URBANA, IL (Chambana Today) – A June 18 study published in Nature found that climate change is putting the world’s food production at risk, as opposed to previous studies that suggested warming could increase global food production.
Andrew Hultgren, an assistant professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the U of I, was the lead author in the study, and he says that rising temperatures could affect farmland in the Midwest.
“Places in the Midwest that are really well suited for present day corn and soybean production just get hammered under a high warming future,” he said. “You do start to wonder if the Corn Belt is going to be the Corn Belt in the future.”
Production being affected will result in costs going up, which Solomon Hsiang, professor of environmental sciences at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, says could see Americans give up what’s often referred to as one of the most important meals of the day.
“When global production falls, consumers are hurt because prices go up and it gets harder to access food and feed our families,” Hsiang said. “If the climate warms by 3 degrees, that’s basically like everyone on the planet giving up breakfast.”
In an age where an active effort is being made to keep American jobs in America, Hsiang says that outsourcing could be the only way for food production needs to be met.
“This is basically like sending our agricultural profits overseas. We will be sending benefits to producers in Canada, Russia, China. Those are the winners, and we in the U.S. are the losers,” said Hsiang. “The longer we wait to reduce emissions, the more money we lose.”
The full release from the U of I’s college of agricultural and consumer economics can be read here.