The availability, quality, and affordability of food depend on a stable climate and stable socioeconomic factors that affect supply and demand around the world. When disruptions occur, food can become harder to access.
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Food systems are affected by both long-term climatic trends (rising average temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns) and more frequent or intense extremes (including heat waves, drought, wildfire, hurricanes, and heavy rainfall).
By damaging crops, reducing yields, and disrupting supply chains, climate change can affect and cascade across all stages of the food system, from farm to fork.
Survey data show that, globally, people see rising food prices as the second leading way in which they’ve been affected by climate change — a close second to extreme heat (which is worsening due to climate change).
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On the “farm” end of the supply chain, studies show that warming temperature trends across the contiguous U.S. accounted for 19% of national crop insurance losses from 1991-2017.
These costs, which reflect rising damages to agriculture, are borne by taxpayers as an indirect cost of climate change on the food system.
