{"id":413737,"date":"2025-11-18T10:54:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T09:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=413737"},"modified":"2025-11-18T10:54:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T09:54:25","slug":"el-pais-lies-when-claiming-that-climate-change-threatens-the-future-of-food-it-doesnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=413737","title":{"rendered":"El Pa\u00eds Lies When Claiming That Climate Change \u201cThreatens the Future of Food,\u201d It Doesn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Linnea Lueken<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

El Pa\u00eds posted an article \u201cThe era of scarcity: Climate change threatens the future of food,<\/a>\u201d claiming that climate change is making food shortages worse, highlighting Japanese rice production and Brazilian coffee, among other crops, as examples. This is false. While production of certain crops may suffer some seasons, data show that crop production and yields have increased substantially amid the past century\u2019s modest warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Pa\u00eds\u2019 post covers so many topics it feels like a climate-alarmist Gish-gallop<\/a>, with too many topics so shallowly covered. It gives the feeling of overwhelming evidence, even if each example individually fails to support the claims made. Rather than debunk every claim, many of which have already been discussed across hundreds of previous Climate Realism<\/em><\/a> articles on crop production, this article will just refute a few specific examples cited in El Pa\u00eds\u2019 woefully misleading article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article begins by pointing towards Japanese rice production. Although El Pa\u00eds admits that many other factors have contributed to this year\u2019s rice shortage, they<\/em> assert that the main cause is allegedly climate change-induced heat and heavy rainfall, \u201cfear of natural disasters, and the pressure of mass tourism<\/a>.\u201d Mind you, climate change cannot cause<\/em> \u201cfear of natural disasters\u201d or \u201cthe pressure of mass tourism,\u201d and neither of those have anything to do with rice production<\/em>. These claims are just a distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, rice was stockpiled in anticipation of a serious earthquake, which added to higher prices and less availability on the market. On top of that, there has been a large increase in visitors to Japan \u201ceager to eat sushi,\u201d which also strains rice supplies in the relatively small island nation. Neither of these are climate change related, and the actual largest reason production is declining in Japan is also not climate related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japanese rice production has declined since recordkeeping began in 1961, but data<\/a> from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also show that yields per acre have increased substantially over the same period (See figure below). This indicates that it is not an environmental or climate issue primarily driving the decline. In fact, what El Pa\u00eds neglected to mention, is that for decades the Japanese government has actively discouraged rice production in order to protect rice prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Graph<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An article at nippon.com<\/a>, written by Yamashita Kazuhito, explains that the influx of visitors, environmental pressures, and stockpiling only account for a small percentage of the issue. The main driver of rice shortages is government policy. In order to protect the price of rice from dipping, the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) order less acreage be used for growing rice, \u201cbased on the premise that demand for rice is decreasing by 100,000 tons every year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When government agencies restrict the amount of rice grown, and bad weather happens, the production is further depressed. Yamashita explains that 40 percent of available paddy fields are not currently being used; the government is restricting rice production to a cap of about 6.5 million tons. The same article contains a useful chart showing how every other major rice producing country is seeing increases in production, while Japan alone declines. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Graph<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Yamashita explains that \u201c[i]f Japan abandoned the acreage reduction program, it could produce 17 million tons of rice each year, with 7 million tons for domestic consumption and 10 million tons for export,\u201d which would provide enough of a cushion to handle bad production seasons and domestic demand fluctuations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This information is easily found, even if you are not familiar with Japanese agricultural policy. The fact that the FAO data clearly show yields increasing even as production has declined should have sent up alarm bells for the author of the El Pa\u00eds article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Pa\u00eds also claims that climate change is causing coffee production in Brazil to decline. Climate Realism<\/em> debunked this claim in a previous post, \u201c<\/em>Wrong<\/em> Again, Grist, Climate Change Is Not Causing Higher Coffee Prices<\/a>,\u201d which shows how coffee production has some bad years, but overall even Brazilian coffee yields have been increasing over time. This is ironic, since the El Pa\u00eds author says that the ideal of \u201ccontinuous growth\u201d is not living up to reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, with regards to food production, the only thing that is not living up to reality is alarmists\u2019 predictions of climate change induced declines in production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Pa\u00eds goes on to highlight a loss of drinking water in Montevideo, Uruguay. But this was due to a severe drought that has since ended. That drought was accompanied by record cold, driven by La Ni\u00f1a conditions in the Pacific, which are natural and known to cause dry conditions in Uruguay even as it gives more rainfall to the northeastern parts of South America. There is no long-term pattern of drought in Uruguay, and no evidence of a climate change fingerprint on drinking water shortages there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mexico, El Pa\u00eds says that \u201cwhite corn\u201d production has dwindled and is \u201cno longer sufficient to meet domestic demand.\u201d But\u00a0FAO<\/a>\u00a0data show that general corn production has increased 341 percent in Mexico since 1961, with a record-breaking year as recently as 2016. (See figure below)<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Graph<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Perhaps the \u201cdwindling\u201d production is just the plateaued production since that peak, but all-time high yields occurred in 2023. So, the question is whether this is climate related or economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corn prices have been very low recently, to the point that farmers just this year protested<\/a> the Mexican government to get price guarantees on their product. Mexico News Daily reports that farmers say \u201cproduction costs have increased in recent years, but prices for agricultural goods haven\u2019t kept pace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like with Japan, when economic and political conditions make growing food more difficult and a naturally bad season strikes resulting in a decline in production, it can be more devastating to farmers and consumers than it would have been otherwise. This is not evidence of climate change hurting food production. The fact that production inputs like fertilizers are increasing in cost is, in fact, more attributable to the climate alarmists\u2019 war on fossil fuels than anything else. Natural gas and oil are used to make and as components of fertilizers and pesticides, and power most farm equipment, like tractors, combines, and trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article makes an absurd claim, citing a study in Nature<\/em>, that \u201ca 1\u00b0C increase in average global temperature reduces food production by about 120 kilocalories per person per day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that were true, we would already have seen it, as the planet has warmed more than a degree since the pre-industrial period, and in some places like Europe, even more so. Yet, global staple food production has increased<\/a>, and hunger and malnutrition have decreased amid the modest warming of the past century, and especially recent decades. Part of this is due to improvements in technology, usually driven by fossil fuel use and byproducts, but also due to better growing conditions, slightly more precipitation, and the fertilizing effect of increased carbon dioxide itself, all factors discussed in Cl<\/em>imate at a Glance: Crop Production<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conclude, El Pa\u00eds makes a number of false claims about short-term shortages of various crops being due to climate change. In fact, the evidence shows that government policies have limited the production of some crops, despite favorable climate conditions boosting yields. Short-term weather events have harmed production seasonally on occasion, only for subsequent years\u2019 weather to result in better crop production. In the end, data clearly show that food production is not suffering due to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tired claim gets harder for alarmists to defend every year as food production continues to improve. If developing countries choose to ignore climate alarmists, including El Pa\u00eds writers who sinisterly claim that \u201cglobal food production is one of the main causes of climate change,\u201d and allow and encourage their farmers to embrace modern high-yield production techniques, including by expanding their use of fossil fuel powered or derived farm technologies, they are likely to also greatly improve crop production as well as resilience in the face of natural weather events.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

El Pa\u00eds posted an article \u201cThe era of scarcity: Climate change threatens the future of food,\u201d claiming that climate change is making food shortages worse, highlighting Japanese rice production and Brazilian coffee, among other crops, as examples. This is false. While production of certain crops may suffer some seasons, data show that crop production and yields have increased substantially amid the past century\u2019s modest warming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":413749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"Debunking El Pa\u00eds' claims, this article reveals the truth about climate change and its impact on global food production\u2014it's not what you think!","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Debunking Climate Alarmism: Food Production Thrives Despite Claims","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"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.cOFFUHl7QgRTdgQkCEKrENChnwHoUCRvdiXg6dd6FoAMQ"},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691839718,691818056,691819743,691839719,691819642,691839717,691829827],"class_list":{"0":"post-413737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-brazilian-coffee","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-propaganda","11":"tag-el-pais","12":"tag-food-shortages","13":"tag-japanese-rice","14":"tag-united-nations-food-and-agriculture-organization-fao","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0AQN1fU9Uf3siczjbCYi-WHcFakD0niGXdFb57MCVCCw4d23SdNWD7-KaalteEMnulmDEjBs3YpK7KKhde-p0sT8l6EnwZ0BIbm_vXZ_I0vYHIU239dgFD5Qy_11nOpkb-1.jpeg?fit=1500%2C879&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1JDb","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":220776,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=220776","url_meta":{"origin":413737,"position":0},"title":"Wrong, Tasting Table, Popular Foods Are Doing Well, Not Failing Under Climate Change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"26\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Crops in general, including the foods discussed in\u00a0Tasting Table, are doing well during the present period of modest warming.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1256.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1256.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1256.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1256.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1256.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":278631,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=278631","url_meta":{"origin":413737,"position":1},"title":"MSN Pushes Rice, Sugar, Tomato Crises \u2013 Despite New Crop Records","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"13\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In particular, the article singled out rice, sugar, and tomato production as particularly ravaged by climate change. 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