World’s food supply under threat due to biodiversity loss, UN says

(CNN) – A drop in global biodiversity is putting our ability to produce food at risk, a new United Nations report warns.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, biodiversity in food and agriculture "is indispensable to food security and sustainable development." However, in recent years biodiversity at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels have all been in decline, reducing our overall food and agriculture systems' ability to respond to shocks and stresses such as climate change.

"Many key components of biodiversity for food and agriculture at genetic, species and ecosystem levels are in decline," the report said. "The proportion of livestock breeds at risk of extinction is increasing. Overall, the diversity of crops present in farmers' fields has declined and threats to crop diversity are increasing."

At the species level, many of those serving vital functions such as pollination or pest management are in decline "as a consequence of the destruction and degradation of habitats, overexploitation, pollution and other threats."

A report out earlier this month in the journal Biological Conservation warned more than 40% of insect species could become extinct in the next few decades — an event it said could have "catastrophic" effects on the planet. Even larger animals are at risk, with more than 25% of local livestock breeds at risk of extinction,. Only 7% are deemed to be at no risk whatsoever, with the future for most other livestock breeds unclear.

Posted by admin on Feb 26 2019. Filed under Biodiversity, Food security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry