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Finding what to eat is a problem humans have faced since the beginning of time. In fact, food has been the root cause of most conflicts to this date: from the Roman Empire, when Cicero invaded Egypt to control the country\u2019s grain production and feed his population, to last year\u2019s Arab Spring conflicts, involving Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, which, among other reasons, were linked to the rising price of food. [i] Climate change, on the other hand, is a recent phenomenon, which may be traced back to the Industrial Revolution, but whose\u00a0true consequences have started to emerge, at least more radically, in the past few years. For instance, whereas average global surface temperatures rose by 0.9\u00b0 C from 1880 to 2015, IPCC\u2019s most recent reports project increases of another 3 to 7\u00b0 C in the next 85 years. [ii] These projections include a wide range and are still subject to reviews, since \u00a0the consequences of our rapid industrialization have yet to be completely measured and understood. Addressing these two concerns \u2013 food supply and climate change \u2013 and, more specifically, the interconnection between them, is Cargill, the #1 agribusiness trading company in the world and United States\u2019 largest privately-held enterprise. [iii]<\/p>\n
First, it is interesting to note that the consequences of climate change on food production are not necessarily negative. On the positive side, rising temperatures may lead the way to double or even triple cropping within a one-year span and to the expansion of the agricultural frontier into northern latitudes, generating economic activity in once inhospitable environments. [iv]<\/p>\n
Cargill, however, has put extra effort into diagnosing and combating the negative impacts of climate change. Increasing temperatures and variability on precipitation patterns have led to net negative effects on crop yields (quantity of food produced per unit of land). Furthermore, the exponentially-increasing rate of change poses a serious threat to human\u2019s adaptive capacity. If climate change continues at this pace, we may not be able to duly adapt. [iv]<\/p>\n
Cargill has taken a series of measures to both adapt and combat the consequences of climate change on food production. Regarding adaptation, the company invests heavily in innovation and advocates for open borders, aiming to enable a free flow of food from areas where there is too much to others where there is not enough. [iv]<\/p>\n
As for direct measures to combat climate change, two of the company\u2019s initiatives deserve special attention:<\/p>\n