- The Plate
How to Track a Brutal Cereal Killer: Extreme Weather
It’s no surprise that wildly swinging temperatures, droughts, and floods aren’t exactly good for crops. California’s drought cost the state’s thirsty agricultural sector $1.84 billion in 2015 alone, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that a warming climate reduces yields of cereals like wheat, rice, and maize.
And with climate change messing with the frequency and intensity of at least some extreme weather events, we may be seeing more trouble for food security to come. But just how bad are these crazy weather patterns for our staple crops?
To get an answer, a team of researchers led by Navin Ramankutty, a professor of global food security and sustainability at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver,