It was a difficult summer for Lynn Swanson, a farmer in Whidbey Island, Washington. It was hot and it hardly rained. Where fertile fields once stretched into the distance, a silent but ever-present crisis has been unfolding – climate change. Farmers, dating back generation after generation, are now fighting to save the businesses they have dedicated their lives to.

According to the Department of Ecology in the State of Washington, the West Coast state experienced the “warmest May on record.” Along with this, Washington “only received 47% of normal precipitation.” Swanson, the owner of Glendale Shepherd Creamery and Farm, has been directly impacted by the effects of climate change on her farm.

“We depend on local hay and grain to feed our sheep, and with every year, the drought conditions have gotten worse,” said Swanson. “The production of the hay fields is going down.”

Not only are crops affected by changes in weather -- animals are too. Swanson said spikes in temperature heavily impact stages of gestation.

“When the weather spikes real high, it has a bad effect on future generations that are being carried in eggs that are developing in the embryo,” said Swanson. The severe temperatures can be so impactful that they can render the replacement animals “pretty much worthless.”

Climate changeposes serious challenges to agricultural methods and practices, said Dr. Dennis Miller, Professor Emeritus of Food Chemistry and Nutrition at Cornell University. Along with high temperatures, the world is seeing an alarming amount of extreme weather events.