Extreme weather due to climate change has fueled hunger and food insecurity across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2023, according to a new United Nations report.
According to "CNN," the report, prepared by several UN agencies, including the World Food Program, states that extreme weather has led to rising crop prices in many countries in the region in 2023.
The hot weather and drought, intensified by the El Niño phenomenon, led to an increase in corn prices in Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, while heavy rains in Ecuador caused a 32% to 54% increase in commodity prices in the same year.
Although the report indicates, according to social safety nets, a significant reduction in malnutrition across Latin America, it also points out that the poorest and most vulnerable populations in the region are still more likely to suffer from food insecurity due to climate change, especially rural residents.
Lola Castro, the regional director of the World Food Program for Latin America and the Caribbean, said, "The shocks have become more extreme." "This is what creates food insecurity and malnutrition on a wider scale," according to Castro.
The report referenced a 2020 study that revealed the disappearance of 36% of 439 small farms in rural Honduras. Guatemala also experienced "intermittent food insecurity due to extreme weather events."
Ivy Blackmore, a researcher at the University of Missouri who studied nutrition and agriculture among indigenous farming communities in Ecuador, said, "In rural areas, farmers do not have many resources that enable them to withstand a poor harvest."
She added, "There isn't much income, there isn't much nutritious food, so they sell what they can and then buy the cheapest thing that fills them up." Blackmore studied communities where prolonged rainfall caused erosion, prompting farmers to cultivate the nearby pristine grasslands.
"They might have two good seasons, then the erosion continues, and they dig more. There is severe erosion happening because they are just forced to sustain themselves in the short term without being able to address these long-term consequences," Blakemore said.
With the rise in food prices due to extreme weather, some consumers are turning to processed and cheaper foods, but with less nutrition.
The United Nations report states that this trend is particularly dangerous in Latin America, where the cost of healthy diets is the highest in the world, with significantly rising obesity rates among children and adults since 2000.
One of the solutions may lie in traditional foods in the region, such as quinoa, root vegetables like mashua and oca, and others.
In addition to being healthier, traditional products may also be able to withstand the worst shocks of climate change.
Castro pointed out that "many Andean grains are highly drought-resistant, and we are working with smallholder farmers in very diverse regions with indigenous people in Latin America and the Caribbean to bring these foods back to the table."
Carlos Andrés Gallego, an assistant professor at the University of Vermont, said that traditional terrace farming in the Andes Mountains is "remarkably resilient, as it retains moisture and maintains soil fertility," making it a potential solution to the crisis.
