Climate Change and Our Food Supply

as part of our adventures on climate change and health we've covered the critical issue of how our water supply is impacted by a warming planet and that's a perfect segue into something equally important the impact of climate change on food security that's the topic of this week's Healthcare Trio [Music] when there is access to enough safe and nutritious food for a healthy and active lifestyle and when everyone has that access all the time we call that food security food security depends on four factors availability stability access and utilization food must be available in amounts that match demand access to food must be stable meaning without risk of losing access even temporarily individuals must have reliable sources from which to access the available food and finally individuals must be able to utilize the food that probably sounds weird but essentially it just means that the food must be usable as in for example not contaminated and importantly for our purpose here today all four of these things are affected by climate change adequate and stable access to food requires adequate and stable food production and all that depends a lot on climate one 2019 study examined 10 crops responsible for over 80 percent of Global consumable Food calories and found major changes in their yields as a result of climate change and while they did find some increases in yield thanks to climate change the overall result was a reduction in really important food sources I'm talking major Staples of the human diet like wheat and rice and this isn't a projection some of these reductions are already apparent to use the examples above Global yields of wheat are being reduced by climate change an average of 0.9 percent annually and rice an average of 0.3 percent annually one write-up of the article helps to put this in context consumable food calories from the top 10 Global crops are reduced by climate change the tune of one percent per year which doesn't sound that alarming at first glance but this translates to 35 trillion with a t annual calories which further translates to 1800 calories per day for 50 million people in a world that already struggles with malnourishment in several places this is no small issue while we plan to cover some of the major factors behind find the relationship between climate and agriculture it feels important to note that this relationship is extremely complex and nuanced in a way that's impossible to convey in a short video there are a myriad of factors at play and lots of caveats so we're using this time to paint the big picture here goes increases in storms and floods wreak havoc on crops and on the land we can use to grow these crops while there would actually be increases in usable land in some areas climate change is predicted to cause an overall loss of suitable land for growing crops water constraints are already an issue around the world and it's constraints worsen with climate change so will our ability to grow food droughts and decreased groundwater sources are a major issue for food production but so are increased storms while intense precipitation might seem like only a good thing it brings its own set of issues for the water supply including runoff that can lead to contamination of other water sources in Nigeria a prolonged lack of rainfall in 2021 reduced that Year's Harvest by over 60 percent then when the rainfall finally happened the Harvest they did have was depleted by the resulting floods the bottom line is that patterns of precipitation and overall water availability are critical for food access and stability and climate change is increasing the unpredictability of these factors and unfortunately this isn't the only bad news increased heat is a direct issue for many crops UPS like wheat which isn't very tolerant of heat According to some estimates an increase in temperature of one degree Celsius can decrease Global wheat production by six percent temperature and precipitation changes will also change the prevalence and or patterns of weeds pests and pollinators all of which are deeply interconnected with crops grown all over the world and lastly the food we can grow on a warmer Planet may be less nutrient dense higher temps and levels of CO2 can lead to lower protein concentrations and lower levels of critical nutrients like iron this is specific to certain crops and can especially affect geographical regions that rely on one or two staple crops for a large portion of their nutrition and what about that fourth factor of food security access increased food prices are a common result of food production issues leaving many families unable to afford nutritious food or spending an oversized portion of their budget to access it and in areas where agriculture is a main source of food and income food food access can be severely limited the these critical issues are exacerbated when food production is stymied by climate related events and as for the ability to utilize available food sources a warming Planet means increased food poisoning because the pathogens responsible for food poisoning are also sensitive to temperature warmer more humid weather with accompanying warmer Memorial growth changes in weather patterns also influence human behavior including those related to food handling and storage which influences food pathogen an example of a specific climate-related pathogen change is E coli which grows better at increased temperatures an example of specific climate related human behavioral change is differences in food preparation during summer versus winter months in summer events like picnics are more common which involve different types of food handling and storage think of how long food is out in the heat during a picnic versus a dinner inside at home such events are expected to increase as climate change brings about more warmer months and finally Wildlife behavior is impacted by climate and Wildlife Behavior has an impact on food pathogens for example climate changes affect the activity of animals like deer who carry pathogens known to be harmful to humans the ranges of deer have increased as a result of climate change which increases their interaction with human environments as an example of how this affects our food supply a 2013 paper detailed 15 cases of E coli in Oregon six of which led to hospitalization and two that resulted in death the source of the E coli contamination deer feces that had contaminated some locally grown strawberries bringing it back around to those four components of food security here's the nutshell version of how climate change is expected to worsen food insecurity one impacts on food availability are expected by a changes in usable land and crop yields two impacts on stability of the food supply are expected thanks to climate variability that affects the consistent production of food three impacts on food access are expected thanks to higher food prices and lower incomes particularly in areas that rely heavily on agriculture for income and food and finally four impacts on the utilization of food are expected alongside the increase in disease that climate change brings this is related to a among other things what we've discussed about the relationship between temperature and food poisoning and just we've hit rock bottom in this delivery of information let's take a brief look at possible solutions to lift ourselves back up Beyond addressing and preventing climate change itself we have options that will help us adapt to the challenges we've brought up here we can be more strategic with the crops we grow where possible we can switch to crops that need less water or that are more heat tolerant we can be more thoughtful about and invest more in our food handling and storage processes and we can examine more efficient irrigation systems we can also work to improve soil Health which can have a major impact on both water and nutrient retention climate induced changes in food Security will be an issue across the globe and will take a global response to both mitigate and adapt to the consequences of a warming Planet action will be critical here I've said it before and I'm saying it again our health truly depends on it hey to enjoyed this episode you might enjoy this previous episode on climate change and waterborne diseases we'd really like it if you like the video subscribe to the channel down below and consider going to patreon.com healthcare triage where you can help support the show make it bigger and better we'd like to especially thank our research associate Joe sevitz and Edward little home and of course our surgeon Admiral Sam foreign

Channel: Healthcare Triage

Views: 12,838

Keywords: health, healthcare, health care, health insurance, health policy, Aaron Carroll

Id: vnZOgEE5R4k

Length: 8min 28sec (508 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023