Climate Change Will Affect The World's Wheat Supply

Climate change is leading to a number of drastic changes in the not-so-far future, including the drastic decrease of certain foods like coffee and shellfish. Now we can add wheat to that list.

A report published recently in Nature Climate Change from scientists in the U.S., Europe, and China, claims that if global temperatures rise 1 degree Celsius, the world supply of wheat will be cut by more than 44 million tons, or about 6.8 percent.

Humans consume about 500 million tons of wheat annually, so that would impact a sizable chunk of our glutinous appetites. Warmer areas of the world like India would be hit the hardest (around 8 percent of India's wheat crops would fail), but all around the world, our supply of pasta and bread would shrink significantly.

"The consistent negative impact from increasing temperatures confirmed by three independent methods warrants critical needed investment in climate change adaptation strategies to counteract the adverse effects of rising temperatures on global wheat production, including genetic improvement and management adjustments," researchers said in the paper.