Two newly published studies highlight the risk that climate change could lead to the failure of corn crops around the world and reduce the nutritional content of vegetables, reports InsideClimate News. While looking at different subjects, the studies “reiterate the prospects of food shocks and malnutrition with unchecked global warming.”
Corn is the most widely grown grain in the world and is used primarily as feed for food-bearing animals. Researchers said yields could vary significantly depending on how high global temperatures rise. If global warming is held to 2 degrees C by the end of this century, the goal of the Paris climate agreement, U.S. corn production would be reduced by 18 percent, said the research paper. If temperatures rise by 4 degrees C, the current trajectory, U.S. production would be cut in half.
“While those numbers are pretty dramatic, the researchers find that the chances of the top-producing regions suffering extreme yield losses at the same time rises, too,” said InsideClimate News.
The other study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said vegetable yields could fall 35 percent by the end of the century due to increased ozone, increased salinity and decreased water availability that would accompany climate change.