Climate Change and Food Security
Hunger has been a challenge for human beings for as long as they have existed. Attempts to deal with hunger have been made severally although problems have been encountered. In the year 2013, Wheeler and Von Braun researched the impact of climate change on the attempts to eradicate hunger in the world. Climate change has been seen as a potential obstacle to creating a hunger-free world. The impacts of climate change on crop productivity have been directly associated with a world-wide food crisis. The lack of sustainable food production systems as been as a result of climate change. The article by Wheeler and Von Braun addresses the question of the extent to which climate change should be blamed for the current state of food security in the world.
The article by Wheeler and Von Braun has brought forward an association between food security, climate change, and bias in the research on food security. Food security is defined according to the standards set by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and is generally associated with how the world’s population can comfortably be provided with food. Food security also takes into consideration the quality of food in question as well as the ease of access by individuals. According to the researchers, the world is facing food insecurity because a large number of people are unable to access quality food easily at all times. Climate change comes in as an explanation for the current food insecurity faced in the world. Generally, the article discusses the current state of global warming that has negatively impacted crop production, leading to insufficient food supply. However, the research on climate change and food security are found to suffer from significant bias. The researchers report that analysis has been based on the direct impacts of warming on crop production at the expense of the indirect effects such as inadequate or excessive rains.
Moreover, food access, availability, and utilization are given an overview of the article. The availability of food defines how the world population can access food at any moment, while access explains how easily the food can be availed. Generally, food access narrows down to the household and individual level, although it is indirectly connected to climate change. The utilization of food is also indirectly affected by climate change since it is associated with how the available food can be converted into nutrients. Food utilization relies on the sanitation and health sector, and climate change has been associated with negative impacts on the sectors. Moreover, the article makes recommendations after identifying a research gap and associated food instability in the world.
Climate is a crucial determinant of market prices. Therefore, climate change has been reported by the research as having an impact on food stability. The researchers recommend that policy-makers should consider serious investment in the mitigation of climate-related risks to save the population from food insecurity. However, the researchers discovered that the literature on the impacts of climate change on food security is not sufficient, and further research is needed for more knowledge.
In sum, the article by Wheeler and Von Braun addresses the question of the extent to which climate change should be blamed for the current state of food security in the world. Both direct and indirect impacts of climate change on food security are addressed in the article. Generally, the researchers come up with recommendations on the efforts that are required to tame the food crisis.
Reference
Wheeler, T., & Von Braun, J. (2013). Climate change impacts on global food security. Science, 341(6145), 508-513.