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How the Next Generation Won’t Be Eating The Same Food As We Eat Today – And Why That’s So Scary

Climate change isn’t just destroying crops and raising prices – it’s impacting the flavor and quality of food itself. While many news and media outlets focus on drastic crop failures, rising prices, and food shortages, one lesser-known negative consequence of climate change is becoming an increasingly important issue. Climate change hasn’t only been reducing the quantity of food – it’s started reducing quality as well. Food color and flavor depends on a complex combination and variety of environmental factors which influences how plants grow. Environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall, soil conditions, and atmospheric CO₂ levels are crucial to determining the balance of compounds in plants to create flavor. Wine, coffee, cocoa, fruits, and even staple grains are being negatively affected by climate change. Long-term environmental changes can completely change the flavor, nutrients, and color of plants permanently – and climate change is causing these major changes to occur^[¹^]. As growing conditions are heavily adjusted by climate change, food flavor is becoming increasingly bland and flavorless.

Mass produced vegetables are bland in flavor and artificially colored. Credit: Tony 98

Flavor is determined by the state of sugars, acids, aromatic compounds, oils, nutrients, and water content within plants^[²^,³^]. During the growth or ripening stages, plants expend most of their energy producing these compounds^[⁴^]. This adjusts the composition of the plant or fruit, creating distinct flavors. For instance, sweetness comes from higher levels of soluble sugars such as sucrose, fructose, and glucose^[⁵^]. Tartness is due to more acids present in the plant’s makeup^[¹^]; Fruity, floral, and earthy tones are caused by specific aromatic molecules^[⁶^,⁷^], and texture is affected by the plant’s water content and cell structure^[⁶^]. The quantities of each of these are carefully controlled during the plant’s preharvest development. Miniscule changes in growing changes can shift the specific balance between these compounds^[⁶^,¹^], potentially causing dramatic changes in flavor and composition.

Temperature is a key aspect to plants’ flavor and overall crop quality^[¹^,⁸^]. As temperatures rise, plants mature faster, and fruits ripen earlier^[⁹^,¹⁰^]. This disrupts the balance between sugars and acids, as well as other components in the plants and fruits^[¹¹^]. For instance, higher temperatures cause a dramatic reduction of malic acid in grapes, a crucial component in shaping the grape’s flavors^[⁸^]. In many crops, hotter conditions cause sugar accumulation and organic degradation^[⁸^,¹¹^]. While higher levels of sugars may initially sound beneficial, excessive sugar and reduced acidity as caused by warmer conditions makes foods taste flat and overly sweet^[¹²^,¹¹^]. High temperatures accelerating sugar accumulation force producers to harvest fruits earlier in order to avoid producing flavorless foods.

For instance, wine grapes are highly sensitive to temperature adjustments^[¹²^,⁹^]. When temperatures rise, grapes accumulate sugar far more quickly, causing acidity ratios to decline^[¹²^,¹⁰^]. This causes flavor compounds to develop differently, negatively adjusting the important phenolic and aromatic profiles^[⁹^,¹⁰^]. This can cause wines to have higher alcohol content, taste less balanced, and even lose their flavor altogether^[⁸^,¹¹^]. Many traditional wine-producing regions are already experiencing these challenges. The environment a plant is grown in can cause it to have a specific flavor. Areas specifically sought for their unique flavors are finding it harder and harder to produce their trademark flavors^[¹³^,¹⁴^]. In Bordeaux, France, winemakers are being forced to attempt using alternative grape varieties as climate change alters traditional growing conditions^[¹³^].

Wine grapes in Bordeaux, France. Credit: The Wine Cellar Insider

Another relevant example is coffee. Coffee flavor depends on stable temperatures, specific elevations, and consistent rainfall patterns in order to grow at all^[¹⁵^,¹⁶^]. As temperatures increase, suitable growing areas shrink^[¹⁷^,¹⁸^]. This causes coffee crops to become stressed, and bean development is altered^[¹⁹^]. In 2012, Benoit Bertrand, S. Dussert, and other researchers from CIRAD (The French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) published a research paper on this specific issue. They showed that heat stress reduces the compounds in coffee beans, which are responsible for coffee’s flavors and aromas. As climate change reduces yields, coffee beans become more expensive^[²⁰^,²¹^] and taste worse^[¹⁹^,¹⁶^].

Similarly, cocoa beans are experiencing similar effects. Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which are extremely sensitive to climate changes^[²²^,²³^]. In order to thrive, cocoa trees require a certain temperature, humidity, and rainfall to be present at all times. Climate change is negatively affecting cocoa by increasing drought stress, altering bean development, and increasing pest and disease outbreaks^[²⁴^,²⁵^,²⁶^,²⁷^,²⁸^]. These new changes are drastically changing the beans’ bitterness, sweetness, aroma, and overall flavor^[²⁹^]. Because chocolate flavor develops during fermentation and roasting, subtle shifts in bean composition can have dramatic effects on the final flavor^[²⁹^,³⁰^].

Generally, all fruits are being negatively impacted by these changes. Warmer conditions cause fruits to ripen faster, leading to higher sugar concentrations, lower acid levels, and shorter flavor development periods^[³¹^,³²^]. While they may become full of sugars due to overripening, the increased quantities of sugars within them actually make them less flavorful^[³³^]. Most fruits rely on a balance between sugar and acidity, such as apples, peaches, strawberries, oranges, and blueberries^[³¹^,³³^]. For instance, a strawberry’s characteristic flavor arises from hundreds of volatile compounds, not simply the sugars and acids surrounding them^[³⁴^,³⁵^]. Climate related changes can reduce the production of some of these compounds, making fruit taste less aromatic despite being sweeter^[³²^,¹¹^,³¹^]. Kiwis, fruits which rely on high acid content, may lose their trademark flavor altogether as acid content degrades.

While many of these changes arise from the surrounding characteristics on land and weather, some of the most surprising effects on crops come from the atmosphere itself. As climate change causes atmospheric CO₂ levels to spike, they have begun affecting food production in a lesser-known, dramatic way. Higher atmospheric CO₂ levels stimulate plant growth through a process known as the CO₂ fertilization effect^[³⁶^,³⁷^]. When paired with normal levels of CO₂ in the air, this effect is positive, allowing the carbon dioxide to act as a fertilizer of sorts. The fertilization effect accelerates the rate of photosynthesis, allowing plants to grow faster, produce more biomass, and use water more efficiently^[³⁸^]. However, too much fertilization can cause plants to grow faster than they can absorb essential minerals from the soil^[³⁹^,⁴⁰^]. This causes them to have less nutrient levels^[³⁷^]. Invasive species and weeds thrive from over-fertilization, allowing them to outcompete crops and native species. Over-fertilization can even lead to altered ecosystems. When plants grow faster, their leaves often contain higher carbon-nitrogen ratios, making them tougher and less nutritious for insects^[³⁶^]. This forces herbivores to consume significantly more plant matter, disrupting local insect populations and affecting the food chain.

A study in 2014 led by Samuel S. Myers of Harvard School of Public Health found that crops grown under elevated CO₂ contained less protein, lower concentrations of important minerals, and reduced levels of nutrients. Higher levels of CO₂ and fertilization causes plants to accumulate more carbohydrates and release many of the important components needed for nutritional value and flavor. Staple crops such as rice, wheat, and potatoes become less nutritious with higher levels of CO₂ present in the atmosphere^[³⁹^].

Table showing the effect of elevated CO2 on the concentrations of soluble sugar and acidity in vegetables. Credit: PMC (Click here to view full article).

Water availability also strongly influences flavor development^[¹^,³³^]. While mild water stress can sometimes improve flavor^[⁴⁰^,⁴¹^], such as when irrigation is limited to concentrate wine flavor^[⁴³^,⁴²^], drought or inconsistent rainfall has the opposite effect. Extreme drought reduces yields, damages plant tissues, disrupts sugar production, and alters aromatic compounds^[³⁶^,⁴⁴^,³³^,¹^]. This causes crops to have lower quality and less desirable flavors, as well as being more expensive as they are harder to grow. As climate change increases drought frequency, these negative effects become more common.

Other extreme events also influence crop flavor. Heat waves cause premature ripening, reducing fruit size and making crops flavorless^[⁹^,³²^]; excessive rainfall dilutes sugars^[¹¹^,⁴³^], increasing disease pressure^[⁴⁵^], heightening pest damage^[³⁶^], and removing flavor; flooding deprives roots of oxygen, affecting plant health and crop quality^[⁴⁵^,⁴⁶^].

Many different regions are known for specific flavors of foods, or terroirs. A terroir refers to the specific, unique flavors present in different regions due to slight changes in climate, soil, elevation, and local environmental conditions^[⁴⁷^,⁴⁸^]. Climate change is modifying these important factors, turning traditional growing regions into unsuitable areas of land. In many cases, local communities are losing their specific terroirs unique to their regions^[⁹^,¹³^]. As more people become aware of these consequences of climate change, many are rushing to take action. Farmers are already attempting to protect the flavor and quality of their crops by switching varieties in order to keep some resemblance of flavor, investing in expensive irrigation systems, and even entirely relocating to cooler areas for a better chance at growing their crops^[⁴⁹^,³⁶^,⁹^,¹⁸^]. Mass producing coffee and cocoa farming companies are increasingly using shade trees and agroforestry systems to lower temperatures, methods which smaller, local farmers cannot afford^[⁵⁰^,⁵¹^]. Some scientists have even begun developing varieties of crops which can withstand warmer conditions and increased CO₂ levels without sacrificing quality^[⁴⁴^,¹⁹^].

Food is more than nutrition. Flavors influence countless regions, cultures, and traditions. As climate change alters flavors which have been associated with particular regions for centuries, farmers who rely on their niche flavors in their district are finding it harder and harder to make profit as flavor fails^[⁴⁷^,³⁶^,⁹^]. Climate change is transforming the environmental conditions which have shaped the foods we eat for thousands of years. Rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, elevated CO₂ and more frequent extreme weather events are all altering the sugars, acids, nutrients, and aromatic compounds which create flavor. From coffee and chocolate to fruits, vegetables and wines, many foods are noticeably losing their flavor. As this continues to occur, many farmers are no longer being given the option of quality or quantity. Instead, both quality and quantity are degrading, with no cheap or easy solutions. Understanding these changes highlights a commonly overlooked consequence of climate change which affects everyone in their day to day lives.