Food and the Environment

The issue of global warming on food production has many facets; not all of them detrimental. The media has publicized the more negative scenarios, and has given little merit to the positive ones. The general population would undoubtedly be amazed upon discovering information that would shed light on the possible positive effects of global warming on food production.
As stated by the United Nations Environment Program, “. . . there may be benefits for agriculture in many temperate zones, where the length of the growing period will increase, costs of overwintering livestock will fall, crop yields may improve, and forests may grow faster” (Crop Production). Also, shifting growth zones due to rising temperatures will create new regions (mostly North/South pole-ward and the higher elevations) where individual crops thrive as a direct result of specific climate conditions. Another benefit is the increase of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere due to global warming. This creates “carbon fertilization”, which increases photosynthesis and results in increased net production of certain crops, particularly wheat and rice. Global warming could very well have beneficial effects for certain portions of the world.
However, these anticipated beneficial effects would come at the expense of other agricultural regions of the world. There are massive impacts from global warming projected for tropical agricultural regions. Scientists predict there could be increased rainfall variability, higher incidences of catastrophic weather events, and decreased yields in crops. Many crops grown in the tropics and more arid regions of the world are sensitive to temperature changes. Coffee is one of these crops, and it “. . . is the first, second or third largest export crop for 26 mostly poor countries in Africa and Central America”(Crop Production). Rice is another crop that would be affected by even a moderate increase in temperature. Rice grown today in tropical regions is cultivated very close to maximum temperature tolerances. Recent studies have shown that rice yields in the Philippines are reduced 10 percent for each one degree Celsius increase in night-time temperatures during the growing season.
Another disturbance caused by global warming is related to the possible rise in the oceans of the world. This could create a surging of salt water in low-lying agricultural areas, with large areas of fertile, productive land lost to the sea. For regions that are not permanently flooded, there is the danger of reduced soil and water quality from increased salinity after tidal surges have receded.
All things considered, the forecasted beneficial effects of global warming are outweighed by the negative effects predicted.

Work Cited

“Crop Production in a Changing Climate”, United Nations Environment Program, GEO Global Environment Outlook, GEO Year Book 2006, http://www.unep.org/geo/yearbook/yb2006/063.asp