How the Climate Crisis Could Ruin America’s Favorite Holiday Foods
Vast global trade networks established over decades and a relatively wealthy population mean grocery stores can offer consistent access to huge varieties of food products to most people in the United States. So while Florida is no longer the nation’s top orange producer, Americans can still buy the citrus fruit at a higher price because suppliers can source the fruits from California and other states.
But it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate food supply problems from the climate crisis, even in wealthy, geographically large nations like the United States. Increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, which destroy transportation infrastructure and agricultural land, has disrupted supply chains and food systems around the world.
Agriculture is highly dependent on climate, and therefore uniquely vulnerable to the unpredictable shifts occurring across the country and globe. Elevated CO2 levels, more extreme temperatures, drought, and other now-typical occurrences that are part of the climate crisis can all significantly affect crop yields.
Nobody working in any agricultural sector – whether the owner of a small family farm or the CEO of a massive processing plant – is unaware of the very real disruptions to their livelihood coming from climate change.
For example, unusually high temperatures in 2012 – the year of a historic drought across the Midwest – led to unexpectedly low corn yields, record-low dry hay production, and other crop disruptions. What was projected to be a banner year for corn resulted in a 13% decrease from the previous year. Approximately 120 million tons of dry hay was produced nationwide in 2012, the smallest total annual yield since 1964, according to the USDA.
More recently across the Northeast, a late frost and unseasonably heavy rainfall and flooding ruined fruit crops and washed away farms along with transportation routes in the spring and summer of this year.
Agriculture in the U.S. is obviously not immune to climate disruptions. The following 10 foods are commonly grown and consumed year round in the United States, and frequent additions to holiday dishes this time of year. Some are primarily produced in the United States while others are more often imported. All are vulnerable to climate disruptions.
Data on each food’s top producing state, top export market, and the value of U.S. exports was obtained from the USDA.
