Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for Harvest Public Media, Christopher Walljasper explains how the changing climate in North Dakota is leading some farmers to change the types of crops they grow.

· What other factors have impacted crop diversity in North Dakota? 

· Read more about what climate change means for crops.

For the last 40 years, the crops grown in North Dakota have been changing. Since the 1980s, the state has been one of the most crop diverse in the country. But a number of factors go into a farmer’s decision about what to plant and as unpredictable weather becomes more frequent, one of those is the changing climate.

Traditionally, the 100th meridian, a line of longitude that runs right through the Great Plains and that cuts North Dakota from top to bottom, was a natural dividing line between the arid, lighter soil to the west and the rain-soaked, heavier black dirt in the Red River Valley, on the state’s border with Minnesota.

Certain crops, like durum wheat, sunflower and barley grow better out west, while others like navy beans, kidney beans, potatoes and sugar beets lend themselves to the climate in the east.

But the climate in North Dakota is changing. Researchers studying weather models along the 100th meridian say the more arid climate will push east during this century. But in North Dakota, the wet climate of the east has begun moving west.

Now, the 100th meridian in North Dakota sees more precipitation annually than it did 20 years ago, with more volatility making it hard for farmers to plant and harvest during increasingly narrow windows of time.

So some are beginning to change the crops they grow.

Read the full article about the changing climate in North Dakota by Christopher Walljasper at Harvest Public Media.