The climate is changing, and farmers are being forced to adapt to more erratic and unpredictable weather patterns to grow food.

As the owner of Sundance Family Farm, Ed Janosik’s business is completely dependent on the weather. If it gets too hot or too cold, Janosik runs the risk of losing crops. When it is sunny, he can stay out longer and pick more vegetables; when it is rainy it is easier to stay inside rather than go out and tend the field.

Janosik has to base his planting around the weather; will it be warm enough in the next month to plant tomatoes outside of the greenhouse? He has to be smart, should he plant too early or too late, he might lose that crop. While he has years of experience that helps him decide when to plant, recently, that job has been getting more difficult.

“How can you plan for a summer of real hot or real dry? Last summer, the beginning of summer was real wet. Near the end of the summer it was real dry. And that could be a normal pattern but it feels like it’s more extreme.” Janosik commented.

Climate change in Georgia has been subtler than in other parts of the country, due mainly to the large amount of forested area in the state, according to Dr. Pam Knox, an agricultural-climatologist at the University of Georgia. As the climate changes, farmers will have to find new ways to adapt to continue growing food. There have already been changes in Georgia’s agriculture due to climate change. Apple farming has been relegated to the northeast part of the state, where there are enough cold nights for the flowers to bloom, Knox said.

Moreover, farmers like Janosik are fortunate to have a secure, plentiful supply of water. Sundance Family Farm gets its water from the ground. Without a big business or industry moving next to him in the near future. Janosik is not concerned about running out of water. Farmers in Iowa, for instance, have to rely on aquifers who’s water level has fallen hundreds of feet, he said.

Globally, agriculture accounts for 70 percent of total freshwater use; irrigation and livestock are two of the biggest sources. Water is essential to farming, a plant will grow better when it receives optimal water, Janosik said.

Janosik has wields a variety of tools to lower his water use. For one, he relies on the process of drip irrigation. Drip irrigation minimizes evaporation by delivering water underground to the root of the plant. Moreover, he placed sensors in the ground to detect the levels of moisture in the soil, keeping him from over-watering his plants.

Some people view genetically modified organisms as the solution to food security. Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins, a professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia, has been studying these GMO’s, although she would prefer to call them “genetically engineered,” instead. She sees this field as a way to improve sustainability in agriculture; however, she does see obstacles along the way.

Another issue is governmental regulation. According to Dr. Wayne Parrott, a professor of crop studies at UGA, many of the current regulations on GMO’s are based in outdated views from the 1980’s. For instance, a scientist might engineer a corn plant to resist insects and other pests. This corn would have the benefit of not requiring pesticides or insecticides. However, the gene that provides this resistance would be classified as a pesticide.

All products for consumption have to meet certain standards before it is able to enter the market; however, the data required for a genetically engineered crop to enter the market is excessive, and often is too expensive to produce, Ozias-Akins said. Bringing a genetically engineered crop to market can cost around $30 million, according to Parrott. This cost limits the research that is being done in the field; to make a return on the investment, widely cultivated crops must be engineered with traits to make them more profitable.

Parrott sees genetically engineered crops as simply the next step in farming. Humans have been crossing plants to selectively breed traits for thousands of years, to him, working on a molecular level is not so different. However, he noted that the field is in its infancy. At the current rate, it would take another generation before humanity could be fed on these crops.

“If you had to depend on it tomorrow you’d be in trouble.” Parrott said.