Will Climate Change Affect Your Farm?

The short answer is yes!  Rising temperatures have negative consequences to your business.  In an interesting paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) authors Tatyana Deryugina and Solomon M. Hsiang in a paper entitiled "Does the Environment Still Matter? Daily Temperature and Income in the United States" report, that rising temperatures affect the productivity of workers' output.  This make a lot of sense around here (just try mowing the yard on a hot afternoon and watch what happens to your productivity).  They suggest that productivity per individual workday declines 1.7 percent for each 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F) rise in temperature above 15 degrees C (59 degrees F) when statistics are looked at.  A shocking $20.00 per day, per person, is lost in a county when a weekday is above 30 degrees C (86 degrees F).  Now this is a survey of the entire economy in a county but it was determined that farm incomes contribute most to that loss.

In another thought provoking paper from NBER entitiled "Climate and Conflict" concluded after looking at 55 econometric studies linking climate and potential conflict, that indeed rising temperatures provoked rising conflicts.  Conflicts could be defined as interpersonal conflict, which includes domestic violence, road rage, assault, murder, and rape, as well as group conflict which included  riots, ethnic violence, land invasions, gang violence, civil war, and other political instability which might not be what would happen at your nursery but does happen in other countries.  And this type of conflict increase even faster at an average of 11.3 percent for each standard deviation rise in temperature.

So, in light of this data on a economy wide, macroeconomic basis, it might be interesting to look at this on a nursery or micro-economic basis and see how workers' productivity and comfort might be improved to increase the overall farm output for better year end results.  For more information on this research, here is a link to the NBER.  http://www.nber.org/digest/apr15/w20750.html  Let me know what are your thoughts about this data, you can comment a post on this blog.

Private Applicator Pesticide License Exam Preparation Class 4/16/15

If you are looking to test for the Private Applicator Pesticide License you may want to sit through the training class offered in Pasco County.  We rotate counties in our area to spread out the classes for your convenience.  For more details and to register you can click on the links below.  If you already have a license and would like to get CEUs this is a way to do that.  Testing for the license will occur after the exam reviews.

UF-IFAS Extension Pasco County in conjunction with the multi-county commercial horticulture extension program will be hosting an exam review for Private Applicator and General Standards (CORE) on Thursday April 16, 2015 from 8:30am to 2:00pm. Each program has been approved for 2 CEUs in their respective categories. The cost is $15 for each class. All exams are proctored after the completion of both reviews.

  

Register online using a credit card at the following links:

CORE General Standards: https://pascoaprilcoreexamreview.eventbrite.com

Private Agricultural Pesticide Applicator: https://pascoaprilpesticideexamreview.eventbrite.com

 

Don’t want to register online?

You can use the attached mail in form to pay by cash, check or money order. County or Governmental employees desiring the reduced rate for the CORE must bring a county/government ID.

  

Classes that do not fill will be canceled and fees refunded.

 

 Please contact Cami Esmel McAvoy at 352-569-6872 or cami13@ufl.edu if you require assistance due to disability.

 

Save the Date! FNGLA Tampa Chapter Annual Meeting and Past Presidents' Dinner

The FNGLA Tampa Chapter is inviting all members and the retired leadership to the annual meeting and  Past Presidents' Dinner on July 16, 2015.  If you are a Past President of the Tampa Chapter you will dine for free.  We hope that you will join us at the Columbia Cafe at The History Center for an evening of good food, raffles and catching up with industry friends.