Over the course of many years, some dishes have settled in the countries of the world as part of the identity of each country, and one of the elements of the culture rooted in it.
Translated by: NCEJ
On the other hand, there are some of these dishes and types that our very previous ancestors did not know, such as spices that were once expensive, and potatoes that the world knew in the sixteenth century, but it became a main item on our tables, loved by everyone and presented in different recipes, today the world knows too Columbia coffee and Georgia peaches, but climate change threatens to make many of these things we love disappear forever.
The effect may not have caused the goods to disappear on store shelves and in vegetable markets yet, but we see a change in their quality from time to time, and the effort to reach us is increasing, as hundreds of thousands of farmers strive to keep pace with climate change, and it seems that the threat is developing faster than We imagine, so that some varieties are rare and completely threatened to disappear from our tables, and our grandchildren may not know what they are in the first place. Indeed, the most popular foods will not be available to everyone a few decades from now (1).
When temperatures rise, warm air retains more moisture, and more rain is likely; Direct damage to crops and reduced production. Flooding is also expected to increase due to the intensification of tropical storms and sea level rise associated with climate change; This threatens to inundate crops, and that flood waters will also carry sewage, manure or pollutants with them, so that more diseases and toxins will find their way into our food. Climate change is also threatening to dry out the aquifers on which irrigation depends on about 10% of crops in major food production areas in the world faster, and drought in general brings another threat to the soil, which is salinity (2).
Rising temperatures also cause great difficulty in the production of staple grains all over the world, so that their production will decrease, and the effect may reach that the staple grains are less nutritious, and the danger may extend to eliminating crops completely in severe droughts, and of course these Scarcity will be more evident in the food of the world’s poorest people, while developed countries will witness a rise in prices, especially as a similar danger looms for other available alternatives, as climate change also affects the production of meat and fisheries, which are other essential aspects of our food supply (3).
Our main dishes are in danger
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), rice, maize and wheat provide 60% of the food energy consumed in the world, and these crops have been affected in recent years by climate change (4). A study published in PLOS ONE in 2019 stated that climate change has already affected the production of the world’s top 10 crops in certain regions, including some of the world’s major and most consumed grains such as maize, wheat, barley and rice.
The other crops mentioned in the study are oil palm, rapeseed, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane, and cassava (one of the main sources of carbohydrates in tropical and subtropical regions), and these crops together provide 83% of all calories produced from the grown food.
The study found various effects of climate change on crops in different regions of the world, in Europe, South Africa and Australia the effect was negative, while the effects were positive in Latin American countries, and the effects in Asia and North and Central America were uneven, but the problem is that half of the countries that did not enjoy In terms of food security, it is primarily those who have suffered from reduced food production (5).
Let’s take rice, for example, which is a component of many popular dishes around the world, as it represents a major component of food for more than 3.5 billion people, and a source of about 20% or more of calories. Although rice has a history in Asia, its largest consumption has been in Africa, but the acceleration of climate change is raising the alarm about increasing threats to the rice crop, such as arsenic contamination and bacterial diseases.
The rice crop thrives in wetlands, and the risk it faces is drought as well as unpredictable rainfall. 90% of the world’s rice is produced in Asia and in countries such as China – the world’s largest rice producer – India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam. In Bangladesh, for example, coastal flooding is increasing the salinity of the earth; This makes it impossible to grow rice in large areas, and the land capacity for rice crops is expected to decline by more than 50% over the next century in all of Asia, and the danger extends to the African continent, where Nigeria is one of the largest rice-growing countries.
California, the second largest producer of rice in the United States (and therefore an excellent research model), is experiencing a drought crisis in the Sacramento Valley, forcing farmers to leave swaths of barren land. In contrast, about 5 years ago, the heavy rains stopped the cultivation of large areas there, and farmers talked about areas of uncultivated land due to floods, as tractors were unable to move through the muddy soil to prepare the fields for planting (6).
In various parts of the world other options are being tested to help rice survive these increasingly hostile conditions, and encouraging rotation with other crops is one of the solutions that have been implemented in Thailand, where rice is rotated with other crops, such as Sunna hemp, but it also means to decrease production. Researchers continue efforts to isolate strains that are tolerant of drought and floods and can adapt to changing weather patterns, but what exacerbates the problem is that most of the world’s rice production depends on small farmers who do not have the resources to cope with change (7).
Corn and French Fries
In the near future, you may not be able to get a bag of hot popcorn easily, as corn yields are threatened by a 10% decline in the world’s 4 largest exporters – the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Ukraine if average temperatures rise by two degrees Celsius. The potential for a drop in production would rise to catastrophic levels of 86% if temperatures were to rise by 4°C, a figure possible by the end of the century.
Overall, by 2100, US corn production is expected to halve if temperatures continue (8). But things will not stop there. Perhaps the citizens of some countries will have to imagine their lives without delicious French fries, and the potato dishes found in almost all countries of the world.
Today, China, India, Russia and Ukraine are at the forefront of potato-producing countries, but the fruit, which was not moved from the Andes – where it is native – to different parts of the world until the sixteenth century, has become threatened in an unprecedented way, as the increased emissions threaten to reduce the yield of potato tubers by about 26% By 2085, it also threatens to be impossible to cultivate in some areas, such as Peru, its original homeland, and the place of cultivation of its diverse species (9).
During the previous centuries and in its long journey to different regions of the world, potato cultivation witnessed natural pollination in attempts to grow new types of them that have the ability to resist diseases, and today attempts are being made to improve their ability to withstand climate change, and these attempts will determine the fate of delicious potato dishes in various around the world (10).
Chocolate too
The cup of coffee so loved by many is also threatened to disappear completely, and to turn into the well-being of all people. For those who can afford it, some foods like coffee or cocoa will cost them more in the future, but those in the poorest will face those foods disappear from their diets altogether, becoming things like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold night, or a cake drenched in chocolate. To be eaten by the family’s children at a festivity, a kind of luxury that not everyone will have.
Climate change could completely eliminate the cocoa plant by 2050, of which we get about 50% of it from Ghana and Ivory Coast, as cocoa cultivation and production are becoming increasingly difficult in light of high temperatures and fluctuating rainfall and humidity in the tropics, which are the ideal climate for plant cultivation. which we love.
Years ago, MARS (Mars), one of the giant chocolate bar producers, recognized the danger of climate change to cocoa cultivation, and partnered with researchers from the University of California to try to develop technology to help the plant survive, which takes time, until then. Still, danger threatens the sweet adored by millions around the world.
Bananas, whose production has increased in recent decades with rising temperatures, are threatened to be severely affected by this increase, so that we could lose the ability to grow them in 10 countries by 2050, in South America, and in Asia as well, where India – the largest producer – is expected to suffer. And a consumer of bananas in the world – from problems in its cultivation, in addition to the Philippines, which will witness a significant decline in banana yields in the coming decades (11).
Source
Aljazeera.net Translated by NCEJ
References
- From Apples to Popcorn, Climate Change Is Altering the Foods America Grows – The New York Times
- How Climate Change will Alter Our Food
- 11 Foods That Are Already Being Impacted by the Climate Crisis
- Did You Know? Your Favourite Foods Could Disappear Due To Climate Change
- Climate change has likely already affected global food production
- Rice feeds half the world. Climate change’s droughts and floods put it at risk
- Can rice survive climate change?
- How Climate Change will Alter Our Food
- Climate change impact on global potato production
- البطاطس: الأصول التاريخية لرابع أهم محصول عالميا
- 5 Foods You Eat Everyday Could Disappear Because Of Climate Change, From Coffee To Potatoes
