Food prices driven up by global warming, study shows

Guardian : Agricultural practices evolved over a period of about 11 000 years of stable climate, but now they will need to adapt to a changing climate and an increase in global population, writes Damian Carrington for the Guardian. In a recent study , David Lobell, Wolfram Schlenker, and Justin Costa-Roberts found that global productivity of crop plants has dropped, increasing food prices by 18.9% over recent decades. The drop in productivity was not due to changes in rainfall; rather, higher global temperatures caused dehydration, prevented pollination, and slowed photosynthesis. The researchers used computer models to separate the effects of climate change from natural variations in weather and other factors. Between 1980 and 2008, wheat production was 5.5% lower than it would have been without global warming, and corn production was 3.8% lower. Some countries’ production dropped far more; Russia lost 15% of its potential wheat crop, and Brazil, Mexico, and Italy all suffered above-average losses.