Feeding Resilience: Climate Change and Food Insecurity Impacts on U.S. National Security Project

The report identifies a critical policy gap where climate change, food insecurity, and national security are often addressed in silos. It argues that while the U.S. intelligence and military communities recognize these as top security concerns, current interventions remain focused on immediate humanitarian aid rather than long-term community resilience. The document recommends scaling up R&D, synchronizing agricultural emission cuts with food supply needs, and integrating geopolitical risks into strategic military and government planning to prevent global instability and conflict.

• Current food security policies prioritize immediate emergency responses over long-term resilience, evidenced by global humanitarian aid increasing at a rate six times faster than development assistance over the last decade.
• The U.S. national security and intelligence communities view the nexus of climate change and food security as a major threat; specifically, a 2021 National Intelligence Estimate identified 11 climate-vulnerable countries and two regions as particular concerns for U.S. national security.
• There is a significant disconnect in policy framing, as interventions for food insecurity are rarely developed as security-enhancing measures, despite food insecurity being a known precursor to instability.
• U.S. investment in public agricultural research and development has decreased by one-third over the last 20 years, while China has tripled its investments to become the world's leading funder of agricultural R&D.
• Food insecurity contributes to irregular migration; the World Food Programme estimates that refugee outflows increase by nearly 2% for every year of food insecurity.
• A tension exists between the need to increase agricultural yields for a projected population of 9.4 to 10.2 billion by 2050 and the fact that food systems cause approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions and up to 80% of biodiversity loss.

APA

Parera, P., & Hugh, B. (2023). Feeding Resilience: Climate Change and Food Insecurity Impacts on U.S. National Security Project. The Council on Strategic Risks. https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/2023/08/09/feeding-resilience/

Chicago

Parera, Patricia, and Brigitte Hugh. Feeding Resilience: Climate Change and Food Insecurity Impacts on U.S. National Security Project. The Council on Strategic Risks, 2023. https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/2023/08/09/feeding-resilience/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Parera |first1=Patricia |last2=Hugh |first2=Brigitte |title=Feeding Resilience: Climate Change and Food Insecurity Impacts on U.S. National Security Project |publisher=The Council on Strategic Risks |date=9 August 2023 |url=https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/2023/08/09/feeding-resilience/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{parera2023feeding, author = {Parera, Patricia and Hugh, Brigitte}, title = {{Feeding Resilience: Climate Change and Food Insecurity Impacts on U.S. National Security Project}}, institution = {The Council on Strategic Risks}, year = {2023}, month = aug, url = {https://councilonstrategicrisks.org/2023/08/09/feeding-resilience/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }