The price of corn is likely to increase significantly in the near future.

Natural disasters and other unexpected catastrophes have had a dramatic effect on the supply chain in recent years. As we’ve discussed, businesses have been advised to take a serious look at the way they manage risks in the supply chain that result from incidents like the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 and the floods in Thailand last fall.

But, some issues may be slowly creeping up on us. So while it’s important to make plans for dealing with sudden large disasters, there should an equal amount of attention paid toward potential threats that are growing.

For any business that’s a part of the foot supply chain, listen up. A study that was released on Sunday in the scientific journal, Nature Climate Change, pointed out that the price of corn is likely to increase significantly in the near future, according to The New York Times.

Corn producers have been struggling with keeping crops fruitful recently thanks to the increased temperatures in the United States. The study indicated that those problems are only going to get worse, which surprised one of the study’s authors.

“I really thought climate would be a minor player before we did this analysis,” Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist from Stanford University, explained to the media outlet. “We’re looking at a period over the next three decades or so of moderate global warming, after all.”

He and the other authors of the report suggested that either there needs to be a new type of corn that can grow bountifully in warm climates or corn production needs to move north to Canada.

Either way, this could have a huge effect on the entire food supply chain and label compliance standards, considering how many different products that corn is used in.