semester.