Food & Travel...

Rising food prices—up 4% last year, the largest increase since 1990—are affected by oil, global markets, speculation, biofuels, and…climate change. And, thanks to how we currently handle agriculture, food price increases and climate change are likely to continue together, if unchecked. 

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography recently confirmed that global warming is affecting the hydrological cycle in the U.S. Between 1950 and 1999, as much as 60% of climate-related trends in river flow, winter air temperature, and snow were caused by us humans. As precipitation patterns and glacial melting changes, water availability will change, and that will affect agriculture—think the drought that’s already affected Australia and increased the price of wheat as a result.

As Shiney Varghese, senior policy analyst for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy wrote, “[e]xisting irrigation and drainage infrastructure have been designed for stable climate conditions. They are very likely inadequate to cope with extreme climatic variations in precipitation and reduced water supply reliability and availability, as well as floods.” (Read the article at Alternet.org.) Irrigation uses up a lot of water and “accounts for 40% of global food production” (the other 60% of farms use rain water).

It’s a two-way street—climate change is affecting food production and food production is affecting climate change. As Varghese points out, “the two sectors in the world that use the most water, chemical intensive agriculture and fossil fuel-based energy production, are also the biggest contributors to global warming, which in turn further increases water stress in many regions.”

The solutions?

1.      Protect local watersheds and wetlands for local agriculture systems, instead of huge, exporting industrial farms would help reduce the water sector’s contribution to climate change and improve resilience of local farming systems for food security and environmental concerns.

2.      Change agricultural policies that are too water and energy-intensive. Opt instead for water management policies that are both sustainable and effective.

Photo from US Fish and Wildlife Service where you can learn more about irrigation farming.