Scientists are predicting there could be a global food
crisis in this century if climate change continues unabated. VOA's
Jeff Swicord reports.
Buddy Hance has been farming on land south of Washington, D.C.,
his entire life. He is also deputy secretary of agriculture for the
state of Maryland.
"The corn we are harvesting will go to feed the poultry industry
on the Eastern Shore of Maryland," he said.
But this year's crop of corn is falling far short of normal
yields. "We have had a lot of difficulties in the weather in this
crop," added Hance. "We were very dry earlier."
Maryland and much of the eastern United States was in a severe
drought all summer long. Hance says his normal yield is 260
bushels of corn per hectare. This year, he estimates he will
only yield 30 bushels.
"The kernels are a little smaller," he says. "You know, the
cob is a lot shorter than it would usually be. Normally the
cob would be ten or eleven inches [25 to 27 centimeters] long and
fatter. There is less rows of corn on this cob then there
would be in a good year."
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| Heat wave means more
drought |
There is no scientific evidence to
link this year's drought to climate change. However, the
drought shows how a change in the weather can affect food
supply.
A study released by the Center
for Global Development shows that climate change could cause
global food production to decline from 5 to 20 percent by the year
2080, and even higher in some countries.
"Something like 30 to 40 percent in India for example, and
something like 20 percent or more in Africa and Latin America," said
study author William Cline.
Maryland's Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United
States. More than 250 species of fish and shellfish live in
these waters. Some, like blue crabs and stripped bass, are
highly prized food sources. U.S. government statistics show that
food yields from the bay have been in decline in recent years,
mostly due to water pollution and over fishing.
At the Blackwater
National Wildlife Refuge on the bay's Eastern Shore, there
is evidence that climate change is affecting the spawning and
nursery areas for finfish and crabs. More than 3,000 hectares
of marshland are now underwater due to sea-level rise.
Dixie Birch with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says studies
have been done that link the sea level rise to climate change.
"The marsh areas, the wetland areas, are important to provide
habitat for everything all the way up to the birds and even humans,
because we consume the crabs and the fish that are taken out of
these waters," she said.
Birch says the sea level in the bay will continue to rise, and
that will further erode the bay's food production. "We would lose
the numbers of blue crabs and the fishery resources the folks depend
on like flounder and snapper and other species," she adds.
Buddy Hance says farmers in the U.S. will be able to adapt to
climate change. That may not be the case with other
subsistence farming communities in the developing world. The
Center for Global Development says food production will need to
increase in the next half century to keep up with the rise in
population.
"There are crops that you could grow that don't have the water
requirements that corn has - hay and sorghum and soybeans," he
says. "And you learn to adjust to things."