Humanity must adapt to climate change now or face food crises that will affect half the world's population by 2100, warns a team of scientists led by David Battisti of the University of Washington, Seattle.
Rapid warming alters crop yields in both the tropics and subtropics, with the most-severe potential food shortages hitting the equatorial belt, home to the world's fastest-growing and poorest populations. Water supplies are also affected by the climate, further imperiling food security, according to Battisti.
Studying historic food disruptions and temperature change, the researchers found that humanity has been able to adapt to conditions. In the future, however, food systems will need to be rethought completely, the researchers argue. For instance, wheat currently makes up one-fourth of the calories consumed in India, but wheat yields there have been stagnant for a decade.
"We have to be rethinking agriculture systems as a whole, not only thinking about new varieties but also recognizing that many people will just move out of agriculture, and even move from the lands where they live now," says team member Rosamond Naylor, director of Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment.
Source - University of Washington, Seattle
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