Food security is critically important for national stability and societal well-being. With the acceleration of climate change, extreme weather events have become more frequent and intense, exerting substantial pressure on agricultural productivity and food supply stability. Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive understanding of how extreme climate conditions affect food production and identifying effective strategies to mitigate and adapt to these impacts. Based on a robust theoretical framework, this study utilizes panel data from 296 Chinese cities from 2007 to 2020 to empirically analyze the effects of extreme climate events on food production security. Furthermore, it examines the moderating role and threshold effects of farmland transfer in mitigating these impacts, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying these relationships. The key findings of the study are summarized as follows: (1) At the national level, all three major extreme climate factors-extreme high temperatures, extreme low temperatures, and extreme precipitation-have a statistically significant negative impact on food production. Extreme high temperatures and extreme low temperatures exhibit negative effects at the 1% significance level, while extreme precipitation negatively affects food production at the 5% significance level; (2) Regional disparities are evident in the impacts of extreme climate conditions on food production. The adverse effects are most pronounced in major grain-producing areas, where extreme climate factors significantly suppress agricultural productivity. In production-consumption-balanced regions, extreme high temperatures exhibit a substantial inhibitory effect on food production. Conversely, in grain-consuming regions, the impacts of extreme climate events are not statistically significant; (3) Farmland transfer serves as an important moderating mechanism in mitigating the negative effects of extreme precipitation on food production. This moderating effect is most pronounced in major grain-producing regions and production-consumption-balanced regions but remains statistically insignificant in grain-consuming regions. However, farmland transfer shows limited moderating effects on the impacts of extreme high and low temperatures, particularly in regions of critical importance to food security; (4) The relationship between extreme climate conditions and food production demonstrates a single-threshold effect. Once farmland transfer exceeds a critical threshold level of 10.8905, the negative impact of extreme climate conditions becomes statistically insignificant. In conclusion, enhancing food security in the face of extreme climate events necessitates proactive and targeted strategies. The effective implementation of the "storing grain in the land" policy is essential for improving agricultural resilience. Promoting farmland transfer to optimize cropping structures can achieve economies of scale and enhance agricultural productivity, thereby mitigating the adverse effects of extreme climate conditions and ensuring long-term food supply stability.