Slow-onset climate change a huge risk to food supply

Max Greene in AlertNet: Failure to prepare for the impact of slow-onset climate changes could have catastrophic effects on food production, according to a new study by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Currently the world is focused on dealing with shorter-term climate impacts caused mainly by extreme weather events," said Alexander Muller, FAO’s assistant director-general for natural resources. “This is absolutely necessary.”

But more gradual climate impacts – such as the emergence of prolonged droughts – could create much bigger challenges by fundamentally altering ecosystems and leading to long-term loss of productive land. That could bring “potentially disastrous impacts on food security” starting in 2050 to 2100, he said.

To avoid that, “we must already today support agriculture in the developing world to become more resilient,” Muller said.

The warnings are in line with a 2009 study in the academic journal Science that predicted that climate change would seriously alter crop yields in the tropics and subtropics by the end of this century. Without effective adaptation, that study suggested, half of the world’s population could face serious food shortages.

The threat is particularly severe because the population of the world’s equatorial belt - from about 35 degrees north latitude to 35 degrees south latitude - is among the poorest on Earth and is growing faster than anywhere else, according to the Science study….

A 1653 painting by Jan van Goyen of "A Church and a Farm on the Bank of a River"