Impacts of Climate Change on Food Utilization

Climate change, one of the worlds most critical current and future challenges, is increasingly impacting food security, especially for the world’s poor and vulnerable. Food utilization, one of the four dimensions of food security, pertains to the biological processing of food by individuals and is typically measured with nutritional indicators. The pathways through which climate change impacts food utilization can be summarized as diet and health. Current literature on these pathways is discussed, highlighting the need for a systems approach to food security that goes beyond promoting agricultural productivity and encompasses issues related to health and vulnerability, especially of women. Some of the content in this chapter was adapted from a previous publication: Brian Thompson and Marc J. Cohen, eds., The Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition, Dordrecht: Springer and Rome: FAO, 2012. N.-L. Aberman (*) International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: n.aberman@cgiar.org C. Tirado PAHO/WHO, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil UCLA School of Public Health e-mail: cristinatirado@ucla.edu Bill Freedman (ed.), Global Environmental Change, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5784-4_124, # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 717