Photo: Romeo Ranoco A farmer walks with his carabao on cracked and dried farmland in Escribano town, Batangas province, south of Manila February 18, 2010

Climate change is going to greatly affect food security for millions in the future. It’s already affecting the ability to grow food in areas that are now suffering serious drought. The UN is working with countries and NGOs to develop the means to make sure everyone in the world, especially poor countries has enough to eat. Because of droughts and floods, this will get more difficult in the years ahead.

Finding the food to feed 9 billion people is going to be a huge challenge by 2050, according to a special issue of the journal Science.   When you factor in the desirability of reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050, that presents even more challenges.  What will people use for cooking and keeping food refrigerated?  I assume solar power will be world-wide and cheap by then, but food may not be.  There may also be distribution problems.  In a special issue available to everyone (instead of only its usual subscribers) Science covers food security and the science of the possibility of plenty of food for everyone.  Below is the introduction to this special issue and more information about the impact of global warming on food production..  There is a lot more on the Science site including a podcast and a special audio interview with a food science intern.  (You can find much of this after the break).  Below is the intro to the Science supplement on food security and climate change.

Feeding the Future

Feeding the 9 billion people expected to inhabit our planet by 2050 will be an unprecedented challenge. This special issue examines the obstacles to achieving global food security and some promising solutions. News articles take us into the fields, introducing farmers and researchers who are finding ways to boost harvests, especially in the developing world. Reviews, Perspectives, a special single-topic podcast, and an audio interview done by a high school intern provide a broader context for the causes and effects of food insecurity and point to paths to ending hunger.

We have little time to waste. Godfray et al. (p. 812) note that we have perhaps 40 years to radically transform agriculture, work out how to grow more food without exacerbating environmental problems, and simultaneously cope with climate change. Although estimates of food insecurity vary (Barrett et al., p. 825), the number of undernourished people already exceeds 1 billion; feeding this many people requires more than incremental changes (Federoff et al., p. 833).

Also Online

Special-issue Podcast [MP3]: Host Robert Frederick talks with contributors to this special section about how to measure food insecurity, the case for not eating meat, and radically rethinking agriculture

Audio Interview [MP3]: Science intern Lan-Vy Ngo, a senior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA, talks with Dr. John Hoddinott, a senior policy fellow [...]