Climate Change is Disrupting Food Systems Across Latin America

• Violent weather exacerbated by climate change fueled hunger and food insecurity across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2023, according to a new United Nations report. Extreme weather drove up crop prices in multiple countries in the region in 2023.
• Hot weather and drought, intensified by the El Niño weather phenomenon, raised the price of corn in Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, while heavy rain in Ecuador caused a 32 to 54 percent increase in wholesale prices in the same year.
• Though the report credits social safety nets with a measurable decrease in undernourishment throughout Latin America, it notes that the region’s poorest and most vulnerable populations are still more likely to suffer from food insecurity due to climate change – especially rural people.
• “The shocks are getting much more extreme,” said Lola Castro, the WFP’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “This is what’s creating larger food insecurity and under-nutrition.”
• As extreme weather increases food prices, some consumers gravitate toward cheaper, but less nutritious, ultra-processed foods. This is a particularly dangerous trend in Latin America, the UN report says, where “the cost of healthy diets is the highest in the world” and both childhood and adult obesity have risen markedly since 2000.

(Source: CNN World)