Climate Change Will Make It Worse..
Extreme flooding and droughts take a major toll on the global supply of wheat, accounting for about 40 percent of the fluctuations in annual yields, a recent study has found.
The research gives new weight to scientists’ warnings about the effect of runaway climate change on food production.
Climate change is expected to exacerbate these extreme weather patterns, the researchers noted, making crops even more vulnerable in the decades to come.
The study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre analyzed harvest and climate data in wheat-producing countries between 1980 and 2010.
The wetter climate breeds pests and diseases that wipe out plants and shrink the annual harvest.
“They are emerging in a statistically significant way.” The findings were published last month in the journal Environmental Research Letters, and the researchers are now expanding the study to examine corn and rice.
But water scarcity ― yet another impact of global climate change ― would likely decrease rice production as well.
As food production drops, prices will go up.
Studies have already found that manmade global warming has driven up the cost of food by as much as 20 percent over the past few decades.