A
study from a project co-chaired by former 1st District congressman Doug
Bereuter says climate change threatens to undermine not only how much food can
be grown but also the quality of that food, as altered weather patterns lead to
a less desirable harvest.
Crops
grown by many of the nation’s farmers have a lower nutritional content than
they once did, according to the report by the Chicago Council on Global
Affairs.
This Feb. 7, 2014, file photo shows the cracked-dry bed of the Almaden Reservoir in San Jose, Calif., where the state is suffering one of its worst droughts. Climate change demands changes in how America grows food, according to a report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, or it will produce less food that is not as rich nutritionally.
Research
indicates that higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reduced the
protein content in wheat, for example. And the International Rice Research
Institute has warned that the quality of rice available to consumers will
decline as temperatures rise, the report noted.
The
council has been examining the effects of climate change on food for several
months as part of a project co-chaired by former Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman and former Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., president emeritus of the Asia
Foundation.
Others
on the advisory group for the project are prominent agribusiness leaders, such
as Jose Luis Prado, president of Quaker Foods North America, Paul E. Schickler,
president of Dupont Pioneer, scientists, academic leaders, former Kansas Gov.
John Carlin, now chair of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, and Howard Buffett,
a Nebraska farmer and grandson of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.
The
U.S. should embrace research into animal biology and plant management with the
kind of enthusiasm it did space exploration in the 1960s, the council said,
warning that the consequences of inaction could be severe.
“History
has shown that with adequate resources and support, agriculture can meet
growing production demands and adapt to some changes in climate,” Bereuter said
in a news release. “But greater emphasis on adaptation must begin now.”
The
report, titled Advancing Global Food Security in the Face of a Changing
Climate, was released Thursday at the council’s Global Food Security Symposium
2014 in Washington, where 500 policymakers and scientists were gathered.
“Adaptation
must begin now,” the report said. “Developing the necessary scientific
breakthroughs and broadly disseminating them will require years, even decades
of lead time.”
Climate
change initially will produce both winners and losers when it comes to food production,
the report said, but research has indicated that growing regions everywhere
will eventually suffer from global warming.
The
report calls on the U.S. government to integrate climate change adaptation into
its global food security strategy. Recommendations include:
*
Passing legislation for a long-term global food and nutrition security
strategy.
*
Increasing spending for agricultural research on climate change adaptation.
*
Collecting better data and making information on weather more widely available
to farmers. There are significant global data gaps right now on weather, water, crop
performance, land use and consumer preferences.
*
Increasing spending for partnerships between U.S. universities and those in
low-income countries.
*
Urging that food security be addressed through the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change and the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
Another
conclusion, closer to the soil: Plant and animal germplasm preservation for
domesticated and wild species needs to be a priority.
“As
temperatures rise, rainfall patterns change and variability increases, farmers
will need to figure out what their new normal might become, and, in fact,
whether change is the new normal,” the report concluded.
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