This dissertation evaluates the role of trade as a mechanism of adjustment to the impacts of climate change in agriculture using a new methodological framework. The approach represents a comprehensive integration of a global system of trade with climatically defined land resources, and made possible to trace the likely impacts that climate change may generate in the patterns of regional specialization of production and trade. This framework is used to test the hypotheses that trade adaptations function in a way that first, satisfying global agricultural demand will not be jeopardized, and second, access to food will not decrease. We tested the hypotheses for three alternative scenarios of climate change; regions adjusted by changing the production mix and the area devoted to agriculture - two major mechanisms of adaptation. Results show that trade would still allow satisfying the world’s demand of agricultural commodities. However, access to food decreased in some regions of the world, and a few patterns emerged that raise concerns about the sustainability of trade as a mechanism of adjustment of agriculture to climate change.