(Cross posted from All Voices.)

Napa Valley has a problem – their grapes are drunk.

Grapes – the region’s cash crop and tourist draw – grow best under a warm summer sun that is tempered by a kiss of cool air at night. When the weather gets too hot for too long, however, the grapes can “cook” on the vine, resulting in an alcohol content more fitting to a firey grappa than the mellow cabernets the region is known for.

Unfortunately, rising temperatures seem to be the norm in Napa these days where, according to the NY Times Magazine: “most Napa winemakers agree that 10-year averages are the hottest in memory.” As a result, Napa grape farmers are being forced to rethink every growing technique they thought they knew to save their crops. The NY Times Magazine reports:

“The mandate is clear: undo everything that was done in the name of ripeness during the 1990s…Wineries have started planting vineyards on a northeast-southwest axis, which minimizes strong afternoon sunlight. They add cover crops – clover, bell bean – to compete with the vines and prolong the fruit’s maturation process. And they’re removing fewer leaves. “We used to try for as much sun as possible, but we’ve backed off,” says Doug Shafer of Shafer Vineyards. “Shading has become really important. Without it, we get roasted fruit.”"

Even after using these costly mitigating techniques, farmers are still losing some of their yield – and confidence – to climate change’s hot grip. (FYI, there’s currently only one kosher winery in Napa Valley, Hagafen Cellars.)

In America, most citizens still experience the negative impacts of climate change as a “somewhere else” phenomenon (with the tragic exception of New Orleanians and other Bayou-area residents). They may notice the weather being freakishly warm in the winter and uncomforably hot in the summer, but it’s nothing a little dip into an air conditioned house, office, or store can’t fix. For the most part the drought, tsunami, and crippling heat wave continue to only exist in the abstract on TV.

On the contrarary, America’s farmers feel the impact of climate change in a very real, tangible way – in their fields and bank accounts. Across the country – from grape growers in Napa to maple syrup harvesters in Vermont, farmers are the new (and reluctant) canary in the climate change coal mines.