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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] High global food prices said foretaste of climate shocks
  • Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:15:15 -0700


High global food prices said foretaste of climate shocks
Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:01am GMT
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFLDE7291Q020110311
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

* New commission formed to look at climate-food links
* Climate change could worsen price spikes

OSLO, March 11 (Reuters) - Leaps in food prices linked to drought in Brazil
or floods in Australia may be a foretaste of ever greater shocks to be caused
by climate change, according to a commission named on Friday to find ways to
fix the problems.

The international group of 13 experts will try to come up with ideas in the
next 10 months to help agriculture cope with global warming, blamed by the
U.N. panel of climate experts mainly on mankind's emissions of greenhouse
gases.

John Beddington, Britain's chief scientific adviser who will chair the
commission, said it would advise governments on issues such as U.N. climate
negotiations and in preparing an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in mid-2012.

"Extreme weather like the droughts in Russia, China and Brazil and the
flooding in Pakistan and Australia have contributed to a level of food price
volatility we haven't seen since the oil crisis of 40 years ago," he said in
a statement.

"Unfortunately, this could be just a taste of things to come because in the
next few decades the build-up of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere
could greatly increase the risk of droughts, flooding, pest infestation and
water scarcity for agriculture systems already under tremendous stress," he
added.

World food prices hit a record high last month, according to the United
Nations [ID:nLDE70POU8]. High food prices are adding to poverty and are a
factor in triggering uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt which have spread across
the Arab world.

The poorest farmers in sub-Saharan Africa may be among those who have most at
stake.

"I think that Africa has the most to gain by taking some very simple
measures," Judi Wakhungu, executive director of the African Center for
Technology Studies in Kenya and a member of the commission, told Reuters.

Past recommendations have included more research into drought- and
flood-resistant crops and a shift to more ecological forms of farming that
use fewer oil-dependent fertilisers and pesticides.

Wakhungu said the world had failed to reform farming despite a string of past
reports outlining risks of climate change. The commission would take a
different line, telling governments what to do rather than merely outlining
options.

"... we will try as much as possible to be policy prescriptive," she said.

The commission comprises experts from Australia, Brazil, Bangladesh, Britain,
China, Ethiopia, France, Kenya, India, Mexico, South Africa, the United
States and Vietnam.

For Reuters latest environment blogs, click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/




  • [Livingontheland] High global food prices said foretaste of climate shocks, Tradingpost, 03/11/2011

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