U.N. says food production may fall 25 percent by 2050

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Up to a quarter of global food production could be lost by 2050 due to the combined impact of climate change, land degradation and loss, water scarcity and species infestation, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The fall-off will strike just as 2 billion more people are added to the world’s population, according to the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), which says cereal yields have stagnated worldwide and fish catches are declining.

In a new report, it said a 100-year trend of falling food costs could be at an end and that last year’s sharp price rises had driven 110 million people into poverty.

Prices may have eased from those peaks in many areas, but experts say volatility — combined with the impact of the global economic downturn — has meant little respite for the poor.

Reuters