Food systems and climate change: Impacts and solutions

Climate change, combined with trends of increasing population and shrinking supplies of fossil fuel, is already beginning to force dramatic changes in the global food system. Impacts that are directly associated with climate change include water scarcity, increased risks from pests and disease, decreased productivity in areas of high fertility, decreased biodiversity, large numbers of environmental refugees, and inundation of coastal plains. Greenhouse gas emissions have already exceeded a dangerous threshold; and the sooner we can implement adaptive coping strategies, the less disruption we can anticipate in food supplies. Food systems must strive for resilience by increasing redundancy and buffers, promoting diversity and expecting surprises. Resilience will be enhanced by actively promoting agroecological farming practices, integrating different kinds of knowledge, decentralizing agriculture, and adopting “just-in-case” systems with multiple reserves instead of “just-in-time” supply systems.