The high cost of doing nothing: How climate inaction harms agribusiness

Farmers and livestock producers are used to thinking ahead. But to keep food and feed affordable in the face of climate change, experts say farmers and governments need to act now to reduce emissions from farms and invest in research to make them more productive.

The U.S. alone will need to spend an additional US$207.6 billion to US$433.7 billion from 2020-2050 on agricultural research and development to offset the farm productivity losses caused by rising temperatures and extreme weather, according to research by Cornell University. And U.S. is already behind the curve due to a lull in government-funded research, according to Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an agricultural and climate economist at Cornell.