Using the Foods We Love and Need to Tell the Climate Change Story

Abstract:

Climate change is rapidly making the business of getting the foods we love and need to our table more challenging. A changing climate is affecting our globally interconnected and interdependent food supply—just about everything on the menu is changing. Plants, the basis of life, require the right temperatures, water, soil, air and sunlight. All but sunlight are changing and having subtle and in many cases ominous impacts on our foods and beverages—from spices and herbs to pistachios. The flavors of teas, the protein and mineral content of wheat, vitamins in rice, and yields of many crops are undergoing change. This story needs to be told given the cultural, historical, and personal connections everyone has to food. To many, melting glaciers are bad enough but the potential loss of coffee is downright terrifying. Communicating about climate change needs to be relevant and food is relevant to everyone. The approaches to be discussed include a forthcoming book – Our Changing Menu: Climate Change and the Food we Love and Need and a companion website, which includes a searchable database of the hundreds of food ingredients that are changing. The changing menu may be a way to join forces—consumers, producers, chefs, restaurateurs, and food businesses—to find a common ground and draw more attention and action to address this grand challenge of climate change. We all eat.