As the climate changes, farmers can become more resilient by adding new crops to their portfolio of choices. One I read about today is elderberry. Another is pongamia, a hardy tree that grows in Florida’s subtropical climate and serves as a source of oils, a soybean-like protein source, or a fertilizer feedstock, according to the Christian Science Monitor here. It can grow where citrus trees no longer thrive due to citrus greening, and according to Landscape News, it can also grow on degraded soils where many other things cannot. I am always interested to hear what new crops our farmers are experimenting with, because diversity of crops makes producers more economically resilient to extreme weather and climate.
