Climate change exacerbates health risks to farmworkers

Until now, most research on climate change and agriculture has focused on crops, not the people who cultivate the crops. A new study looks at the future potential impacts of global warming on both crop yields and farmworkers for a more complete picture of the effects of climate change to the agricultural sector. The study shows that, worldwide, labor and yield impacts are equally important at +3 ◦C warming, with the widely overlooked labor impacts dominant in two of the most vulnerable regions: sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

de Lima, C.Z., J.R. Buzan, F.C. Moore, U.L.C. Baldos, M. Huber, and T.W. Hertel (2021). Heat stress on agricultural workers exacerbates crop impacts of climate change. Environmental Research Letters, 16 (2021) 044020.