Climate change is messing with global weather systems, as evidenced by record temperature swings last year. Fresh research shows climate risks aren’t budging, and at great potential business risk. Numbers from a Center for Climate and Energy Solutions report show that worldwide, over 800 weather-related disasters occurred in 2012, causing $130bn in losses.
Ben & Jerry’s worries about these kinds of trends for various reasons, including the impact climate change has on global food production. Typically, farmers plant, grow and harvest on predictable weather – but without curbing carbon emissions, the new normal will become intensified rains and prolonged droughts potentially ruining an entire season’s crops. Here are three Ben & Jerry’s ingredients caught in climate change’s crosshairs, putting the flavors that use those ingredients on the “Endangered Pints List”.
Cocoa – aka chocolate
Many Ben & Jerry’s flavors, from Phish Food to Chocolate Fudge Brownie, start with chocolate. Yet a troubling International Center for Tropical Agriculture study notes a suspected spike of 2.3C in West Africa by 2050 would make the region too warm for cocoa production. Meanwhile, the Earth Security Index shows four decades of unsustainable farming has depleted 40% of land available for cocoa crops. Global droughts further compromise this production model causing farmers dependent on these crops for their survival to grow more resilient plants, or just giving up cocoa overall. What happens in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire— producing 60% of the world’s chocolate production alone— may spell disaster for chocolate lovers everywhere.
Nuts
From walnuts to pistachios, the nutty texture of flavors like Chunky Monkey are also at risk given that nut trees adapted to temperate regions require a winter chill to stimulate spring growth. Cooler weather becomes a premium, yet studies show frosty weather is in short supply given intensifying temperatures in key nut growing regions —California, southeastern U.S., China and Australia. Already, the loss of winter chill has hit nut crops in Israel, Morocco, Tunisia and the Cape region of South Africa. Tree crops, unlike ground crops, take longer to plant and mature, making it relatively impossible to relocate when the weather changes. That’s a tough nut to crack.
Spiking temperatures also question the viability for the humble peanut, critical for flavors like Peanut Butter Cup. Ben & Jerry’s uses peanut butter for its consistently smooth texture, but the fickle peanut plant is a legume and requires consistent temperatures and perfect rainfall to flourish. A severe southwest dry out in 2011 shriveled the year’s U.S. crop, shooting up prices by 40%. Alas, the 2013 National Climate Assessment from the U.S. Global Change Research Program links climate change to hotter and drier summers for the southern states, the U.S.’s dominant peanut producers. Gnarly price increases could make an American household staple — peanut butter — an elite delicacy.
Coffee
The National Coffee Association’s 2015 report tracks 59% of Americans drink coffee daily. Yet given climate change, leaving the house, without a morning cup of Joe, seems horrifying, but likely. Limited espresso— and no flavors like Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz— are already shaping up. Because harvesters have adapted the coffee plant to specific climate zones, just a ½ C temperature increase can stunt the global coffee crop. Too much moisture and the recent uptick in unseasonable and extreme rainfall have compromised Indian growers’ crops, declining nearly 30% between 2002 and 2011. Climate change also brings an increasing and devastating range of pests, like the coffee berry borer. One study predicts the number of pre-existing regions suitable for growing coffee to shrink anywhere from 65–100% by 2080. As the Union of Concerned Scientists puts it, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.
Will these precious (and delicious) ingredients disappear? Hopefully not. Together let’s put a stop to climate change and protect these flavors from the “Endangered Pints List”.
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