Agri-Food Economic Systems suggests, as the global food situation continues to tighten, countries advantaged by climate change have an opportunity to specialize to feed those increasingly threatened by food insecurity.A Policy Concepts Paper, released by Agri-Food Economic Systems, reviews the anticipated effects of climate change on agriculture, evidence to date of changes that are occurring and calls for a shift in policy direction.
Research Lead Dr. Al Mussell says data from Environment and Climate Change Canada indicates Canada is getting warmer and wetter however, rather than focussing on adapting to those changing conditions, policy makers have prioritised mitigating the effects of climate change.
Quote-Dr. Al Mussell-Agri-Food Economic Systems:
With mitigation, if you get into measures that farmers take to mitigate emissions that end up reducing yields or otherwise encumbering their agricultural system, in a world where elsewhere, especially closer to the equator, where the temperature has gone up and it's drier and it has very much adversely affected their agricultural system, the worry is that while you've got scarcity of food in the world you probably want to be pretty careful about possibly impairing your agriculture system in the name of mitigating the emissions.We have to tread pretty lightly here because, at the end of the day, Canada is about one and a half percent of the greenhouse gas emissions but the way I calculate it, where you look at staplized agricultural products, we're about five and a half percent of the net exports.Those net exports are needed in a hungry world and we think that mitigation would weaken your ability or capacity to export food to where it's needed.
Dr. Mussell suggests Canadian agriculture needs to focus on adapting to climate change in a manner that will help sustain food security in the world.
The Policy Concepts Paper can be accessed at agrifoodecon.ca.
Source : Farmscape.ca