Cultural Adaptation in US Agriculture for Climate Change Resiliency

The impacts of climate change on lives, the economy, and society are growing and require adapting or changing our behaviour to mitigate the effects of the changing climate, as well as finding new ways to take advantage of the new opportunities that come with the new reality. However, effective and successful responses are sometimes tricky and require a culture change.

A team of researchers from the University of Maine and the University of Vermont (UVM) have conducted the first-ever study of cultural adaptation to climate change.

Their study, “Operationalizing cultural adaptation to climate change: contemporary examples from United States agriculture”, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, uses the evolutionary approach to study cultural adaptation to climate change.

To demonstrate cultural change or adaptation, researchers examined US farmers’ crop choices and use of cover crops between 2008 and 2021. Evidence suggests that the farms’ crop choices are selected to suit local climate trends in some regions of the US.

The authors proposed that climate adaptation research can benefit from an evolutionary approach, but the research is lacking in this field. They find that the fields of scientific study of cultural evolution and climate adaptation research view the role of human culture in adaptation to a new climate in very similar ways.

Both fields see ‘culture’ as composed of ideas, norms and behaviours that influence human and ecological outcomes, which are iteratively spread and refined within a population.

In climate adaptation research, culture is defined as all the ‘learned ideas and behaviour patterns that people acquire, share, and modify as members of society. Both communities also view ‘adaptation’ as a process that improves the fit between human groups and their environment.

The researchers write, “In this paper, we advance this integration and develop an operational research agenda on ‘cultural adaptation to climate change’. First, we enumerate the benefits of adopting an evolutionary theory of culture in climate adaptation efforts. Next, we develop a simple conceptual framework to study cultural adaptation to climate change in humans. We then apply this framework to two case studies from contemporary agriculture in the USA.”

To apply the evolutionary study of climate adaptation, the researchers examined two case studies from present-day agricultural practices of US farmers.

Human agriculture is one of the preeminent examples of human cultural adaptation. Agriculture is a domain rich with innovation and the selection of alternative subsistence strategies that have been transmitted, accumulated, and refined over generations.

Looking into the contemporary practices of crop choices among US farmers, the study finds:

• Crops are a cultural trait that is readily learned between farmers and advisors;
• Between 2008 and 2021, US farmers planted crops that more closely match recent national and local changes in two climate variables and
• The number of climate-matched crops is increasing compared to those less matched in multiple regions of the USA.

Their analysis of crop switching demonstrates the basic requirements for cultural adaptation to climate change.

Researchers noted that the evidence for cultural adaptation in agriculture is abundant; it is an ancient, influential, and ongoing practice, and the study shows preliminary evidence that cultural adaptation in US agriculture is responding to climate change.

However, the study finds that climate change is not the only driver of agricultural adaptation; it also includes economic, technological, and social factors.

For instance, financial incentives strongly influence cover cropping practice. Researchers recommend further study exploring climate change’s contribution, among other factors, to cultural evolution.

A better understanding of the cultural adaptation process will increase the agricultural systems’ ability to adapt to climate change.