barley

Climate change and hunger

July 14, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Worldwide, people are producing more food than ever, but most of that production is concentrated into only a handful of places. For example, fully one third of the world’s wheat and barley exports come from Ukraine and Russia. Across the globe, several major crop-growing regions, including some in the United States, are heading towards sharp drops in harvests as a result of climate change.

These forthcoming changes are not only bad news for farmers, but they are also bad news for everyone who eats. According to a new study published in the journal Nature, it is going to become harder and more expensive to feed a more crowded and hungrier world.

Specifically, under a moderate greenhouse gas emissions scenario, six key staple crops will see an 11.2% decline by the end of the century, compared to a world without warming. The largest drops won’t be in the poorer, more marginal farmlands, but rather in places that are major food producers. These are places like the US Midwest that has long benefited by having both good soil and ideal weather for raising crops like corn and soy.

When the weather is not ideal, it can drastically reduce agricultural productivity. Extreme weather in many places has already damaged crops. Flooding has destroyed rice in Tajikistan, cucumbers in Spain, and bananas in Australia. Severe storms in the US this spring caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage to crops.

As the climate changes, rising average temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are likely to diminish yields and extreme weather events like droughts and floods could wipe out harvests more often. As climate change intensifies, agriculture is the most weather-affected sector of the economy.

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How climate change will worsen hunger

Photo, posted may 20, 2011, courtesy of Lance Cheung / USDA via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Barley plastic

July 24, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The durability, malleability, and low cost of plastics have made them ubiquitous. Plastics are everywhere: in packaging, clothing, and an endless variety of products. As a result, they are everywhere in the environment and they tend to stay there, contaminating land and sea. They are tough to recycle, and their production emits more carbon dioxide than all air traffic combined. The search for viable substitutes for plastic is global and intensive.

Most common bioplastics are not an ideal solution. They don’t break down that easily when tossed into the natural environment. The process can take years.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have invented a new material made from modified starch that can completely decompose in nature and can do so in only two months. The material is made using natural plant material from crops and could be used for food packaging as well as many other things.

The new material is a biocomposite composed of several substances that decompose naturally. The main ingredients are amylose and cellulose, common in many plants. Amylose is extracted from crops like corn, potatoes, wheat, and barley.

The Danish researchers have developed a barley variety that produces pure amylose in its kernels. Pure amylose is ideal because it is less likely to turn into a paste when it interacts with water.

Combining the amylose with cellulose forms long, strong molecular chains, resulting in a durable, flexible material that can replace plastic in many applications. The research team has founded a spinoff company and have applied for a patent for the new material. It is unclear when the biofriendly barley-based plastic might be commercialized, but its potential is quite good.

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Researchers invent one hundred percent biodegradable “barley plastic”

Photo, posted May 20, 2010, courtesy of Frederick Lang Jr. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tracking Down Gluten Sensitivity | Earth Wise

October 6, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Celiac disease is a well-documented autoimmune disease triggered by exposure to the dietary proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley. Celiac disease affects less than 1% of Americans yet many more people claim to be sensitive to gluten.

When people with celiac disease eat gluten, their body mounts an immune response that attacks the small intestine. These attacks lead to damage on the villi, the small projections that line the small intestine that promote nutrient absorption. Symptoms range from various digestive problems to fatigue, weight loss, bloating, and anemia. Ultimately, it can lead to a variety of serious health complications.

Until recently, there was a tendency by doctors to dismiss the complaints of people who claimed to be sensitive to gluten but do not have celiac disease. That is starting to change, in part as a result of studies conducted at Columbia University that looked at the biological basis for non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

The new study shows that people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity produce a high level of anti-gluten antibodies but that these antibodies are different from the ones triggered by celiac disease and that the inflammatory responses they instigate are also different. The more restrained inflammatory response is much less likely to be associated with autoimmune activity and intestinal cell damage. In addition, the immune system of people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity appears to be able to gradually reduce its inflammatory response over time.

Discovery of these antibodies could be used in the future to help doctors more readily identify people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity, which now is difficult to diagnose. The researchers also believe that their work could lead to potential new therapies for celiac disease, which is currently treated only with dietary restrictions.

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Unique Antibody Profile Sets Gluten Sensitivity Apart from Celiac Disease

Photo, posted November 27, 2010, courtesy of Francis Storr via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And Nutrients

August 15, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Ending hunger isn’t a question of producing enough food. Globally, enough food is produced to feed all 7.7 billion people on the planet. But despite this, approximately 1 in 9 people go hungry. Conflict, natural disasters, and extreme poverty are some of the main drivers of global hunger.

Climate change is another. The more frequent and intense extreme weather events increase food insecurity and malnutrition by destroying land, livestock, crops, and food supplies. Climate change makes growing crops harder every year, especially for those who lack the tools and technology to adapt.

But the challenge of reducing hunger and malnutrition is to not only produce foods that provide enough calories, but to also produce foods that make enough necessary nutrients widely available. According to new research, climate change is projected to significantly reduce the availability of critical nutrients such as protein, iron, and zinc over the next 30 years. The total impact of climate change could reduce global per capita nutrient availability of protein, iron, and zinc by 19.5%, 14.4%, and 14.6%, respectively.

While higher levels of carbon dioxide can boost growth in plants, wheat, rice, corn, barley, potatoes, soybeans, and vegetables are all projected to suffer nutrient losses of about 3% on average by 2050 due to the elevated CO2 levels.

The study, which was co-authored by an international group of researchers and published in the peer-reviewed journal, Lancet Planetary Health, represents the most comprehensive synthesis of the impacts of climate change on the availability of nutrients in the global food supply to date.

Climate change is complicating the quest to end global hunger and malnutrition.

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Rising CO2, climate change projected to reduce availability of nutrients worldwide

Photo, posted April 30, 2015, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Edible Six-Pack Rings

June 4, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There has much talk about plastic straws and their harmful effects on the environment. But much like the straws, plastic six-pack rings are also enemies of the ocean. While straws and six-pack rings account for only a tiny fraction of all the plastic trash in the ocean, images of marine animals tangled up in the rings have sparked public backlash against these common items. The soft but tough plastic rings are transparent which means that in the water animals don’t even see them. They end up tangled in the loops, which can cut into their skin and constrict parts of their bodies, leading to serious injury or death. Birds, turtles, and otters are among the frequent victims of six-pack rings.

Plastic straws have readily available alternatives such as paper straws and reusable straws. But the plastic rings that have been available for more than 40 years are not as easy to replace. By law, six-pack rings are photo-degradable, so they do gradually disintegrate when exposed to direct sunlight. But even then, they remain quite dangerous at least for a while.

The Saltwater Brewery in Delray Beach, Florida, recently has released edible six-pack rings, representing a brand-new approach to sustainable beer packaging. The rings are 100% biodegradable and edible. They are actually made from barley and wheat ribbons from the brewing process. This packaging can be safely eaten by animals that may come into contact with them in the wild.

Producing the edible rings represents a big investment for a small brewery but the company hopes to influence larger brewers and inspire them to get on board with the safer packaging.

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