Climate Change and Food Supply - Essay Example

Climate Change and Food Supply Climate Change and Food Manufacturing Introduction: No longer a scientific idiosyncrasy or regulatory or environmental affair, climate change has turned into an increased and enhanced environmental issue, which adverse impact seems to have no boundaries. Be it human, ecological systems, food, water or building all these things are being subjected to torturous change in the climate. For instance, production of food is at risk as a result of switching of whether sequence, which in turn leads to incalculability of rising sea level, flooding or precipitation. According to CIPOC (2001), the variations and alteration of the position of climate, which can be statistically determined through mean, variation and duration of occurrence, qualifies as a climate change. One of the major discoveries for the cause of climate change concerns the human activity, which produce immoderate greenhouse gas. One of the major producers of such excessive gas is corporation, usually in the field of production. Hence, to rectify this major issue and evacuate their names form the list of greenhouse gas producers, companies started signing Kyoto Treaty, which incline these companies to work towards greenhouse gas reduction, where some firms vowed to reduce this gas by one percent and others were more determined changing the percent to 25 (Hoffman, 2005, pg. 21 & 22). In relation to the mentioned article by Hoffman and other resources, this paper will discuss about the current and possible threats and opportunities fabricated by the climate change for food making companies and suggestions about climate change strategies. Threats posed by climate change: As the introduction has cleared out any misgivings that one might have regarding climate change being a scientific curiosity, it is obvious that the threat which this issue poses concerns the food manufacturing company, not only in food producing process but all those things that make up this organization. Hoffman in his article claims that even in food making companies climate change creates havoc by damaging the building, areas and factories in forms of flood, hurricanes or draughts, this in turn leads to heavy financial losses. Not only has this, but research (Goldenberg, 2014) concluded that around 81% of businesses fear that climate change will burden them with heavy losses. Furthermore, scientist have been giving warning about the advanced negative impact of climate change, which could be seen in the contemporary times where floods have given birth to raw food scarcity, meaning that companies like our own is in dire situation if the food supply flops down. This similar website also quotes that the threat to sea food by climate change is around 40% to 60% and that the regions of Asia and Africa are at risk to become a victim of food price instability (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-food-supply-un, 2014). Furthermore, the security of foods are alo at risk, as these adverse changes in climate has led to variation in soil moisture and fruits and beans growing on tree, as a result the life of pests and organisms that are crucial for such foods are repercutted adversely. Likewise the clean water and salth water of the sea seems to get mix, placing the submarine life in danger, which most of them falls under the category of sea food. Another shocking revelation made by the aforementioned site is that the production of wheat has drastically fallen due to unpredictable whether pattern, which means that the demand for growing population is becoming harder and harder to meet and that by 2050 food prices are likely to rise between 3 to 84 percent. Another source (http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/food.html, 2011) states the high tempreture is leading to reduction in milk yields, crops and livestock, this in turn leads to the high cost of installing irrigation systems which again is dependent on rain. Similarly, the hot whether is an invitation to the pests, who are underground in the winters, needless to say the harm they cause to the already failing crops. All these aforesaid problem are the major cause that the planting and harvesting of crops are being delayed, leading to unsatisfactry supply of foods to production company, meaning less profits for us. Moreover, when the climate variation occurs without letting the crops growth and water use be effected by CO2, the reduction inyield is noticable (Rosenzweig, 1994, pg. 134). This all leads to the conclusion that higher the cost of growing crops, the higher the prices organizations such as ours has to pay them to accquire limited amount of crops. This in turn will lead the company to increase prices and loose customers. On the other hand, high temperatures caused by global warming affect the output of workers. Article by Hoffman (2005, pg. 27) states that urban temperatures run as higher as 50F than the rural surroundings. High temperatures convert the emissions from cars and smokestacks into ozone that create smog. The ozone is also associated to health related problems like respiratory infections and cancer. Such conditions threaten the concentration of the laborers towards maximization of output. Heat islands have high economic costs in the construction of cool buildings to create an effective working environment. For example, U.S. spends roughly $40 billion in electricity cost in constructing cool buildings. Therefore, in a food manufacturing company, the output of workers can be affected by the high temperature. Opportunities presented by climate change: No matter what kind of and how many risk and threats are associated with climate change, organizations with the habit of looking deep into matters can easily extract the opportunities that this severe issue presents. Hence, the Food, Beverages and Agriculture (FBA) executives and their respective companies are taking notice of the opportunites that are tagged with the problem such as climate change and are trying their best to adapt to this change in order to attain as much opportunities and benefit as possible. They are striving to change the weave risk into paths leading to advantage and this includes supply chain security and developing demands of consumers (Schuchard & Wong, 2013, pg. 1). Moving to the supply chain security factor, the opportunities that can be made out of such issue includes; when the risk increases concerning the shortage of raw materials, companies usually find route to strengthen their relationship with supplier and push up the omission of supply chain, for instance Morrison supermarket and Kellogg’s exploited this opportunity. Another way to convert risk to you favor, which was adopted by Unilever, is flourishing of local sourcing is fabricated with the help of blooming of viability in specific areas of crops, this in turn eradicate secretion and logistics cost (Schuchard & Wong, 2013, pg. 2). Next region of exploiting opportunities is the development of consumer demand; here as the temperature increases demand for cold beverages and drinks also climbs, hence giving firms a way to gain profit by making acting on these demand, an example of such company is Coca Cola (Schuchard & Wong, 2013, pg. 3). According to Hoffman (2005), there would be great activities in the production of biomaterials products at the expense of fossil fuel. He continues and states, for instance, DuPont is aspiring to generate 25% of its revenue from renewable resources by the year 2010. This would be done by replacing the oil-based products with sources like Sorona, a product of corn. Cargill Dow LLC wants to make biomaterial products using cornstarch. Recommendations: Avoiding risks and clamping on opportunity is not the only way to deal with the issue of climate change, digging deep and uprooting different strategies beforehand is also another crucial way of pacifying the change in climate repercussions. One of the obvious things that springs into one’s mind is that to produce such foods that generate lesser greenhouse gas. However, this is not the only solution, as Wong (2013, pg. 4) suggest that value creation is one such strategy where technology is upgraded and employed for the purpose of conservation; manufacturing of more advanced machinery that will enable organization to use less water and increase processing yields and efficiency. An example of this strategy adopted was by Danisco and Unilever. Not only this, but pulling Research and Development department to come up with alternative tools and items that will damage the climate less and make innovations in product to encourage consumer engagement. Some other emerging activities suggested by Wong and Schuchard (2013, pg. 5, 6 & 7) include improving supply chain security by promoting and assisting R & D department, safeguard license to function by predicting instability in supply or production, and spreading ‘triple-win’ suggestions, where investors try to attain their goal of climate mitigation, adaption and poverty reduction. In the meanwhile, we can cut our transportation cost by cooperate with suppliers who are geographically close to our company, and we can also build up a long-term cooperative relation with suppliers who also adapt the concept of corporate environmentalism. Second, we should seize the opportunity to enhance our reputation. We can advertise our green products and we can use environmentally friendly packaging as well. Similarly, we can improve financial returns through launching ethical products. Conclusion: To say that climate change is here is an understatement, because its issues and adverse effects had spread out viciously and quickly, for instance reduction in crops and water due to high temperature, distortion of yields and submarine life, damaging building and factories and the most importantly workers – who are the assets of any organization. However, some companies were clever enough to divert this risk into opportunity by securing their supply chain and coping up with evolution of consumer demand. Nevertheless, there are certain strategies that are developed to avoid dealing with such an issue all at once. With the adaptation of climate change strategies and practices, we are able to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs and finally benefit our shareholders. Therefore, climate change strategies can bring profitability, and will also promote sustainable future for our company. Works Cited Food: Climate-related threats to global food production include risks to grain, vegetable, and fruit crops, livestock, and fisheries. [Online] // Climate Hot Map. - 2011. - June 15, 2014. - http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/food.html. GOLDENBERG SUZANNE Climate change already affecting food supply – UN [Online] // The Guardian. - March 31, 2014. - June 15, 2014. - http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-food-supply-un. HOFFMAN ANDREW J Climate change strategy: The business logicbehind voluntary greenhouse gas reduction [Journal]. - [s.l.] : Californai Management Review, 2005. - 3 : Vol. 47. - pp. 21-45. ROSENZWEIG CYNTHIA Potential impact of climate change on world food supply [Journal]. - New York : Nature Publishing Group, January 13, 1994. - Vol. 367. - pp. 133-138. WONG, JOYCE and SCHUCHARD, RYAN Adapting to Climate Change: A Guide for the Food, Beverage, And Agriculture Industry [Online] // BSR. - January 23, 2011. - June 15, 2014. - http://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Climate_Adaptation_Issue_Brief_Food_Bev_Ag2.pdf. Read More