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Food security is a key pillar of environmental security yet remains one of the world's greatest challenges. Its obverse, food insecurity, negatively impacts health and well-being, drives mass migration, and undermines national security and global sustainable development. Ensuring food security is a delicate balance of myriad concerns within the atmospheric and Earth sciences, agronomy and agriculture engineering, social sciences, economics, monitoring, and policymaking. A Food Security Presidential Session at the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) 2022 Annual Meeting brought together experts across disciplines to tackle issues at the nexus of weather, climate, and food security. The starkest takeaway was the realization that, despite its importance and clear roles for the atmospheric and climate sciences, food security has not been a focus for the AMS community. The aim of this paper is to build on the perspectives shared by this expert panel and to identify overlapping issues and key points of intersection between the food-security community and AMS. We examine 1) the interactions between weather, climate, and the food system and how they influence food security; 2) the time and spatial scales of food security decision support that match weather and climate phenomena; 3) the role of both providers and users of information as well as decision-makers in improving research to operations for food security; and 4) the opportunities for the AMS community to address food security. We conclude that, moving forward, the AMS community is well-positioned to scale up its engagement across the global food system to address existing scientific needs and technology gaps to improve global food security. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: We examine how members of the AMS community can help ensure global food security, whether they are engaged in the physical and social sciences or the realms of policy and society. Inspired by the messages of panelists at a Presidential Forum on Food Security at the 2022 AMS Annual Meeting, we gather their perspectives and those of experts working in the various relevant fields and find that there are roles for everyone across the AMS—from providing forecasts of the hydrometeorological variables used in food security outlooks to converting data to knowledge and engaging with stakeholders and decision-makers. We make concrete suggestions to ensure the AMS and its members are fully engaged in feeding the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to weather extremes, such as heatwaves, can cause discomfort, harm, or death in grazing cattle in pastures. While the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issues sheep graziers alerts when there is an exposure risk to chill for livestock, there is no equivalent alert for heat stress for Australian cattle. Before any such alert system can be developed, a robust assessment and comparison of relevant cattle thermal stress indices is required. This study evaluates and compares the multiyear climatology of three cattle thermal heat stress indices across Australia in the warm season months (October–March). The same indices are then used to assess historical Australian heat events where cattle died from heat exposure. These events are based off official records and survey responses from northern Australian graziers. In the seven historical heat events studied, high relative humidity combined with low wind speeds, or high solar exposure combined with high surface temperatures, exacerbated the impact of heat stress on cattle. In the two historic events where multiple compounding weather factors combined (e.g., high humidity, low winds, and high solar exposure), the cattle mortality levels were significantly high. These events were characterized by rainy conditions followed by a rapid warming, meaning cattle were likely unable to acclimatize to such dramatic temperature changes. This study highlights the need for using more than one thermal stress index when verifying cattle heat stress events and, importantly, calls for further research on standardizing the risk classifications of these thermal indices for cattle in Australia's variable climate. Significance Statement: Cattle across Australia's northern tropical and semiarid regions often experience extreme hot and humid conditions in the summer months, which increases the risk of heat stress. This is the first study of its kind to evaluate observations of cattle heat stress across Australia using indices that describe the combined effects of solar exposure, wind speed, relative humidity, and surface temperatures. These cattle heat stress indices can be used to evaluate historical cattle mortality events in feedlots and in grazed pastures. This study lays the groundwork for the development of Australian-wide cattle heat stress forecast products on the 7-day to multiweek time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has negatively affected agricultural productivity in Indonesia. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of the literature on soil salinity caused by climate change, discussed the impact of soil salinity on Indonesian agriculture, examined various strategies for adaptation to salinity, and delivered some ideas for future research. An analysis of 39 identified Scopus articles related to farmers' vulnerability, adaptation, and practices was carried out. This study was performed in November 2022 and employed Bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer software. Findings show that salinity has left Indonesia's agriculture vulnerable to reduced food production, especially for small-scale farmers losing crop yields and land. Various adaptation measures have been initiated, such as restoring soil fertility and using saline-resistant varieties. Irrigation facilities improvements have also been carried out to reduce the risks of soil salinity expansion. Farmers also try social action measures, such as selling assets, borrowing money for daily needs, and even changing jobs. However, for farmers to survive and sustain their businesses, any such measures need to produce satisfactory results. A review of the existing literature reveals a lack of soil salinity studies in Indonesia, which simultaneously points to research gaps not only on the issue of the impact of salinity on income and the vulnerability of small farmers but also on the development of adaptation strategies to address salinity due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity threatens agriculture in California. During the last two decades, historically severe droughts have led to severe water shortages. Under projected changes in climate, droughts of greater severity and duration will exacerbate this situation. California produces 80% of the world's almonds, which require consistent water supplies for irrigation. Almonds are the most commonly grown crop in California, covering nearly 1.4 million acres over about 8,000 farms. In response to these challenges, almond growers are considering a myriad of management strategies to save water and mitigate climate change. The Tree-Crop Remote Sensing of Evapotranspiration Experiment (T-REX) aims to identify water and orchard management opportunities to maximize water use efficiency and carbon sequestration in almonds and other woody perennial tree crops. The project combines satellite, uncrewed aerial vehicles, and proximal sensing technologies to retrieve key variables used to model surface fluxes and biophysical properties. We aim to advance our understanding of water management and cultural practices on water-carbon relationships in tree-perennial agroecosystems. Through new methods, such as evapotranspiration-based irrigation scheduling, even a modest 10% decrease in almond orchard irrigation across the state equates to about a third of the water in Lake Oroville, California's second-largest reservoir, at average levels. From a carbon perspective, almond orchards could sequester 8% of the state's current greenhouse gas emissions by transitioning toward climate-smart practices. As such, the almond industry is uniquely positioned to curb water use and contribute to climate change mitigation while maintaining economic viability of almond production. An overview of initial results related to evapotranspiration observational and modeling uncertainty and carbon sequestration potential are presented in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]