Meat, poultry, vegetables feel heat from global warming*

HYDERABAD, India, Nov 25 (AFP) Nov 25, 2007

 From meat, poultry and milk to potatoes, onions and leafy greens,
everything consumed on the world's dining tables is feeling the heat
from climate change, scientists say.

Researchers are trying to establish the extent to which global warming
will affect livestock, plant life and staple crops such as rice to
bolster their resistance to disease and breed stronger varieties.

The world's billion poor, whether producers or consumers, will bear the
brunt, warned scientists who ended a conference Saturday on agriculture
and climate change in Hyderabad, southern India.

"In some ways, the time for doing things is already past," said John
McDermott, deputy director of research at the Nairobi-based
International Livestock Research Institute. "The changes are already
happening."

As an example, rift valley fever, a deadly virus transmitted to sheep,
cattle, camels and humans by mosquito bites, is being fuelled by climate
change, the scientist said.

The virus is manifesting itself in broader swathes of East Africa and
the Middle East because of climate variability in dry regions that helps
vectors such as mosquitoes, tsetse flies and ticks to breed and spread,
he said.

"What you see are diseases moving into areas where they have not been
before, which means sometimes animals are exposed where they haven't
been for a long time," he said.

"That leads to more outbreaks," McDermott added.

For the poor, livestock offers a livelihood as well as a savings bank
they can tap, selling off their cows or chickens to deal with a health
or family emergency.

"These are the people who don't make much of an impact on the ecological
footprint of the world," said McDermott.

But they are also the people most at risk from damage wrought on
livestock by diseases that could be aggravated by climate-related phenomena.

Scientists are also studying cropping and disease patterns in vegetables
-- potatoes and tomatoes to cabbage and spinach, onion and garlic -- to
see how they can cope with the stresses brought by global warming and
its side-effects.

"If you make it a given that temperatures will go up, water will be a
problem -- that will be your worst-case scenario," said Jackie Hughes,
deputy director of research at the Shanhua, Taiwan-based World Vegetable
Centre.

"You're going to have typhoons, cyclones and hurricanes," she said,
adding vegetable growers may have to grow different varieties, use
grafting techniques to address flooding and devise rain and insect
protection for their crops.

"Probably, it will mean a shift of where crops are grown -- onions
moving a little bit in one direction and tomatoes, cabbages coming out
of very, very dry areas," she added.

Success in tackling the impact of climate change on crops is important
as the world is host to a billion people who are already underweight and
under-nourished, Hughes said.

The average adult is required to consume 74 kilogrammes of vegetables a
year and "most don't reach that," she added.

Scientists are also concerned about the potential effect of climate
change on potato blight, a weather-driven disease that takes a heavy
toll on potato crops.

The pathogen that causes the blight is an "incredibly fast breeder,"
said Dyno Keatinge, deputy research head of the International Crops
Research Institute here.