Is another dust bowl coming?

Humanity is on the cusp of a major transformation as we come to grips with the necessity of feeding nine to 11 billion people on an increasingly hot and crowded planet. Thanks to climate change, meeting this challenge requires that we be far more thrifty with our resources and create not only productive but also resilient systems. The tools of the digital agricultural revolution are only just now emerging, but they will come to define how humanity feeds itself in the future. Canada, and the Canadian industry, should be at the forefront of this revolution.
Buried machinery in a barn lot in Dallas, South Dakota, May 1936.
GUELPH, ONT.—In the 1930s, a bad drought and an economic malaise upended farming systems around North America causing the Dust Bowl. Could climate change and the persistent post-2008 economic doldrums do the same? On one hand, the environmental signals are sobering. The drought in California seem...

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