The World Meteorological Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization have issued a joint report detailing how extreme heat is disrupting global food production. The document highlights severe effects in Brazil and other countries, urging better adaptation strategies. It responds to a United Nations call to address heat risks for workers and food systems.
A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), released last week, merges weather and agricultural data to show extreme heat's compounding effects on food systems worldwide. Brazil serves as the main case study, where heat waves in 2024 damaged soy and corn yields in states like São Paulo, along with peanuts, potatoes, sugarcane, and arabica coffee. Livestock such as pigs suffered heat stress, and flooding disrupted shrimp markets in Rio Grande do Sul. A heat index of 144.1 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in Rio de Janeiro earlier that year, the highest in a decade, according to the report. Martial Bernoux, senior natural resources officer at FAO, stated, “We’re not moving at a speed that is good enough,” adding that residual risks are increasing. The past 11 years mark the warmest on record, with the report projecting up to 250 days a year too hot for outdoor work in parts of South Asia, tropical sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South America by century's end under high emissions. Examples include Chile's 2016 salmon losses from algae blooms, U.S. Pacific Northwest crop failures in 2021, India's 2022 wheat and dairy declines, and Kyrgyzstan's locust outbreak last spring. The report follows UN Secretary-General António Guterres' 2024 call for protections, including for 2.4 billion workers at risk per a prior ILO finding. Guterres noted heat kills nearly half a million people annually, far more than cyclones. Naia Ormaza Zulueta, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, praised the diagnosis but criticized the limited focus on workers, saying, “The workers are present in the diagnosis, but they’re largely absent in the prescription.”
