Imagine you are a farmer in Somalia, one of the poorest countries in the world. Your crops are doing great, but one day you wake up to find most of them are dried up. You look at the coarse, cracked dirt and realize it was a drought. The ground dried up and your plants died due to the heat and lack of water. You're shocked, as this is the second one this month. You decide to go shopping for food since your family can’t eat dried up vegetables. When you grab your money and make your way down to the general foods store, you hear another farmer talking about how her plants dried up too. You continue into the store. You look at the prices of the foods to see if you can afford them, but they’re higher than usual and there's not as much food either. You settle for some beans and a corn cob,  as it’s enough to feed you, your wife, and your child, at least for today and tomorrow. You also buy some seeds to plant, hoping the drought has weakened enough tomorrow. The next day, you plant the seeds and hope they grow without problems. This scenario is an example of  more frequent droughts caused by climate change, which has a huge effect on the world of agriculture. The increased amount of things such as greenhouse gasses, which are gasses that trap heat in the atmosphere, are causing climate change, which causes more frequent bad weather. Lowered food supply means less and less people will be able to get enough food to feed themselves or their family. If solutions to climate change aren’t made soon, more people will not be able to obtain food.

Climate change is warming the earth and changing weather patterns. This has many impacts, but most importantly is access to food. The impact climate change has on food access is a huge problem, especially in poorer countries. The World Bank, an international financial institution, says, ”Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem. Together with forestry and land use change, it generates up to 29% of total GHG emissions… Only 3% of climate finance has been going to agriculture. This needs to increase to provide farmers with the resources they need to adopt climate-smart green technologies” (World Bank). GHG refers to greenhouse gasses, which include methane, water vapor, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide. The amount of money the government spends on agriculture to adopt climate friendly technology isn’t enough to accomplish the intended goal. This can make certain parts of the world lose lots of food. The USDA, or the United States Department of Agriculture, says, “Once new technologies are developed, whether they are new cultivars or GM crops, new water- and soil-management strategies and other agronomic practices, or changes in crop species planted, such technologies must be proactively managed and directed toward targeted regions and situations in low-income countries” (USDA). Newly developed technology that can help grow crops and food even with the newly harsher weather should be directed to poorer countries or places in the world that need them. The United States government should make and send climate-smart technologies that reduce emissions and make farming with harsher weather caused by climate change easier to other countries, to increase food access across the world, and should also encourage other governments to do the same. 

Climate change has caused many issues including weather changes, which has damaged many farms, lowering the number of food they produce. The lowered food access can also affect world hunger, an already huge problem. According to The World Bank, climate change and “Global warming [are] influencing weather patterns, causing heat waves, heavy rainfall, and droughts. Rising food commodity prices in 2021 were a major factor in pushing approximately 30 million additional people in low-income countries toward food insecurity” (World Bank). This is making growing food and crops harder all over the world, which is a huge problem considering the fact that in some parts of the world it is hard even without harsh weather. There are also too many greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, which is very harmful to the environment. The World Bank says, “Up to a certain point, rising temperatures and CO2 can be beneficial for crops. But rising temperatures also accelerate evapotranspiration from plants and soils, and there must also be enough water for crops to thrive” (World Bank). With the extreme weather, some places are getting too much water, and others don’t get enough. This causes more plants to die, lowering food access. NASA has noticed that, “The year 2020 statistically tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record since record keeping began in 1880” (NASA). Rising temperatures can cause more frequent droughts and plants to heat up and die. This means the food supply is lowered, making it harder to acquire. 

Change in weather patterns has affected access to food, which affects many people across the world, and increases world hunger. World hunger is already a huge problem, but the food shortage caused by climate change will surely make it a bigger problem. The World Bank says that “About 80% of the global population most at risk from crop failures and hunger from climate change are in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, where farming families are disproportionately poor and vulnerable” (World Bank). Since these areas are the most affected, that means that the people and animals that live there will starve. This means people could die along with animals which are also part of the food we eat, making even more people starve. According to The World Bank, “The number of people suffering acute food insecurity increased from 135 million in 2019 to 345 million in 82 countries by June 2022” (World Bank). This means the number of people affected by food insecurity has gone up by 210 million people in just 3 years alone. That is 70 million more people affected each year. Since the amount of food produced is decreasing, the price of food will rise. The World Bank also says that “Rising food commodity prices in 2021 were a major factor in pushing approximately 30 million additional people in low-income countries toward food insecurity” (World Bank). This means not only will food access be lowered, the price of it will also go up, making it harder to get food. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “climate change is likely to diminish food security through production disruptions that lead to local availability of limitations, price increases, and diminished food safety… climate change can affect food availability, access, utilization, and the stability of each of these over time… Food production, transportation, and storage of food will all be insecure” (USDA). Production, storage, and transportation of food are all affected by climate change. This makes it extremely hard to obtain food in certain parts of the world. 

Due to climate change, access to food is decreasing, leaving more people without food. Food security is also lowering due to climate change. The USDA, the federal executive department that is in charge of making and passing laws related to agriculture, states that “food security-the ability to obtain and use sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food-is a fundamental human need. Climate change is very likely to affect global, regional, and local food security by disrupting food availability, decreasing access to food, and making food utilization more difficult” (USDA). The loss of food security and access will soon make the prices for food higher, making it even harder to obtain food. This means the number of people suffering from food access and security loss will definitely rise faster than ever real soon. Since world hunger is already a huge problem today, it will most likely become worse in the near future. The USDA also says that “food security requires that food be simultaneously (1) available—that it exist in a particular place at a particular time, (2) that people can access that food through economic or other means, (3) that people can utilize the food that is available and accessible to them, and (4) that each of these components be stable over time. Constrictions within any of these components can result in food insecurity” (USDA). Climate change, however, is making these components unstable. This is what causes food insecurity. It makes food less available due to its damage on crop fields, causing people to not be able to easily access food, and it raises the prices of the food. The laws of supply and demand can further prove why the prices rise. When the supply of a product is low and the demand is high, the price of the product needs to rise so the supply doesn’t completely run out. When the supply is high and the demand is low, the price needs to be lowered so people see the product as a good deal, and buy it. 

This major decrease in food access is more prominent in poorer parts of the world, which could be prevented if countries helped each other. Since the food supply is low in poorer countries, the price is high, but a good amount of the population cannot afford to buy enough to support their family. As stated by The World Bank, an international development organization that is owned by 187 countries, “the challenge for developing countries is they no longer have an opportunity to develop first in a high carbon-intensive way and then clean up and decarbonize later. They need support today to make investments now to slow a changing climate and enable billions to live safer, more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable lives” (World Bank). This shows that countries need to help each other get through this global problem. This would lower the number of people affected by this food crisis. It would also lower the price of food since supply will rise if countries come together. The World bank also states “the urgency and scale of the challenge requires countries to learn quickly from each other, adapt to their own special circumstances, and be bold in implementing policies that bend the emissions curve and improve livelihoods” (World Bank). If countries don’t help each other soon, the food problem could get way worse. Even more people will be affected and starve. This problem is affecting everyone, so everyone needs to help each other. The World Bank continues by saying “if they are well designed and implemented, the policies countries put in place for low-carbon, resilient growth could also help them address poverty and inequality” (World Bank). If countries have poor policies for climate friendly technologies, they need to improve them immediately. This will help them grow a larger food supply. They will also be able to improve their economy and be able to help other countries.

Due to the increasing problems of climate change, farms all over the world are being damaged, however, one way to solve this is to give more money to the creation of climate-smart technologies to make farming more climate friendly. The money can go towards finding ways to produce food in a more eco-friendly manner. The World Bank says “the way that food is often produced today is a big part of the problem. It’s recently been estimated that the global food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions—second only to the energy sector; it is the number one source of methane and biodiversity loss” (World Bank). The food system produces one third of greenhouse gas emissions. This means we have to use more climate friendly technologies to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. They would be producing little to no emissions so the world will hopefully stop warming. As claimed by the USDA, “climate risks to food security increase as the magnitude and rate of climate change increase. Higher emissions and concentrations of greenhouse gasses are much more likely to have damaging effects than lower emissions and concentrations” (USDA). Higher emissions of these greenhouse gasses have a greater negative effect on crop fields. If we don’t switch to more climate friendly technologies, the amount of emissions will only rise and more crops will be damaged. They will eventually slow or stop the decrease of the availability of food.

In conclusion, climate change has damaged farms all over the world, lowering food access and increasing food prices. It causes bad weather, such as floods, storms, and droughts, to be worse and more common. Its impact on agriculture is more noteworthy in poorer countries, like Burundi and Somalia. One might say a solution is to increase the size and number of farms, but that makes the problem worse, as farms don’t use climate friendly technologies. These climate friendly technologies don’t release Greenhouse gas emissions, instead they use renewable energy. These need to be world wide, so more people can use them, lowering Greenhouse gas emissions. The United States government is able to do this, but hasn’t, even though they have the money and resources. If they don’t, more and more people will die of starvation, and the price will increase. It will also increase Global Warming. The government of the United States should produce more climate friendly technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, send them to other countries, and encourage others to follow.

Works Cited

NASA 

climate.nasa.gov/ 

USDA

usda.gov/oce/energy-and-environment/food-security

World Bank worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2022/10/17/what-you-need-to-know-about-food-security-and-climate-change

World Bank

worldbank.org/en/topic/climatechange/overview