US: Food Security

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These 5 Foods are Under Threat From Climate Change

Tue, 2019-08-20 08:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Could this be the end of certain foods? Image: REUTERS/Eduard Korniyenko

weforum.org - by Johnny Wood - August 19, 2019

As climate change warms the planet, unstable weather patterns and shifting seasons are disrupting how crops grow.

Food producers face uncertainty as droughts, floods and storms become more frequent and rising temperatures lead to more disease, pests and weeds.

Here are five examples from around the world.

1. British brassicas

2. US apples

3. Coffee

4. Wheat

5. Californian peaches

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CLICK HERE - REPORT - IPCC - Climate Change and Land

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Climate Change Threatens the World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns

Thu, 2019-08-08 07:37 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CLICK HERE - IPCC - Climate Change and Land

nytimes.com - by Christopher Flavelle - August 8, 2019

The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates,” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself.

The report, prepared by more than 100 experts from 52 countries and released in summary form in Geneva on Thursday, found that the window to address the threat is closing rapidly. A half-billion people already live in places turning into desert, and soil is being lost between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming, according to the report.

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CLICK HERE - U.S. Department of Agriculture - Economic Research Service - Agriculture and Climate Change

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Agriculture Department Buries Studies Showing Dangers of Climate Change

Mon, 2019-06-24 22:18 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Trump administration has stopped promoting government-funded research into how higher temperatures can damage crops and pose health risks.

politico.com - by HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH - June 23, 2019

The Trump administration has refused to publicize dozens of government-funded studies that carry warnings about the effects of climate change, defying a longstanding practice of touting such findings by the Agriculture Department’s acclaimed in-house scientists.

The studies range from a groundbreaking discovery that rice loses vitamins in a carbon-rich environment — a potentially serious health concern for the 600 million people world-wide whose diet consists mostly of rice — to a finding that climate change could exacerbate allergy seasons to a warning to farmers about the reduction in quality of grasses important for raising cattle.

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How Climate Change Is Fuelling the U.S. Border Crisis

Wed, 2019-04-10 10:08 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Outside the small village of Chicua, in the western highlands, in an area affected by extreme-weather events, Ilda Gonzales looks after her daughter.

newyorker.com - by Jonathan Blitzer - Photography by Mauricio Lima - April 3, 2019

. . . In most of the western highlands, the question is no longer whether someone will emigrate but when. “Extreme poverty may be the primary reason people leave,” Edwin Castellanos, a climate scientist at the Universidad del Valle, told me. “But climate change is intensifying all the existing factors” . . . Farming, Castellanos has said, is “a trial-and-error exercise for the modification of the conditions of sowing and harvesting times in the face of a variable environment.” Climate change is outpacing the ability of growers to adapt.

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Impasse Over Aid for Puerto Rico Stalls Billions in Federal Disaster Relief

Thu, 2019-04-04 19:20 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A damaged home in Puerto Rico in September, a year after Hurricane Maria hit. Credit Carlos Barria/Reuters

nytimes.com - by Emily Cochrane - April 1, 2019

The Senate on Monday blocked billions of dollars in disaster aid for states across the country as Republicans and Democrats clashed over President Trump’s opposition to sending more food and infrastructure help to Puerto Rico.

Opposition came from both parties for different reasons . . .

. . . It was unclear late Monday how lawmakers would overcome that impasse and end the delay in disbursing the disaster aid.

CLICK HERE - Billions Of Dollars In Disaster Aid Stuck In Congress, As Both Parties Balk At Relief Legislation

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CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - The Lancet - Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems

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Scientists Reveal 'Ideal Diet' for Peoples' and Planet's Health

Sun, 2019-01-20 09:22 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A vendor selects fruit for sale at a market in Lima, Peru November 2, 2018. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo/File Photo

reuters.com - by Kate Kelland - January 16, 2019

Scientists have unveiled what they say is an ideal diet for the health of the planet and its people - including a doubling of consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes, and a halving of meat and sugar intake.

If the world followed the “Planetary Health” diet, the researchers said, more than 11 million premature deaths could be prevented each year, while greenhouse gas emissions would be cut and more land, water and biodiversity would be preserved.

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As Climate Change Bites in America’s Midwest, Farmers are Desperate to Ring the Alarm

Thu, 2018-12-13 18:06 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Richard Oswald stands in a frozen puddle surrounded by unharvested corn. Wet conditions have made harvesting difficult for Oswald and other farmers. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

The changes have become more radical’: farmers are spending more time and money trying to grow crops in new climates

theguardian.com - by Chris McGreal - December 12, 2018

. . . Climate change is likely to make it harder to grow crops, and to make those that do grow more vulnerable to diseases and pests because of rising humidity. The report said heat and diminishing air quality will take its toll on livestock. Farmers will collectively have to spend billions of dollars to adapt. The effects are already seen from prolonged drought in Kansas and torrential rains in Iowa.

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CLICK HERE - STUDY - World Resources Institute - Creating a Sustainable Food Future

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Can We Grow More Food on Less Land? We’ll Have To, a New Study Finds

Wed, 2018-12-05 08:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Harvesting soybeans in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

nytimes.com - by Brad Plumer - December 5, 2018

If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.

That’s the basic conclusion of a sweeping new study issued Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, an environmental group. The report warns that the world’s agricultural system will need drastic changes in the next few decades in order to feed billions more people without triggering a climate catastrophe.

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Harvesting in a Trade War: U.S. Crops Rot as Storage Costs Soar

Thu, 2018-11-22 08:49 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Eric Honselman opens a shed which holds 75,000 bushels of corn he was forced to store after his regular bins were filled to capacity with corn and soybeans on the family farm in Casey, Illinois, U.S., October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mark Weinraub

reuters.com - Mark Weinraub, P.J. Huffstutter - November 21, 2018

. . . Across the United States, grain farmers are plowing under crops, leaving them to rot or piling them on the ground, in hopes of better prices next year, according to interviews with more than two dozen farmers, academic researchers and farm lenders. It’s one of the results, they say, of a U.S. trade war with China that has sharply hurt export demand and swamped storage facilities with excess grain . . .

. . . U.S. farmers planted 89.1 million acres of soybeans this year, the second most ever, expecting China’s rising demand to give them better returns than other bulk crops.

But Beijing slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans in retaliation for duties imposed by Washington on Chinese exports. That effectively shut down U.S. soybean exports to China, worth around $12 billion last year. China typically takes around 60 percent of U.S. supplies.

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