Climate change is helping diseases and pests, known for attacking crops, "spread" around the world, according to a new study.
A team from the Universities of Exeter and Oxford have discovered crop pests are moving approximately two miles a year, according to BBC News.
The pests are moving towards the north and south poles, and are quickly making themselves at home in locations once deemed too cold for them to live.
Around 10 to 16 percent of the world's crops are lost every year due to disease outbreaks. Global warming temperatures could make this problem even worse.
"Global food security is one of the major challenges we are going to face over the next few decades," said Dr. Dan Bebber, the lead author of the study from the University of Exeter. "We really don't want to be losing any more of our crops than is absolutely necessary to pests and pathogens."
The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Researchers looked at the records of over 610 crop pests from all-over the world. The records were collected over the past 50 years, according to BBC News.
"We detect a shift in their distribution away from the equator and towards the poles," said Dr. Bebber.
For example, the mountain pine beetle is destroying trees in the U.S., as well nematode worms, fungi, and bacteria.
As more information gets made available, the more researchers will now how far pets have traveled to determine how bad the problem could get.
"We also need to protect our borders, we have to quarantine plants to reduce the chances that pests and pathogens are able to get into our agricultural systems," said Dr. Bebber.
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