News Tonight Africa

Leading food and drink companies, including Mars, Unilever, Kellogg’s and Nestle, have come together, calling for action on climate change. They have issued a warning saying that rising temperatures are putting global food supplies in danger. The heads of these companies have signed an open letter to world leaders, calling for a ‘sound agreement’ to curb global warming.

They have made the demand just before crucial UN talks in Paris in December, where countries are going to meet in an attempt to agree on a new global deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In the letter, the company chiefs wrote that the climate change is not good for farmers and agriculture. They warned, “Drought, flooding and hotter growing conditions threaten the world’s food supply and contribute to food insecurity. By 2050, it is estimated that the world’s population will exceed nine billion, with two-thirds of all people living in urban areas”.

In the letter, they mentioned that this rise in population and urbanization will need more water, energy and food, all of which have been compromised due to warming temperatures. Furthermore, they said that companies, like theirs, would have to produce more food on less land, and that too with the use of fewer natural resources.

The letter has shown a vision of the farms that are productive and resilient, in which water supplies were protected for communities, energy efficient transport was used and renewable sources of energy are used for providing power for the processing of facilities.