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Experts warn of long-term climate change impacts on food
Experts working on a food security report for the United Nations warn climate change will cause disruptions to global food supplies beyond the U.S. drought this year, according to Reuters.
The researchers note in a forthcoming chapter for the U.N.’s 2014 report on global warming that heat waves and massive downpours will become more common if nations fail to address climate change. That will make food supplies more unpredictable, which could cause volatile prices.
"It has not been properly recognized yet that we are dealing with a food system here. There is a whole chain that is also going to be affected by climate change," John Porter, a professor of the University of Copenhagen, was quoted as saying in the Reuters story.
The U.N. and global leaders have paid particular attention in recent weeks to U.S. biofuels policy as drought ravages corn supplies. They say the country needs to free up more of its corn for food to combat rising prices that heavily affect poor nations.
The United States, a major international corn exporter, reserves 40 percent of its corn acreage for biofuels production. U.S. corn has hit record highs of above $8 per bushel this summer.
Lawmakers, along with livestock allies on Capitol Hill, have joined those calls asking EPA to waive or end the rule. They explain EPA can do so when meeting the corn ethanol mandate causes severe economic or environmental harm.
Governors from four states — Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina — have filed a waiver request with EPA to get out of the rule.
Biofuels industry groups have called the “food versus fuel” logic erroneous. They maintain corn speculation, rather than the corn ethanol rule, has led to skyrocketing prices.
On top of that, the groups say EPA can only waive the corn ethanol rule if refiners will have difficulty meeting blending targets. Plenty of flexibility exists in the program to ensure that will not be a problem this year, they have said.
