soy

Climate change and hunger

July 14, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Worldwide, people are producing more food than ever, but most of that production is concentrated into only a handful of places. For example, fully one third of the world’s wheat and barley exports come from Ukraine and Russia. Across the globe, several major crop-growing regions, including some in the United States, are heading towards sharp drops in harvests as a result of climate change.

These forthcoming changes are not only bad news for farmers, but they are also bad news for everyone who eats. According to a new study published in the journal Nature, it is going to become harder and more expensive to feed a more crowded and hungrier world.

Specifically, under a moderate greenhouse gas emissions scenario, six key staple crops will see an 11.2% decline by the end of the century, compared to a world without warming. The largest drops won’t be in the poorer, more marginal farmlands, but rather in places that are major food producers. These are places like the US Midwest that has long benefited by having both good soil and ideal weather for raising crops like corn and soy.

When the weather is not ideal, it can drastically reduce agricultural productivity. Extreme weather in many places has already damaged crops. Flooding has destroyed rice in Tajikistan, cucumbers in Spain, and bananas in Australia. Severe storms in the US this spring caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage to crops.

As the climate changes, rising average temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are likely to diminish yields and extreme weather events like droughts and floods could wipe out harvests more often. As climate change intensifies, agriculture is the most weather-affected sector of the economy.

**********

Web Links

How climate change will worsen hunger

Photo, posted may 20, 2011, courtesy of Lance Cheung / USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Chocolate And Deforestation | Earth Wise

February 14, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The world consumes 7.5 million tons of chocolate a year. Americans spend an average of $145 a year per capita on chocolate. And we are not even the world leaders. The Swiss eat an average of 22 pounds per person and the overall European chocolate market is the world’s largest.

A market valued over $100 billion a year is bound to have its issues for the environment, human rights, and other social issues, and chocolate is no exception. The global cacao industry grapples with problems with child labor, poverty, deforestation, sustainability and other environmental issues. The response of companies across the industry varies greatly. A website called chocolatescorecard.com keeps track of how many in the industry are doing.

Recently, lawmakers in the European Union have been putting together a landmark legislative package that addresses deforestation risks in the supply chains of a number of commodities including cattle, timber, rubber, soy, palm oil, and cacao. The proposed law restricts companies that import cacao and sell chocolate to import only what doesn’t destroy or degrade forests.

Voluntary promises by big chocolate makers to save forests in major cacao-producing countries (like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Indonesia, and Nigeria) are difficult to keep. Farmers sell to brokers who sell to trading companies that then sell to chocolate makers. Tracing the origins of chocolate is difficult. Ultimately, fairly compensating farmers is the only way they are likely comply with deforestation regulations and there are unfortunately many pockets to fill before that is likely to happen.

It is up to consumers to encourage companies to do the right thing by making their buying choices appropriately.

**********

Web Links

The Forest in Your Chocolate

The Chocolate Scorecard

Photo, posted January 12, 2010, courtesy of Lee McCoy via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Record Levels Of Deforestation In The Amazon | Earth Wise

March 25, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering more than 2.5 million square miles. It’s home to 10% of all known species in the world. The Amazon rainforest’s biodiversity is so rich that scientists are still discovering new plant and animal species today.

The Amazon rainforest absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere, making it a key part of mitigating climate change. The vast rainforest acts as what’s known as a carbon sink. Simply put, a carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. But as trees in the Amazon disappear, so does the ability of the rainforest to absorb carbon dioxide.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest remains a major problem. According to satellite data from the Brazilian government, the number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation figures for the same month last year. Approximately 166 square miles of land was deforested in January alone, which is five times greater than what was lost in January, 2021.

Cattle ranching – both for beef and for leather – remains the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Trees in the Amazon are also cut down for their wood, as well as to clear the land in order to grow food crops, such as soy, sugar, and oil palm.

Many companies have pledged to achieve “net zero” deforestation in their supply chains over the years, but most have not lived up to the commitment.

Deforestation is not only a major driver of climate change, but it’s also the leading cause of species extinction. Preserving the Amazon rainforest is vital.

**********

Web Links

Amazon deforestation: Record high destruction of trees in January

Greenpeace calls on fast food giants to take a stand against Bolsonaro’s Amazon destruction

Hundreds of Companies Promised to Help Save Forests. Did They?

Photo, posted July 14, 2018, courtesy of Alexander Gerst via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Crop Diversity

March 22, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A study at the University of Toronto suggests that on a global scale, we are growing more of the same kinds of crops, and this diminishing diversity presents major challenges for agricultural sustainability.

In some places, for example here in North America, crop diversity has actually increased. Back in the 1960s, North Americans grew about 80 crops. Now there are 93.

But on a global scale, more of the same kinds of crops are being grown on much larger scales. Just four crops – soybeans, wheat, rice and corn – occupy nearly 50% of the world’s entire agricultural lands. The remaining 152 crops cover the rest. Large industrial farms often grow one crop species – usually just a single genotype – across thousands of acres of land.

This decline in global crop diversity is problematic in several ways. On a cultural level, it threatens regional food sovereignty. If regional crop diversity is threatened, it makes it more difficult for people to eat or afford foods that are culturally significant to them.

On an ecological level, the dominance by a few genetic lineages of crops makes the agricultural system increasingly susceptible to pests or diseases. The deadly fungus that is threatening the world’s banana plantations is a prime current example. The Irish potato famine in the 19^th century is a tragic historical example.

As large industrial-sized farms in Asia, Europe and the Americas start to look more and more alike, the dangers of large monocultures of crops that are commercially valuable will only increase. It will be important for global governments to consider the impact of policies that affect the diversity of the agricultural system and its sustainability in an increasingly hungry world.

**********