Advocates urge investment now to keep food safe in climate change

Climate change can lead to setbacks for food safety and public health ranging from more contaminated water to increased bacteria and fungi in animals and crops, according to academics and public health activists on a panel at a Washington forum. 

They point out that the U.S. food system today is focused on reacting to public health emergencies and food-borne disease outbreaks rather than anticipating and preventing such dangers. They agree that increased funding and consumer awareness could change that.

Lance Price, co-director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at George Washington University

Higher temperatures and drought can lead to more infection in food animals, and the interaction of greater rain and drought also can spur the growth of mold that produces mycotoxins linked to human health conditions like liver cancer, said Lance Price, co-director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at George Washington University.

As more plants and animals are affected by infection, producers tend to control it with drugs, Price said at the Consumer Federation of America’s annual national food policy conference. He says increased drug use can have a ripple effect on public health.

Higher temperatures can stress animals, which can lead to infection, Price said. Producers often respond by treating animals with drugs whose residue can spread from feedlots to crops with flooding. Over time, this can mean drug-resistant bacteria in plants, animals and humans. 

“It’s one thing telling a producer not to use drugs to make animals grow faster,” Price said. “It’s another thing to ask them to not treat infections.” 

Similarly, as stressed plants get more fungal infections, the industry may try to control it with medicine used to treat fungal infection in people, Price explained. These drugs aren’t able to target and resist just one type of fungi and instead impact all the fungi on and around plants.

In testing soil in some of California’s agricultural regions, Price said researchers are finding “tons” of drugs and drug-resistant fungi which can spill over to humans. Fungi are also adapting to higher temperatures and are therefore more likely to cause infection. 

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Climate change can also have an impact on water used in agricultural production, Price asserted. For example, the number of toxic algal blooms has increased, and instances are appearing farther north where water bodies experience higher temperatures. Toxic algae can contaminate sources of irrigation, agricultural, processing sanitation and drinking water. 

Changing weather and extreme events also can lead to sewage overflow because of increased levels of water that sewage treatment plants cannot manage, said Lee-Ann Jaykus, professor emeritus at North Carolina State University. This can lead to fecal waste in agricultural waters, like those used to produce shellfish, which can put people at risk for disease such as norovirus.

Such extreme weather events and a changing climate will have broader impacts on the entire food system by shifting where food is produced, said Barbara Kowalcyk, associate professor at the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Barbara Kowalcyk, associate professor at the George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health

Food systems can also become more anticipatory rather than reactionary to protect against consequences of climate change, she said. Her suggestion includes improved surveillance of plants, foods, animals and humans to better understand emerging zoonotic diseases. 

More money for food safety and some mechanisms in the farm bill can aid in the shift, she said. 

“We know we're gonna need surveillance, we know we're going to have emerging pathogens that are going to come up,” Kowalcyk said. “We need to go ahead and invest in it now and I don't know how we do that with the current economic and political climate, because rather than shifting resources away, we actually need to invest more resources in those areas.”

The public health and food safety concerns associated with climate change are difficult to address in part because they are not limited to one region, Price said. He adds that how one producer in a different country adapts to climate change can affect other countries. 

In the United States, there has been an effort to dial back on some anti-microbials used in food animal production. But many such "protective moves” are not always deployed in other countries like Brazil, which has ramped up use of anti-microbials in poultry, Price said. “They’re not just exporting poultry, they are exporting drug-resistant, extensively resistant bacteria.” 

On a domestic level, the EPA can also change how it regulates antimicrobials and plant production to mimic FDA guidance on animal drug use, Price suggested. 

In some primarily high-income countries, Price said consumer knowledge and engagement can motivate policies that reduce antibiotic use in food animals. He said consumers in Europe, for example, have pushed back on antibiotic use in animal production, which caused some drug firms in China and New Zealand to create separate production streams for different markets. 

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