Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-5 (section)

=== FAQ 5.1: How is climate change (already) affecting people’s ability to have enough nutritious food? ===

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''Climate change has already made feeding the world’s people more difficult. Climate-related hazards have become more common, disrupting the supply of crops, meat and fish. Rapid changes in weather patterns have put financial strain on producers, while also raising prices and limiting the choices and quality of produce available to consumers.''

Most of our food comes from crops, livestock, aquaculture and fisheries. Global food supply increased dramatically in the last century, but ongoing climate change has begun to slow that growth, reducing the gains that would have been expected without climate change. Regionally, negative effects are apparent in regions closer to the equator, with some positive effects further north and south.

Climate impacts are also negatively affecting the quality of produce, from changes in micronutrient content to texture, colour and taste changes that reduce marketability. With warmer and more humid condition, many food pests thrive, food decays more quickly, and food contains more toxic compounds produced by fungi and bacteria.

Warming of the oceans has reduced potential fish catch. The increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has led to ocean acidification, which is already impacting the production of farmed fish and shellfish. Changes in local climate have forced producers to shift to new locations, changing what they grow or where they work (e.g., pole-ward shifting fishing grounds).

Climate hazards have increased over the past 50 years and are the major cause of sudden losses of production (food production shocks). Food shocks occur following droughts, heatwaves, floods, storms and outbreaks of climate-related pests and combine to cause multiplying impacts. Climate hazards sometimes disrupt food storage and transport, which impairs the food supply.

All of these negative impacts can lead to increased food prices, and reduced income for producers and retailers as there are fewer products to sell. Together, these impacts threaten to reduce the supply of varied, nutrient-rich foods to poor populations that already suffer ill health.

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'''Figure FAQ5.1.1 |''' ''' Trends in food production shocks in different food supply sectors from 1961 to 2013 (Cottrell et al.''' ''', 2019).''' The red lines in the time series are the annual shock frequency, and the dashed line is the decadal mean.

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