Wildfire smoke is becoming a challenge for California’s agricultural regions, affecting both crop production and the communities that sustain it. This talk examines how wildfire and wildfire smoke are reshaping risks to California agriculture, using the wine grape sector as a central case study. Evidence from wine grape yields suggests that wildfire smoke is becoming an important driver of crop productivity, shifting crop yield modeling from being primarily climate driven to models that incorporate wildfire smoke to accurately capture trends. As wildfire activity intensifies under climate change, how will these crop yield impacts evolve under future climate scenarios through the end of the century? At the same time, these impacts can have wide reaching impacts on agricultural communities that work and sustain our food systems. Understanding these risks also depends on the structure of existing data systems, which shape what aspects of agricultural life are visible and measurable. Commonly used federal datasets often overlook features such as seasonal labor, employment variability, and access to health care, complicating efforts to fully characterize wildfire impacts on agricultural communities. This talk will address how together these impacts underscore the growing links between wildfire, agricultural production, and the communities that sustain California’s agriculture.
Presented by: Astrid Hoefler, PhD