National

Hawai'i's catastrophic wildfires haven't just stolen lives, destroyed an entire town and displaced thousands of residents. The devastation has also damaged crop cultivation. 

The big picture: The impact of the blazes on small-scale farmers and local food production is going to take years to rebuild. 

Zoom out: Wildfires, like the record-breaking blazes that swept through the islands of Maui, Big Island and Oahu, impact agricultural productivity in both the short and long-term, according to Ohio State University agricultural economist Seungki Lee. 

But it's the probable forthcoming impacts on food supply brought on by Hawai'i's wildfires that has him most concerned. 

"By and large, the fire damage impacts on agriculture will likely be local and not national," said Lee, noting the state's efforts to increase locally produced food that make those crops an essential component for the food supply system. 

"This event will more directly hit the local market and food supply chain." 

Context: Although Hawai'i imports up to 90% of its food, the wildfires have impacted agricultural areas across Maui, where land is largely used for pasture but 7,718 acres is for crops, per 2020 state data.

The vast majority of crops grown for local consumption are diversified crops — including taro, sweet onions and bananas — and typically produced on smaller land parcels.  

As of 2022, macadamia, coffee, papayas and avocados ranked as the most valuable crops grown statewide. 

"Although the whole city and man-made area was destroyed by the fire in the Lahaina area, at the same time, the origin of the food-producing area also got affected by this fire," Lee said. "So we'll have some downward, spiral-like impacts." 

One example: Maui Gold Pineapple lost a store and offices to the blaze in Lahaina, said Todd Domeck, owner of Hawaii Farm Project, in addition to "destruction at multiple farms." 

The Maui Ku'ia Estate Cacao Farm lost its fall crop, with "miles of destruction in all directions," reported Pacific Business News. 

And Warren Watanabe at the Maui County Farm Bureau told Good Morning America that local farmers have "lost their market" and "need to have some revenue to keep their operations ongoing." 

How it works: Colorado State University researcher Nathan Mueller, who studies agriculture and climate change, told Axios that when agricultural lands are close to wildfires, the effects on crop health are mostly negative — but as distance to a blaze increases, it becomes less clear-cut. 

Direct consequences include losing crops or damages to machinery or property, noted Mueller, who co-authored a 2023 paper on wildfire impacts on agriculture. 

Plus, wildfire smoke lingering over parts of Maui could also impact the land not destroyed by fire. 

Yes, but: The lasting influence of smoke conditions on crop productivity varies and generally isn't well-understood.

Meanwhile: One in six people living in Hawai'i lack access to nutritionally adequate food, according to 2023 estimates by Hawai'i Foodbank.

Among the state's counties, Maui reported the highest prevalence of food insecurity, per the latest Feeding America 2021 data.

Limited access to enough food is even more of a problem for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, who disproportionately face higher rates of food insecurity, per a 2022 study.

What they're saying: Kristen Wyman, co-director of global movements at the nonprofit WhyHunger, told Axios that even though disaster recovery ushers in a "mass movement" around aid, long-term solutions — like restoration of native seed banks — are often overlooked. 

"These are already communities that are struggling for food sovereignty because of long-term systemic issues," said Wyman, noting that it will take them "years and years to rebuild." 

"I wonder if, in the aftermath of all of this, if there's any room on the local level to work with Indigenous folks who are knowledgeable about another way, an alternative food system," said Wyman, a citizen of the Nipmuc Nation. 

The latest: With a death toll of at least 114, and an estimated 1,300 missing, the Hawai'i wildfires have caused an estimated $6 billion in damages so far. 

Experts told Axios that in the short term, residents' food access needs are likely to be alleviated by disaster response — although official efforts have been widely criticized. 

State of play: Global NGOs like World Central Kitchen have also mobilized to address meal needs.

John Torpey, who is leading the organization's efforts across Maui, told Axios his team is working out of a University of Hawai'i Maui kitchen in Kahului alongside a local collective — Chef Hui — to prepare and deliver food.

Volunteers are going to shelters and rural communities in heavily affected areas to make sure people have the resources they need, providing about 6,300 meals per day, he noted.

The bottom line: "There's a lot of people who don't want to come out, or feel afraid to come out ... so we're going to them," said Torpey. "This is a terrible tragedy. This is going to take a while. The recovery is not going to be fast." 

Hawai'i wildfires' "downward, spiral-like impacts" on food

The impact of the blazes on small-scale farmers and local food production is going to take "years and years" to rebuild.

Photo illustration of farmers in Hawai'i carrying crops overlaid with a fiery orange landscape.

Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/ Axios. Photos: Gonzalo Marroquin, Jeff Greenberg, Bloomberg/Getty Images

Wildfires

Climate change

Hawai&#x27;i&#x27;s <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="catastrophic wildfires" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/10/hawaii-maui-wildfires-2023-what-to-know" data-vars-content-id="3021ca4f-bc92-4e0f-bb02-a650f45e728e" data-vars-headline="Hawai&#x27;i wildfires&#x27; &quot;downward, spiral-like impacts&quot; on food" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/10/hawaii-maui-wildfires-2023-what-to-know" target="_self">catastrophic wildfires</a> haven&#x27;t just stolen lives, destroyed an entire town and displaced thousands of residents. The devastation has also damaged crop cultivation. The big picture: The impact of the blazes on small-scale farmers and local food production is going to take years to rebuild.

Ominous forecasts about the impact of climate change serve as the backdrop for the world — led by U.S. lawmakers and companies — to debate big action on the problem, which could upend energy systems and our way of life.

Energy & Environment

U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security Cary Fowler told Axios he is "very concerned" about what El Niño could mean for crop production and resulting impacts on global food security. 

Why it matters: A new UN report reveals that the number of food-insecure people worldwide has surged in recent years, while developing El Niño conditions are poised to exacerbate hunger in at-risk regions. 

What he's saying: "The possibility that this is going to be not just a normal El Niño, which would be a problem, but a historically strong El Niño, means that it increases the odds, or true problems, with food production, and therefore the onset of more challenges for food insecurity," Fowler said in an interview with Axios.

The big picture: The natural climate cycle is already boosting global average surface temperatures and contributing to unprecedented extreme weather events, writes Axios' Andrew Freedman.

Never before has an El Niño developed when surrounding ocean temperatures were so warm, raising the possibility of unprecedented outcomes on sea and land, per Andrew.

Zoom in: Fowler noted he's worried about El Niño's possible impact on crop production in parts of the world where it has historically had a negative impact — and not just on major staple crops, which he says is where most of our understanding of the effects of El Niño have been focused. 

Estimates suggest El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, events — one of the biggest sources of natural variability in global climate — affect yields on over a quarter of global croplands.

Between the lines: El Niño's volatile impacts on food supply will be outsized for populations relying on subsistence agriculture, an added concern for already climate-embattled regions of the Global South.

"I'm personally concerned about its possible effect in Southeast Asia, in Central America, and certainly in southern Africa," said Fowler. "And part of my concern has to do with the issue of poverty and food insecurity in those areas."

Peru — where fish populations have historically been decimated by El Niño's warmer-than-usual waters — recently announced the suspension of the first fishing season for anchovy.

Zoom out: A new UN report finds that between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger last year — an increase of 122 million people since 2019. Natural disasters exacerbated by climate change were flagged as one of the driving contributors. 

Plus, Russia's suspension of the Black Sea grain deal announced Monday is likely to only further complicate efforts to mitigate the global hunger crisis.

Other influences fueling the global food crisis include the impact of the war on Ukrainian agricultural production, COVID disruptions, relatively low grain stockpiles, fertilizer supply issues and pricing pressures, said Fowler. 

Meanwhile: The Biden administration announced $100 million in funding Thursday aimed at developing climate-resilient crops and agricultural processes through the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils, a federal program launched in February. 

According to Fowler, around $70 million of the investment will go to the initiative's soil work, with the other $30 million focused on crop adaptation.

The intrigue: So far, the program has identified some traditional indigenous crops for which they have some improved varieties that are "at or near the end of the pipeline development."

He expects they'll be making a "major investment" soon in getting improved varieties of pigeonpea — a drought-tolerant legume — out to farmers in Africa. 

Yes, but: Ongoing funding shortfalls in humanitarian aid are another challenge for the global hunger response — leading organizations like the World Food Program to report vast cuts to food assistance in some of its largest operations.

The bottom line: "We have just a lot of different factors that, I would say, work against any quick or easy solution [to the global food crisis], but we're trying," Fowler told Axios. "And now we have El Niño.”

Natural disasters exacerbated by climate change

Exclusive: U.S. global food security envoy “very concerned” about El Niño

Cary Fowler tells Axios a "historically strong El Niño" would create major problems for global food security.

Photo illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios. Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images

Food security

U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security Cary Fowler told Axios he is &quot;very concerned&quot; about what El Niño could mean for crop production and resulting impacts on global food security. Why it matters: A new UN <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="report" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/12/735-million-people-faced-hunger-2022-un-report" data-vars-content-id="540d62fb-366a-4851-8087-f4f8d74026ea" data-vars-headline="Exclusive: U.S. global food security envoy “very concerned” about El Niño" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/12/735-million-people-faced-hunger-2022-un-report" target="_self">report</a> reveals that the number of food-insecure people worldwide has surged in recent years, while <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="developing El Niño conditions" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/13/el-nino-extreme-weather-noaa" data-vars-content-id="540d62fb-366a-4851-8087-f4f8d74026ea" data-vars-headline="Exclusive: U.S. global food security envoy “very concerned” about El Niño" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/13/el-nino-extreme-weather-noaa" target="_self">developing El Niño conditions</a> are poised to exacerbate hunger in at-risk regions.

Extreme weather events and our warming planet are primed to strike commodities and the food supply like never before. 

Why it matters: The recent global heat wave, deadly floods across China's grain belt and wildfires that spanned several continents have put a spotlight on how climate change may wreak havoc on the world's most-consumed food crops.

The big picture: Studies show that future climate projections indicate significant reductions of crop yields in high-risk regions. 

Crop shortages may also put upward pressure on food prices, which emerged as a major source of pain for consumers during the current inflation spike, and during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Zoom out: Multiple economists told Axios that the long-term threat of climate change to food supply and consequences for costs of major crop commodities increasingly calls for deliberate climate mitigation and adaptation measures. 

What they're saying: "The literature is pretty clear" that if the observed increased frequency of extreme weather events continues, it will hurt crop yields in particular, Roderick Rejesus, agricultural economist at North Carolina State University, told Axios. 

"It's possible we could face unprecedented market impacts if we don't do anything in terms of mitigation and adapting," Rejesus said. 

State of play: Corn, wheat and rice together make up a major portion of the human diet, accounting for roughly 42% of the world's food calories.

A 2022 Scientific Reports paper found that under global warming by 2°C (3.6°F) and relative to 1986–2005, corn yield will decrease worldwide, and increase little under global warming by 1.5 °C (2.7°F) — with the loss risk of corn by 2°C "much more serious."

Reality check: The latest UN climate change report suggests that human actions may have rendered the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target, and possibly even its 2°C benchmark, infeasible, Axios' Andrew Freedman reported. 

The UN report also found that climate change has fueled "mostly negative" yield impacts across sub-Saharan Africa, South America, the Caribbean, southern Asia and western and southern Europe, per Carbon Brief. 

How it works: When it comes to consumer prices, what we pay for the food we eat isn't only reflective of yields, but the whole supply chain. 

Between the lines: Events that lead to supply chain disruptions — like the recent suspension of the Black Sea grain deal, the war in Ukraine, or severe drought in major production regions — can create volatility and uncertainty in the global market, which can increase commodity prices.

One example: Rice production in India, the world's largest rice exporter, has been constrained by both droughts and heavy rains. On July 20, the Indian government banned exports on non-basmati white rice, which is already pushing up international prices. 

"We should be anticipating some drastic supply shocks," Seungki Lee, agricultural economist at Ohio State University, told Axios.

Zoom in: Price hikes are more imminently visible as a result of extreme weather events. But in the long run, when the contribution of recent climate trends slowing down crop yield growth compounds with lags in production growth, it can have a slow-burn effect on consumer costs, according to Cornell economist Ariel Ortiz-Bobea.

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2023-2032 report projects global agricultural and food production to continue to increase over the next ten years, but at a slower pace of growth than the previous decade. 

"Temperatures are higher, productivity is lower. The impacts are already here. They've already happened," said Ortiz-Bobea. 

Of note: Don’t forget the developing El Niño, which layers onto the impacts of climate change, and can have highly varying effects on yields.

A July report by Capital Economics projected that, when compared to soybeans and corn, global harvests of rice and wheat are the most at-risk during this El Niño. 

Meanwhile, efforts to develop climate-resilient varieties of major crops are among leading adaptation measures pursued across the public and private sector. 

Yes, but: Some experts, like Ortiz-Bobea, are skeptical of claims that U.S. agriculture is becoming more climate-resilient. 

"With all the lip service that people are giving [development of drought-tolerant crops], I don't see it in the data," said Ortiz-Bobea, who led a 2021 study showing that global farming productivity is 21% lower than it would be without climate change. 

Other emerging solutions include an increasing reliance on less-familiar crops that require less water — like sorghum, an ancient grain with drought-tolerant properties, Civil Eats reported.

The intrigue: Sorghum could be a promising alternative to some major crops. But it, along with grower incentives, has received much less research attention — and that must change, according to Corey Lesk, a Dartmouth College climate scientist and research associate. 

He noted the same goes for other crops more popular in developing countries, like millet and cassava.

The bottom line: "It's pretty much every summer now that a record-breaking heatwave is happening, not just in one breadbasket, but multiple breadbaskets around the world," Lesk said. "We are currently heading into a climate regime that we have never seen before." 

The climate wrecking ball striking food supply

Extreme weather and a warming planet are primed to strike commodities and the food supply.

Economy & Business

Some Americans are being hit harder than others by the extreme heat wave baking swaths of the country because they can't get enough to eat or drink.  

The big picture: Food-insecure households are among the most at risk of health and financial hardships during blistering temperatures. They face unique exposure to dehydration and costly relief that further strains dwindling food budgets.

Zoom in: One way heat can immediately intensify food insecurity is by making it harder to buy food. 

"It presents a cumulative burden," said Diana Hernández, a researcher at Columbia University who studies energy, equity, housing and health. 

"It adds more stress to everyday life. Rather than eating enough, and high-quality, nutritious foods, people are cutting back."

Backstory: A lack of access to nutritious foods is linked to higher health care use and expenditures. 

Studies have found that food-insecure Americans have a tendency to reduce dietary quality and caloric intake in colder seasons to afford utility bills. 

This indicates that hotter temperatures driven by climate change could also become a source of nutrition-based health issues nationwide, Hernández said.

Meanwhile, food-insecure people face unique health complications during periods of high heat and humidity, according to W. Larry Kenney, a Penn State professor of physiology and kinesiology. 

"One of the problems for people with food and water insecurities is the lack of high-quality foodstuffs that contain lots of water, like soups and fruits, and more importantly, potable water," Kenney said.

He noted that a lack of access to potable water can lead to "frank dehydration" — which makes it even harder for the body to dissipate heat to the environment and causes body temperatures to increase more rapidly. 

Between the lines: The body relies on two main mechanisms of dissipating heat to tolerate high heat and humidity. 

To deal with increased body temperatures, humans pump lots of blood to the skin. As more is pumped, the heat in that blood can be lost to the environment — just as long as the air temperature is lower than skin temperature.

The second mechanism involves sweat. Sweat on the skin's surface that can evaporate has a "very powerful cooling energy," noted Kenney. 

But if the sweat just stays on the skin or drips off, there's no cooling effect, which just worsens dehydration. 

State of play: Spikes in ER visits from heat-related illnesses have been reported amid the heat wave affecting over two-thirds of the country's population that would have been virtually impossible without climate change. 

At St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix, where temperatures hovered at or above 110°F for most of July, the lasting toll of the pandemic and rising food costs are compounding the sweltering heat to strain available resources for hungry residents. 

St. Mary's director of public relations Jerry Brown told Axios it expects to supply 1 million water bottles this summer — a significant jump from last year's 650,000 — with the organization "at our peak." 

"We're no stranger to heat here in Arizona," said Brown. "But ... I've never seen anything like this."

Zoom out: Longer-term consequences of unrelenting temperatures include minimized harvests, which impacts the working poor that rely on growing their own produce, according to Octavia Lewis of Destination Tomorrow, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization behind an Atlanta food pantry. 

"A lot of people [that are food-insecure] don't have the discretionary income that others have. 'Do I stay cool? Or do I save money to buy food?' People have to make those decisions that many of us often take for granted," Lewis said.

People of color, those with disabilities and unhoused populations are the most impacted by food insecurity in the U.S. 

The intrigue: A 2022 study in Nature Energy found warmer temperatures between 2012 and 2017 led to rising energy costs that resulted in an increasing number of low-income California households having their electricity disconnected. 

Of note: To D.C. Hunger Solution's interim director LaMonika Jones, the need to improve safety in the workforce for farmers, producers and growers has become more obvious, along with increasing the number of hyperlocal food access points.

A Florida farmworker died earlier this month after experiencing heat exhaustion on the job, sparking a renewed call for heat-safety reforms. 

And Tory Wilson of United Food Bank told Axios that during extreme-heat periods, people may be less inclined or unable to leave their homes to get food, especially if it involves waiting at a bus stop, riding a bike, or walking.

The bottom line: "It's not just making sure that we have access points for food, but it's making sure that people are able to access them," Jones said. 

How extreme heat hits America's hungry

Food-insecure Americans are among the most at-risk of health/financial hardships during blistering heat.

Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photos: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg, Patrick T. Fallon/AFP, Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Public health

Some Americans are being hit harder than others by the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="extreme heat wave" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/26/heat-wave-us-midwest-northeast-great-plains" data-vars-content-id="803f0959-daaa-451f-9243-fdbf833c44da" data-vars-headline="How extreme heat hits America&#x27;s hungry" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/07/26/heat-wave-us-midwest-northeast-great-plains" target="_self">extreme heat wave</a> baking swaths of the country because they can&#x27;t get enough to eat or drink. The big picture: Food-insecure households are among the most at risk of health and financial hardships during blistering temperatures. They face unique exposure to dehydration and costly relief that further strains <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="dwindling" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/06/06/new-fund-for-food-insecure-americans" data-vars-content-id="803f0959-daaa-451f-9243-fdbf833c44da" data-vars-headline="How extreme heat hits America&#x27;s hungry" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/06/06/new-fund-for-food-insecure-americans" target="_self">dwindling</a> food budgets.

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

"Doomsday" seed vaults are becoming an increasingly popular tool in the race to insure global crop and agricultural production against the damaging impacts of climate change. 

Why it matters: In an era of simultaneous climate disasters, long-term solutions that bolster the future of food supply are gaining momentum among governments, scientists and small-scale farmers. 

The goal is to make sure crops that might get wiped out in one region can be revived somewhere else. 

Catch up quick: One prominent example is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault — a "doomsday" reserve buried deep within a Norwegian mountain storing over 1.2 million duplicates of seed samples. 

The vault was created in 2008 to protect seed supplies for future growing needs against threats like climate change, extreme weather events and wars.

The intrigue: From a facility in northern Colorado to a rural park in the Andes, there are similar “doomsday” stores, where scientists are assembling backup copies of crops, scattered across the globe. 

Some, like Russia's Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry, are active repositories that have been around for over a century. Others, like Colombia's Future Seeds gene bank, were established just last year. 

What they're saying: "Crops are the foundation of the global food system," U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security Cary Fowler — dubbed the "father" of Svalbard — told Axios in an email. 

He noted that protecting and investing in crops is critical to building resilience in the face of continued shocks from conflict and extreme weather.

"Simply by investing in seeds, we can sustainably increase productivity and nutrition and insure the future against heat, drought, pests, and diseases," said Fowler.

Zoom in: There are more than 1,700 gene banks with food crop collections worldwide, or storage sites for genes that are parts of living things, such as seeds. 

In the United Kingdom, an underground collection of over 2.4 billion seeds can be found at the Millennium Seed Bank in London's Kew Gardens.

And thousands of seed samples from plants like squash and tomato are stored at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center in the mountains of Costa Rica.

Meanwhile: The USDA maintains 20 gene banks nationwide through a system that curates more than 600,000 unique samples of plant genetic resources, representing over 15,000 species.

State of play: Gayle Volk, plant physiologist at the USDA's National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation, told Axios banks like these provide the genetic diversity that researchers need to improve and develop new cultivars, or varieties that have been cultivated for specific traits.

"Plant genetic resources are important to all of humanity because they are the building blocks of our food supply," said Volk. "We need to have this reservoir of genetic resources for the future."

Yes, but: Seed saving is not just a federally-funded, enterprise initiative, but stems from an ancient Indigenous practice that centers on community. 

"The answers are in the farmers' hands," said Betty Fermin, co-director of the Global Movements Program at the nonprofit WhyHunger. "They're making sure they have seeds that are better quality, and better able to resist plant diseases and pests, and give better yields." 

Her team is working with a farmers forum in Zimbabwe building long-term recovery methods for local seed storage following the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Freddy on agricultural production across swaths of Southern Africa earlier this year. 

The initiative belongs to what she describes as an increasing trend of small farmers expanding their own seed repositories to better adapt to climate extremes. 

Of note: There's an unmistakable need for more seed banks, according to Gabriel Campbell, director of the Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank and Plant Conservation Program at Portland State University. 

He noted there are "so few" seed banks for agricultural crops and native plants on the West Coast that even people in Nevada and Montana have reached out to their Oregon-based program to try to bank with them.

With 25,000 collections representing more than 500 seed species, they're a smaller operation focusing on rare, endangered and native plants of the Pacific Northwest — and trying to preserve the seeds of species most vulnerable to climate change. 

"We're very much just trying to collect what we can, oftentimes before entire ecosystems disappear," said Campbell. 

Between the lines: Climate extremes are not only powering the spread of plant diseases, but also driving yield declines and water scarcity in major producing regions, which exacerbates global food insecurity. 

The bottom line: "Climate change is definitely making seed banks more important," said Campbell. "There are a lot of plants out there, that if we don't do anything to help them, then their fate is pretty much sealed." 

climate change, extreme weather events and wars

underground collection of over 2.4 billion seeds

Climate disasters are fueling the rise of "doomsday" seed vaults

They're becoming an increasingly popular tool in the race to insure global crop and agricultural production against climate extremes.

A worker dries coffee seeds at a seed bank

A worker at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center dries coffee seeds in Turrialba, Costa Rica, on July 19. Photo: Ezequiel Becerra/AFP via Getty Images

&quot;Doomsday&quot; seed vaults are becoming an increasingly popular tool in the race to insure global crop and agricultural production against the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="damaging impacts" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/07/climate-commodities-food-supply" data-vars-content-id="cb6caad4-6010-4aad-9822-6b33c3382e3a" data-vars-headline="Climate disasters are fueling the rise of &quot;doomsday&quot; seed vaults" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/07/climate-commodities-food-supply" target="_self">damaging impacts</a> of climate change. Why it matters: In an <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="era" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/21/hurricane-hilary-extreme-weather-climate" data-vars-content-id="cb6caad4-6010-4aad-9822-6b33c3382e3a" data-vars-headline="Climate disasters are fueling the rise of &quot;doomsday&quot; seed vaults" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/21/hurricane-hilary-extreme-weather-climate" target="_self">era</a> of simultaneous climate disasters, long-term solutions that bolster the future of food supply are gaining momentum among governments, scientists and small-scale farmers.

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Ayurella Horn-Muller

Stories

Climate disasters are fueling the rise of "doomsday" seed vaults

Hawai'i wildfires' "downward, spiral-like impacts" on food

The climate wrecking ball striking food supply

How extreme heat hits America's hungry

Exclusive: U.S. global food security envoy “very concerned” about El Niño