{"id":6374,"date":"2012-07-30T11:25:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T11:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rtcc.org\/?p=6374"},"modified":"2012-08-14T10:59:55","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T10:59:55","slug":"the-price-of-climate-change-how-to-temper-volatile-food-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2012\/07\/30\/the-price-of-climate-change-how-to-temper-volatile-food-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"The price of climate change: How to temper volatile food prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Parnell<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The US Department of Agriculture has warned that food prices in 2013 could increase at nearly twice the rate of inflation due the severity of the drought currently gripping 31 of the country\u2019s states.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Price rises are also expected globally next year, as other big exporters hold onto their own supplies, further decreasing availability in the market. Among the worst affected are the most vulnerable countries that are heavily reliant on imports.<\/p>\n

The global ‘futures’ market means that crops are often sold before they are even picked – affecting prices for years to come. For instance, in 2010 a Russian drought<\/a> sent prices of wheat and barley soaring the following year.<\/p>\n

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This hybrid corn crop in Kenya has been bred to resist drought. (Source: Flickr\/CIMMYT)<\/p><\/div>\n

The weather affecting crops is nothing new – a famous example is the series of droughts in the 1930s that left parts of America and Canada resembling a ‘dust bowl’.<\/p>\n

But these severe types of weather event are predicted to occur with increasing frequency, if last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report<\/a> on the ‘Risks of Extreme Events’ is to be believed. And given the way the world economy is interconnected – an impact on one continent will reverberate around the globe for years to come.<\/p>\n

Some, including the US Department of Defense, the Maplecroft consultancy<\/a>\u00a0and IISS<\/a> researcher Jeffrey Mazo<\/a> have even suggested that climate-induced food shortages played a role in the Arab Spring<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cash crops<\/a> like coffee and cocoa, which are grown across relatively small areas can be severely affected. Starbucks<\/a> has sought to protect its own supply by helping its growers “climate proof” their crops.<\/p>\n

The challenges facing farmers have been described as the “perfect storm”, so what are the big issues and what can be done to limit the reverberations?<\/p>\n

Many of the tools and technologies required to reduce the impact of erratic weather are available now. A great many more are under development or waiting for the right policies to catalyse them.<\/p>\n

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A number of factors contributed to wheat prices jumping from $700 on the 25 June 2012 to $940 in late July. (Source: Forex)<\/p><\/div>\n

Population<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe current world population of 7 billion is projected to reach 9.3 billion by 2050,\u201d explains Dr Darren Hughes, head of communications at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research centre in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoupled with other factors, particularly people moving from rural livelihoods to cities, rising global temperatures and extreme weather events becoming more frequent, an enormous stress will be placed on our natural resources and therefore our ability to provide adequate nutritious food and to safeguard our environment through clean air, soil and water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Population is clearly a huge challenge facing food security, but there is an argument that the fault lies not with the earth’s future inhabitants, instead the problem is with how we, the current population, produce inefficiently and consume so wastefully.<\/p>\n

Waste<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is a global research partnership focusing on food security.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0report by its Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change<\/a> in March 2012 makes a painful read. A stand-out stat is that while in 2008 1.5 billion adults were overweight, in 2010, 925 million people were undernourished.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another one: the UK wastes 22% of its food (the global average is estimated at 33% by the\u00a0FAO<\/a>).<\/p>\n

VIDEO:\u00a0Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change – How to feed the world in 2050<\/strong><\/p>\n