Peach production in Georgia, the Peach State, dropped 90% in 2023 because the preceding winter was too warm.
Climate change and the prospect of trade wars are putting the squeeze on coffee suppliers, raising the price of ground coffee to a record high early this year, according to government data. And last week, Starbucks announced job cuts. But it’s not just coffee that’s being affected by a changing climate.
Michael Hoffmann is a professor emeritus at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and lead author of Our Changing Menu: Climate Change and the Foods We Love and Need.
Hoffmann says: “It doesn’t surprise me that the price of coffee has spiked because of increasing droughts and floods. Food prices are rising globally because of increasing weather extremes caused by our changing climate.
“Although my beloved coffee gets a lot of attention when it comes to climate change, it’s difficult to find a favorite or staple food that is not being affected. In recent years, 10 billion snow crabs, with their delicate flavor and tender texture, starved to death in the warming waters of the Bering Sea. As the waters warmed, the crab’s metabolism accelerated, so they ate more and more until nothing remained. The price of beef has gone up as pastures dry out from droughts and the health of grazing cattle is jeopardized by wildfire smoke, from which they can’t escape.
“Looking to the future, the Midwest wheat crop is predicted to be devastated every six years by heatwaves. It used to be every 100. Yields of rice, a staple food for half the world’s population, are predicted to decline. Winters are warming and when too warm, yields from fruit and nut trees can drop dramatically. Peach production in Georgia, the Peach State, dropped 90% in 2023 because the preceding winter was too warm. Glaciers and ice caps are melting fast and in countries like Peru those melt waters are used to irrigate crops. Unfortunately, that ice is expected to be mostly gone in a couple of decades or less, putting at risk millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, asparagus, grapes, citrus, and coffee that we import from Peru annually.
“From abalone to zucchini, everything on our menu is being affected by an increasingly warming planet.”
