Climate change causing farms to fall short on tomatoes, almonds, and coffee demand, say scientists

New Delhi, March 17 (IANS) Winds, droughts, and heavy storms are affecting key agricultural regions around the world, causing many farms to fall short of their required product demand, say scientists.

Take the case of tomatoes in Italy, the largest tomato producer in Europe, supplying an average of 6-7 million metric tonnes per year.

However last year, farms in northern Italy were 19 per cent under the contracted volumes and sadly, this is expected to decline even further.

This is because the climate, that was once a warm paradise perfect to grow the fruit, is now becoming colder and more susceptible to rain.

These lower temperatures are slowing the ripening process of the fruit, and in 2019 less than half of the contracted volumes were produced on time.

If this continues to happen, the supermarket prices will continue to increase and "we could begin to see shortages on the shelves".

CIA Landlords have researched how climate change has affected the production of five of the world's most loved produce, including tomatoes, and revealed the most catastrophic climate events that have occurred recently to plummet their growth.

Italy's forests have also declined in recent years because cows in Italy, which are used to produce afine leather goods,' are needing the space to be reared.

This, in turn, has decreased the amount of oxygen and CO2 in the air. This will have a negative effect on citizens' health -- polluted air cannot just exacerbate existing respiratory illnesses but also cause them.

The global climate is predicted to change drastically in years to come due to the effects of human-caused climate change.

Scientists have claimed the world has until 2040 to reduce the effects of climate change and if "we refuse to act now we will reach a apoint of no return' by this time".

But how will the effects of climate change present itself in the food industry?

Besides tomatoes, almonds, coffee, hazelnuts and soybeans are among some of the produce most affected by climate change.

California grows 80 per cent of the world's export of almonds and the state's industry is now worth $6 billion.

However, the growing process of almonds is lengthy and requires a lot of both physical and human energy.

California uses 60 per cent of the honeybee hives in the country just for almond pollination each winter, and the cost of transporting the bees, and keeping them in cold storage until this point means that the carbon footprint of almond production is huge.
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