Our Future May Hold Less Food, Thanks to Climate Change

Food security, a fundamental human need that’s been improving globally, is at risk as climate change triggers more extreme weather, a new study published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports.  The study found that climate change is “very likely” to upset global, regional, and local food security, noting that at least two out of the world’s seven billion people already suffers insufficient nutrition.

These effects, the study noted, follow climate’s influence on food processing, packaging, transportation, storage, waste, and consumption.  Global warming, which the study — along with the majority of climate scientists — attributes to human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation, is projected to result in more frequent disruption of food production in many regions and increase food prices.

The study, which was published this week, represents a consensus of authors and contributors from 19 federal, academic, nongovernmental, and intergovernmental organizations in four countries.  And while policy recommendations are outside the report’s scope, it comes as delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting in Paris to carve a climate deal that puts the world on track to limit global warming to no more than 2°C, a threshold many in the scientific community say will prevent the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

Impacts are already being felt
Multiple experts interviewed praised the report and the clear message of action it sends, yet some noted many of the effects the study described are happening already.

“In the U.S., we have seen a warmer Corn Belt in the last 15 years in the winter and the summer months,” said Otto Doering, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University.  “Among other things, this has allowed pests, weeds, and insects that like warmer weather to move up. This is something that we talked about 20 years ago and in fact is happening now.”

If man-made climate change goes unchecked, the report finds that the United States is likely to face a change in cost and availability for imported products, and is also likely to see an increasing demand for agricultural exports from regions that experience production difficulties.  The U.S. is likely to be able to meet the demands, according to the report, in part because widespread warming could increase the length of the growing season by a month or more and lead to fewer frost days per year in most areas.

While this could mean more business for domestic farmers in the short term, the report noted that “results reviewed in this assessment show that climate-change effects on overall global food production are likely to be detrimental, particularly later in the century.”  That’s because yields are expected to decline and current projections underestimate potential declines.

Read more at Our Future May Hold Less Food, Thanks to Climate Change