Australians are already paying more for meat, bread, dairy and fruit because climate change is disrupting food supply chains, according to a new report from Farmers for Climate Action.
The national organisation of 7,000 farmers and leaders in the agricultural sector has today released Fork in the Road: the impacts of climate change on our food supply, by Stephen Bartos.
Mr Bartos is an internationally recognised expert who authored a report for the federal government in 2012 examining resilience in the Australian food supply chain.
Disruption worsening
Farmers for Climate Action CEO Fiona Davis said, ‘The report shows climate change is already disrupting every part of the food supply chain, from extreme heat and lack of water on farms to food packing facilities, transport links and the cost of farmers accessing insurance, finance and fertiliser.
‘As Australia heats further, these impacts will grow and consumers will pay more for food. More lost food, less grass for farmers’ livestock to eat, less water and less days to transport livestock – which cannot be transported in extreme heat – mean consumers pay more for food,’ said Ms Davis.
‘It also means we’re increasing the risk of food shortages in Australia. Getting produce off farm and into supermarkets, and ultimately Aussie homes becomes difficult or impossible to deliver when multiple events coincide,’ she said.
‘We saw this earlier this year in northern and central Australia early this year when record floods cut off roads and rail links during the COVID pandemic.
‘Right now our thoughts are with people impacted by the Queensland and northern New South Wales floods as they grapple with the flood response, while also trying to secure essential food supplies.’
Urgent action needed
Fiona Davis concluded by saying, ‘We need to act quickly to make our supply chains more robust, but ultimately to address the key driver of these difficulties, we need deep emissions cuts this decade to protect our farmers and our food supply chain.’
The report’s author Stephen Bartos added, ‘Australians take it for granted that food will always be available. Climate change disrupts this. It creates and amplifies risks all the way through the supply chain, from farm to warehouse to supermarket shelves.
‘Some farmers have already had to sell and shift to areas with more reliable rainfall which raises the issue of stranded assets, as packing houses and processors set up in specific regions where specific produce is currently grown such as dairy processing factories.’
It’s not the money printer going burrrr
It’s cow farts that cause inflation.
Sanctioning one of the major wheat producing countries while it invades the another major wheat producing country doesn’t drive up global wheat prices incentivizing the export of all our wheat and driving up local prices.
It’s cow farts.
Cutting off a major supplier of oil causing oil to go up to $120 a barrel so that middle eastern oil producers are finally back in the black and have no interest in uping production to drop the price back to the unprofitable levels they have been during running global lockdowns, doesn’t cause transport problems.
Of course not, it’s cow farts.
Pay no attention to the geopolitical situation, global economy, financial system, and supply chain choas.
Just give us more money to make faulty computer models of cow farts!
I’m glad Chris commented above. This a a spin article. At least reference the percentage gain attributed or contributing, if not dominant economic factors. Seems misleading and agenda.
The planned siphoning of our wealth the billions wasted on a so called vaccine that doesn’t work and the decimation of our economy over the last two years could not be the cause of our grief added to that insane so called climate policies all ensured this orchestrated and forced Global Reset that profits the global oligarchs and bludgeons the middle class backbone of society into oblivion. This woman is a fool but one of far too many, but if blaming the climate doesn’t fly can always blame Putin for our self destructive stupidity.
Chris, Jonah & Anna, are you all just bots?
Or Clive’s disciples having a practice spray?
Either way you’re all way off target and off the planet – not even a basic comprehension of the article, even less so of the report it’s referring to. Maybe google it and try to have a think. It’s not difficult. Nor is giving your full real name