While most of the media has focused on power – fossil fuels vs renewables, etc. – when we get down to basics, must have food or … we’ll parish. While this feels like a “huge major issue that a reader of this blog can’t really influence” … after reading the report, let’s see what D might suggest.

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Climate Change Threatens

Earth’s Major Crops, Study Finds

By: Michael Riojas

Edited by Chris McDermott

EcoWatch

March 7, 2025

With global average temperatures expected to continue to rise in the coming decades, scientists have projected that warming will significantly harm global agriculture as it weakens crop yields and disrupts food production. Now, new research finds that warming will disrupt many of Earth’s major crops and harm global crop diversity.

The study, conducted by researchers at Aalto University in Finland and published in the journal Nature Food, analyzed 30 of the world’s most important crops and modeled how climate change is likely to affect their safe climatic space under different potential global warming scenarios.

The researchers found that crops growing at lower latitudes, or closer to the equator, will be hardest hit as those areas continue to get hotter and more arid.

Nature Food

Speaking about global crop diversity, Matti Kummu, the senior author who oversaw the study, said diversity will only decline as temperatures rise. He told EcoWatch on a video call …

“If we go beyond two degrees of warming, there are

really, really drastic impacts on both the diversity

and the available crops, especially in the tropics and

equatorial region, where it’s already very vulnerable.”

Sara Heikonen, the study’s lead author, said in a press release …

“The loss of diversity means that the range of

food crops available for cultivation could de-

crease significantly in certain areas. That

would reduce food security and make it more

difficult to get adequate calories and protein.”

For each of the 30 crops, the researchers established their “safe climatic space,” which can be likened to a Goldilocks zone of optimal growth, using average precipitation, aridity and temperature. Then, the researchers applied four different projected warming conditions for four scenarios: at 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.

As warming increases, the researchers found, the safe climatic space for crops tends to move farther and farther away from the equator, and if warming goes beyond 1.5 degrees, it could threaten “up to half” of the world’s crops at lower latitudes, according to a press release.

The findings also beg environmental justice concerns. Because equatorial nations tend to be poorer than countries at higher latitudes, the countries and people least responsible for climate change would pay the highest price with fewer resources to adapt.

Heikonen said it’s already at around 1.5 to 2 degrees of warming …

“The negative effects are mostly concentrated on

the equatorial region. It depends on the region of

course, but 25% of the current production might

already be at risk even at the lower warm levels,

whereas up here in the North or in the southern

parts of the Southern Hemisphere, the negative

effects are not that pronounced.

“In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This is a

big threat for food security, because in these areas,

the population is growing rapidly still, and food sup-

ply is already insufficient in some of these places.”

Nature Food

The researchers call for broad mitigation steps to avoid the worst of the consequences on food systems. Heikonen said …

“Although climate change will be difficult

to just adapt to, we also need to mitigate

climate change, but there are things that

can be done to support the current produc-

tion even in the most severely impacted areas.

“For example, choosing these kind of under-

utilized traditional local crops that might

be more climate resilient, or developing new

plant varieties, and then we could develop

the agriculture management practice such

as irrigation and fertilization, and then

there are these more regenerative agri-

culture practices such as agroforestry.”

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Agriculture is not in an area of any expertise for me.  However, in our Garden Atrium community we do have a few who do some gardening.  We water when the crops need it, and have rainwater in our cisterns during dry spells.  When we harvest some crops, the veggies are both nutritious and very tasteful. D has much more to say than I do …

“Global warming is here. As this article shows, climate change is impacting food production. Food production is complicated.   It is many times grown in one area and shipped to another.  In a lot of cases, different foods are combined to make a meal. So, in thinking about foods, we are going to simplify some of our thoughts.

“Certain areas of the world have traditional crops which are easy to grow. If those crops are threatened, specifically in places where those crops are not shipped, there may need for food to be, in the short term, given to these communities – such as sub-Saharan Africa.

“In the long term … some crops must be identified that can be easily grown in these areas.  For example …

“When cotton was grown in the southern United States, it took out too many nutrients from the soil. George Washington Carver wanted to recommend other crops that could be grown in the depleted soil.  After years of experimentation he found peanuts to be the solution.

)“Then, of course, he had to figure out what to do with all those peanuts! )

“We give this example to show it was not an overnight solution.  But – a given area may need to identify crops that can be grown in the new climatic conditions.

“We would also recommend that people grow vegetables in their own garden, if at all possible.  The reason we’re suggesting this is that for certain varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers and corn, as examples, some varieties will grow better than others in your garden.  If you aren’t sure which are best, ask other gardeners or someone at a local gardening shop about which vegetables and varieties are proving best to grow in your area.

“The other place is a farmer’s market.  If you can talk to the farmer and find out what crops they’re having success with. With climate change, specific vegetables we can grow may change, but our belief is …

“There will be necessary adjustments, but then … there will be food.”