The Obama administration has created a
"global alliance" to develop ways for agricultural stakeholders to
improve productivity — in order to feed the world's growing population — while
addressing the challenges of climate change, the United States Department of
Agriculture has announced on its blog.
Feeding nine billion people by 2050 will
require at least a 60 percent increase in agricultural production, the
agency said, and global warming trends are a barrier to meeting the need.
The Global Alliance for Climate Smart
Agriculture was conceived eight months ago, USDA said, when an international
delegation of leaders met in South Africa for the Global Conference on Climate
Change, Food Security, and Agriculture.
The group's mission is to find a "more
sustainable" path to food security that "preserves the environment
while driving broad-based economic growth."
Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and
his department of agriculture have said nothing about the meeting in South
Africa and Ritz rarely mentions global warming.
