Climate crisis could contribute to a global food shortage by 2050, US special envoy on food security warns

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/05/climate-crisis-could-contribute-to-a-global-food-shortage-by-2050-us-special-envoy-on-food-security-warns

Cary Fowler says world needs to produce 50-60% more food by middle of the century but global heating is expected to reduce yield rates

Climate crisis could contribute to a global food shortage by 2050, US special envoy on food security warns

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theendismeh

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And then there are pandemics among crops to worry about:

“Never again should a major cultivated species be molded into such uniformity that it is so universally vulnerable to attack by a pathogen,” wrote plant pathologist Arnold John Ullstrup in a review of the matter published in 1972.

And yet, today, genetic uniformity is one of the main features of most large-scale agricultural systems, leading some scientists to warn that conditions are ripe for more major outbreaks of plant disease.

“I think we have all the conditions for a pandemic in agricultural systems to occur,” said agricologist Miguel Altieri, a professor emeritus from the University of California, Berkeley. Hunger and economic hardship would likely ensue.