NFU: USDA report on climate change, food security informative

Responding to a recent interagency report on climate change and food security, National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson sent remarks to U.S. Department of Agriculture Chief Economist Robert Johansson, expressing appreciation for the information made available and requesting further information on climate resilience.

“The precise effects of climate change vary dramatically from producer to producer, but they invoke fundamental values shared by NFU members,” Johnson said. “Our policy embodies the organization’s present and historic principles, some of which are threatened by climate change. These principles include domestic and global food security and competitive markets.”

Johnson said the union, with its 200,000 members, will use the information for education and to encourage climate-resiliency policies, though he did request more information on an ongoing trend in the agriculture industry.

“NFU requests more research on the potential link between climate resilience and food-system concentration and consolidation,” Johnson said. “In particular, we are concerned that consolidation and concentration may impair communities’ ability to feed themselves. Local production and processing are increasingly being overtaken by interests of larger scale. At the same time, climate change is worsening the vulnerability of the transportation systems that the dominant food system relies upon for food distribution. Increased reliance on food from distant sources may prove disastrous if extreme-weather events cut off shipping routes.”