One of the most valuable foods in history — at one point, worth its weight in gold — is a herb that no modern human has seen. Silphium, loved by ancient Romans to the point that poetry was written about its delicious pungency, is believed to have disappeared sometime in the first century CE.
Overharvested to extinction, its loss deprived the famously extravagant Roman cuisine of a key ingredient. Nearly two millennia later, could the region be facing a culinary disaster of a similar kind? Thanks to climate change, rice cultivators in Italy’s Po valley are faced with a scenario where it may no longer be possible to continue growing unique rice varieties, like arborio and carnaroli, which form the base of one of Italy’s most iconic dishes, risotto.
The spectre of climate change-induced extinction now looms over several crops, from cereals to fruits. If the farmers of Po valley can no longer count on the abundant Alpine snow melt that would flood their fields in the spring, erratic rainfall and rising temperatures in Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana in West Africa — which produce half the world’s cocoa — pose a threat to global chocolate production.
A study published last year showed that “ongoing systemic shocks” to coffee production, particularly rising temperatures in regions which grow the Robusta and Arabica variety of beans, could lead to lower yields and skyrocketing prices.
The cruel irony, about how much agriculture itself has contributed to climate change, is unmissable. Efforts are underway to figure out how these and other endangered crops can be adapted to thrive in adverse conditions, including gene editing using CRISPR — all in the hope that future generations will be able to sample the pleasures of a rich, velvety risotto and experience the jolt of energy that only a good, strong cup of joe can bring.
