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The world needs a ‘transformative agenda. GEO Year Book 2006. The agriculture sector highlights perhaps more clearly than any other the extent and severity of potential impacts of climate change on food production, food security, lost livelihoods, environmental damage and environmental migration.

GEO Year Book 2006

A “Green PlanetRevolution” in crops and agricultural technology can help reduce emissions, limit damage and increase our adaptability to change. One of the great achievements of the 20th century was the successful expansion of food production to keep pace with growing demand caused by growing populations and rising incomes. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that as these two factors continue to push demand upwards, the world will require about 50 per cent more food by 2030, compared to 1998 (FAO 2005a). Climate change will be an important factor in determining whether this can be achieved. The rise in temperatures will influence crop yields by.

Food and Climate: A New Warning. Justin Mott for The New York TimesTerraced rice paddies in Dong Van in northeastern Vietnam.

Food and Climate: A New Warning

As we have noted many times, one of the major questions about climate change is what it will do to the world’s food supply. Competing factors are at work. On the one hand, the rising level of carbon dioxide in the air significantly bolsters the growth of plants, potentially raising yields. Conversely, rising heat and, in some places, additional weather extremes like drought and heavy rains threaten to reduce yields. Climate contrarians like to cite the upside potential of rising carbon dioxide while largely ignoring the risks. Now comes an interesting new entry in the literature. The study found that rice yields would likely fall by a third by the end of the century, while methane emissions from rice cultivation would jump 58 percent. “Our results show that rice agriculture becomes less climate-friendly as our atmosphere continues to change,” Dr. van Groenigen said in a statement. The bottom line is why Big Food should take a stand on climate.

Oxfam has a new report out predicting that climate change will drive up food costs, leading to hunger and suffering.

The bottom line is why Big Food should take a stand on climate

Though that’s not exactly news, what’s interesting is that Oxfam has aimed this report at the 10 largest food and beverage companies in the world. The authors take pains to demonstrate that there’s not just a moral obligation for these corporations to act against climate change; it’s also the right — intelligently selfish — business decision. The report finds that the food industry “has a very patchy record, which for some companies verges on downright negligence.” It singles out Kellogg and General Mills for special criticism: “Both companies are highly vulnerable to climate impacts but also well positioned to lead the industry towards a more sustainable future.”

All these companies are working independently to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they release, but none of them is going far enough. S Diary » Blog Archive » World Bank warns of food riots as rising food prices push world populations toward revolt. Posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2014 by Mike Adams – Natural News, 30 May 2014 Source: A new report issued by the World Bank (1) warns that food prices are skyrocketing globally, with wheat up 18 percent and corn up 12 percent this quarter.

s Diary » Blog Archive » World Bank warns of food riots as rising food prices push world populations toward revolt

Ukraine, one of the largest wheat exporters in the world, has suffered a 73 percent increase in domestic wheat costs. Trade and Environment Review 2013. Developing and developed countries alike need a paradigm shift in agricultural development: from a "green revolution" to a "truly ecological intensification" approach.

Trade and Environment Review 2013

This implies a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high external-input-dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers. We need to see a move from a linear to a holistic approach in agricultural management, which recognizes that a farmer is not only a producer of agricultural goods, but also a manager of an agro-ecological system that provides quite a number of public goods and services (e.g. water, soil, landscape, energy, biodiversity, and recreation) UNCTAD's Trade and Environment Review 2013 (TER13) contends. TER13 highlights that the required transformation is much more profound than simply tweaking the existing industrial agricultural system.