Climate change and food security in British Columbia

Most of these indicate that adverse effects on the yields of many staple crops are already evident and that yields in the future will likely decline.5 Under the most pessimistic scenarios, parts of Africa and Asia face reductions in agricultural output of up to 30% of 1990 levels by 2080.6 However, relatively few investigations have been undertaken on the impact of climate change on the yields of [...] For example, changes in the size and structure of BC’s population will impact the demand for food grown in BC as will changes in demand from overseas and the development of new technologies for food production and transport. [...] However, there has been a marked decline in the quantities of field grown vegetables in BC (except for potatoes) over the past quarter century and a stunningly rapid growth in greenhouse vegetable production.9 The greenhouse vegetable industry in BC is mainly located in the Lower Mainland and is almost entirely geared to the production, for export, of tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers. [...] For example, it is clear that the long term decline in milk consumption, underway in Canada, and in most other developed European nations, over the last 40 years, has been mainly due to a steady decline in the birth rate resulting in an ever shrinking proportion of infants and young children in our population.13 It is also clear that the concomitant rise in cheese and consumption of other dairy pr [...] In the period from 2003 to 2005 average yearly costs of these types of disasters rose to 86 million dollars per year in the province.16 The long term changes in temperature and rainfall associated with climate change are likely to significantly affect agricultural production in BC and the food security of its residents.