HOW THE CLIMATE CRISIS WILL CHANGE WHAT WE EAT

FHANNAH MURPHY AND ANDREA MARKS

ROM THE Georgia peach to Colombian coffee, the food we eat is an entrenched part of American culture. But thanks to rising temperatures and CO2 levels, climate change is expected to transform the future of food.

Extreme weather and pests are already wiping out crops while acidifying oceans are disrupting fisheries. The key is learning how to adapt. “It’s a race between innovation and the impacts of climate,” says Keith Wiebe of the International Food Policy Research Institute. It will require breeding new strains of staple foods and moving farmland north into cooler climes. “Napa Valley pretty much ends up in Canada not too long from now,” says Lisa Goddard, a climate scientist at Columbia University.

And the outcome is far from certain as the weather becomes more unpredictable. “The entire history of agriculture is based on experience with relatively stable temperatures,” Wiebe says. “And we’re going to move beyond that in the next decades.”