World's farmers won't be able to keep up with climate change

image via New Scientist

June 18, 2025, 4:00 PM

• •Climate change will reduce the supply of most staple crops despite farmers’ best efforts to adapt.
• •Each degree Celsius of warming will reduce the food available per person by about 121 kilocalories per day by the end of the century.
• •Higher temperatures will lead to steep losses for all crops except rice.
• •The largest projected crop losses don’t occur in low-income countries, but in the relatively wealthy breadbaskets of the world.
• •Huge uncertainties remain, including the extent of future climate change and how the extraordinarily complex global food system will respond.

A new global analysis indicates that climate change will significantly reduce the yield of most staple crops, despite farmers' attempts to adapt. The study projects that each degree Celsius of warming will decrease the food available per person by about 121 kilocalories per day. For all crops except rice, rising temperatures are expected to cause substantial losses, with global corn yields potentially dropping by up to 28% by the end of the century under high-warming scenarios. Surprisingly, the most significant crop losses are projected in wealthy regions like the US Midwest and Europe, not in low-income countries.

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