Earth Equity News

U.N. Warns of Long-Term Climate Change Impacts on Food Production. By Gargi Parsai, The Hindu, 4/1/11. “‘Potentially catastrophic’ impacts on food production from slow-onset climate changes are expected to increasingly hit the developing world in the future, and action is required now to prepare for those impacts, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on March 31st in a report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Food production systems and the ecosystems they depended on were highly sensitive to climate variability and change. Changes in temperature, precipitation and related outbreaks of pest and diseases could reduce production. Poor people in countries that depended on food imports were particularly vulnerable to such effects, the FAO said… A crucial measure highlighted in the FAO submission is need to develop staple food varieties better adapted to expected future climatic conditions. Plant genetic material stored in gene banks should be screened with future requirements in mind and additional plant genetic resources -- including those from wild relatives of food crops -- must be collected and studied because of the risk that they may disappear.”