Climate change threatens global food security

By James Schultz

The United Nations Environment Program fears the world is heading for a major food crisis if there aren’t drastic changes to the way food is produced and handled around the world. It says climate change, increasing water scarcities, and a rise and spread of invasive pests such as insects, diseases and weeds may substantially reduce crop yields in the future.

Meanwhile, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation says a 70 per cent rise in global food production is needed by 2050 for a growing population tipped to reach nine billion people.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation says Australia is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and stresses the need for effective water management across the nation. The CSIRO has found that parts of Australia have received record low rainfall over the past several years. Its research also suggests that the water scarcity being experienced in southeast Australia began 15 years ago.

Australia experienced its warmest August on record last month amid soaring winter temperatures. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology described it as a “most extraordinary month” with mean temperatures 2.47 degrees Celsius above the long-term average.

The National Farmers’ Federation says these factors have cost Australia 90,000 on-farm jobs and placed entire regions under enormous stress as farm production has plummeted. Many in the agriculture industry are now looking at ways to improve farming practices and reduce water usage, but debate over how best to do this continues. One of the more controversial solutions being discussed is genetically-modified foods.

GM foods or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) are plants or animals that have had their genetic makeup altered to exhibit traits that are not naturally theirs. For example, plant geneticists can isolate a gene responsible for drought tolerance and insert that gene into a different plant. The new genetically-modified plant will then theoretically gain drought tolerance as well.

Complex Issue

The use of GM foods concerns human and animal health, the environment, ethics, and the future needs of the world’s population. But according to professor in biological sciences at the University of Newcastle, Raymond Rose, GM foods are often overlooked when it comes to the climate change debate.

Professor Rose says the development of drought-resistant crops could play a large role in meeting the 70 per cent target set by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. “Climate change and food production are closely connected to plants, and genetic engineering of plants can impact very directly on the food supply,” he says. “If you go across Australia in a drought you’ll see gum trees looking pretty good because they have strategies to deal with that, and now we can have legumes that can potentially deal with that too.”

But Gene Ethics chairperson Scott Kinnear says GM foods are a “magic bullet” which has so far proven ineffective. “Nothing has been successful in terms of crop yield,” he says. “Food security is far more likely to be achieved through a better understanding of soil biology and other factors.”

Mr Kinnear says there are concerns that GMOs could cause the reduced effectiveness of pesticides, gene transfer to non-target species, allergies, and potentially birth defects in humans and animals. “It’s just simply not worth the risk,” he says. “We’re much better to work with the existing seed varieties that have been produced using traditional techniques and work on increasing yields through better management of soils and changing what we grow.”

But Professor Rose says this is a common argument based on lack of understanding. He says there are stringent testing procedures associated with GM foods and various safety measures to prevent harm to humans, animals and the environment. “One of the really big shames is that people can use gene technology every day in medicine to prolong human lives, but when we might prolong a lot more lives on average using it in food, people get worried.”

Testing and Regulation

All genetically modified foods intended for sale in Australia and New Zealand must undergo a safety evaluation by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, an independent government agency. In Australia, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator also oversees the development and environmental release of GMOs under the Gene Technology Act.

According to FSANZ, licences for GMOs will not be issued unless any potential risks can be managed to protect the health and safety of people and the environment. “If the genetic modification causes an unexpected effect in the food, such as increasing its allergenicity or toxicity, it will not be approved. To date, we have identified no safety concerns with any of the GM foods that we have assessed. Other national regulators who have independently assessed the same GM foods have reached the same conclusions.”

According to Scott Kinnear, however, the types of safety testing conducted by FSANZ are woefully inadequate. “We’ve got a regulator that really turns a blind eye,” he says. “It looks at what it wants to look at and ignores what it doesn’t want to see. They don’t do independent research, they simply look at the data presented by the companies themselves and it’s simply just not reliable.” Mr Kinnear says FSANZ has a political position in favour of GM crops that it will always maintain. “I mean look how hard it was to finally reach some degree of acknowledgment that smoking causes harm and it’s still not banned.”

Food Security

Dr Glenn McDonald, senior lecturer at the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide, says food security will be difficult to come by. “I think people on both sides of the argument have a tendency to overstate the benefits and the potential dangers of genetically-modified crops,” he says. “They’re going to be a useful tool in certain areas but they’re not going to allow you to grow crops without water. You’re probably realistically looking at a yield advantage of maybe 10 to 15 per cent at the most.”

Dr McDonald says GM crops are only part of the solution. “Part of the problem has actually been the over-allocation of water resources within the Murray-Darling Basin and the political issues associated with water being distributed amongst different states, many of whom have different priorities.”

National Farmers’ Federation economics and trade manager Charles McElhone agrees. “It’s a combination of a whole realm of issues including drought policy, infrastructure development and building a strong national market for water that recognises and rewards improved efficiencies in that area. All our sectors are acutely dependent on the weather and that includes rainfall, temperatures and frosts. It all has a bearing on every single one of our sectors. You can’t just say GM in isolation is going to be the panacea.”

Dr McDonald says in the long-run, despite the complexity of the problem, he’s confident human ingenuity will prevail. “What happens – and this has been going on ever since agriculture started – is that you get a loss of farmers, but you tend to get the loss of the poorer managers so the agricultural industries tend to sort themselves out. We’ve faced similar types of challenges in the past and they’ve always been overcome.”