Climate change is likely to hinder progress on reducing undernourishment around the globe in the decades ahead, according to a scientific assessment released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack released the report, entitled “Climate Change, Global Food Security and the U.S. Food System” in conjunction with this week’s Paris Climate Conference.
The report identifies the risks that climate change poses to global food security and the challenges facing farmers and consumers in adapting to changing climate conditions. Climate change is likely to diminish continued progress on global food security through production disruptions that lead to constrains on local availability and price increases, interrupted transport conduits, and diminished food safety. The risks are greater for the global poor and in tropical regions.
Changes in climate are expected to affect U.S. consumers and producers by altering the type and price of food imports from other regions of the world, as well as by changing export demand, and transportation , processing, storage, and infrastructure that enable global trade.
Effective adaptation can reduce food system vulnerability to climate change and reduce detrimental climate change effects on food security, the report said. However, socioeconomic conditions can impede such strategies. However, the agricultural sector has a strong record of adapting to changing conditions. and many opportunities exist to strengthen agricultural economies and bring more advanced methods of crop production to low yielding agricultural regions. Other promising adaptations include reducing food waste through innovative packaging, expanding cold storage to lengthen shelf life, and improving transportation infrastructure to move food more rapidly to markets.
The report was prepared as part of the United States National Climate Assessment and part of the president’s Climate Action Plan. USDA led the production of the report on behalf of the 13 federal agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Thirty-one authors and contributors prepared the report, representing 19 federal, academic, nongovernmental, and intergovernmental institutions in four countries. The report is available here .
