US (AZ): Study shows effect of climate change on food, energy and water

With the world waiting for President Donald Trump’s executive order on climate change, an Arizona State University study on Arizona agriculture shows the potential effect of a warming planet on the state and the region by examining the food-energy-water nexus.

Disruptions from temperature increases could drop crop yields, require more irrigation and cause ripples, including increased food prices, throughout the Southwest, according to the paper from Andrew Berardy and Mikhail Chester of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU.

“One of the main things to take away from this is there’s a connection between energy and water in agriculture, and that connection is vulnerable to climate change,” said Berardy, who focuses on sustainable food systems.

“As temperatures increase,” he said, “as there’s more variability in rainfall, and less rainfall overall, these things are going to have cascading impacts, not only impacting farms and agriculture and our food system in general, but the energy and water systems that supply the necessities to grow food.”

For major Arizona crops, according to Berardy and Chester’s research, yields could drop more than 12 percent per 1 degree Celsius. It also could require increased irrigation of about 2 percent per degree, according to the study.

Disruptions would be felt locally and across the Southwest, including California, Nevada and Texas, affecting food supply chains to several major U.S. cities, the research shows.

Read more at ASU Now