Pollinator loss hits coffee and cocoa cultivation as global warming batters beer

16 Oct 2023 --- Scientists have warned climate change is impacting key crops as a result of human-caused planetary warming. In the wake of erratic rain patterns and extreme heat, dwindling pollinator counts are reducing coffee and cocoa crops while beer is being damaged by unfavorable weather, potentially leading to a duller taste and aroma due to lowered hops quality. Meanwhile, wines are getting stronger, albeit temporarily.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned several years ago that unsustainable energy and unequal land use has raised global warming to 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, impacting climate-driven food and water insecurity.

And now, several new studies reveal how it is creating problems in the cultivation and quality of popular indulgences like beer, wine, coffee, cocoa and other food products.

Climate change has locked horns with the quality of beer in Europe, with the EU Climate Services stating that Europe recorded the hottest summer last month, amid the Earth's average surface air temperature reaching the peak at 16.38°C.

Trouble looms over European beer
As the world’s third most widely consumed beverage and a staple of European lifestyle, beer sold 39.1 million liters in Europe in 2022. Further, According to Eurostat, in 2022, EU countries produced almost 34.3 billion liters of beer containing alcohol and 1.6 billion liters of no- or low- alcohol beer.

Hot and dry summers are expected to deteriorate its quality and quantity, making it less flavorful, says a recently published study in Nature Communications. The reason is the decline in the yield and quality of hops (Humulus lupulus), which are climbing, herbaceous perennials, that impart beer with its characteristic aroma and flavor.

Alpha acids in beer are the compounds that make it taste bitter.Data analysis from regions accounting for approximately 90% of hop growth in Germany, Czech Republic and Slovenia stated that hop ripening started approximately 20 days earlier, production declined by almost 0.2 t/ha/year and the alpha content decreased by circa 0.6% when comparing data before and after 1994.

Another concern is how the levels of alpha acids — the main source of bitterness in beer — are taking a plunge amid high temperatures.

The scientists also predicted a decline in hop yield and alpha content of 4–18% and 20–31% by 2050, respectively. They assert the need for immediate adaptation measures to stabilize the situation.

Insects impact coffee and cocoa
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 35% of the world's food crop and three-quarters of flowering plants rely on insects and other animal pollinators to reproduce.

Tropical crops such as coffee, cocoa, watermelon and mango are now bearing the brunt of climate change owing to a loss of insect pollinators, urges a study by University College of London, UK and Natural History Museum, Netherlands. The study, published in Science Advances, states that excessive heat is reducing the habitats of flowering plants, leading to a drop in the insects that pollinate them by 61%. These crops rely on bees and flies to help them reproduce.

The researchers, who compiled data from 1,507 crop growing sites worldwide and cataloged 3,080 insect pollinator species, point out that pollinating insects in the tropics are likely hit harder than other places, which has not been objectively focused earlier. The scenario is likely to impact China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and the Philippines, with sub-Saharan Africa also at risk, specifically its cocoa and mango crops.

Climate change has brought down insect pollinator counts by 61%.The study’s lead author Joe Millard, a computational ecologist at the Natural History Museum in London hints at the possibility that coffee and cocoa might get expensive in the future.

“As insects decline, due to being unable to cope with the interacting effects of climate change and land use, so too will the crops that rely on them as pollinators. In some cases, these crops could be pollinated by hand but this would require more labor and more cost,” he explains.

Better wine?
On the other hand, the University of Oxford, UK, has analyzed decades worth of wine critic scores from Bordeaux and highlighted that warmer temperatures favor good wine. It reportedly benefits from greater differences between winter and summer and shorter, earlier growing seasons.

The scientists paired detailed climate data with annual wine critic scores from the Bordeaux wine region in southwest France from 1950 to 2020 and found that, for the time being, the trend is positive.

The study also stresses that consumers prefer stronger wines, with more intense flavors, lower acidity and high sweetness amid claims that global warming is raising wine’s strength. 

But they warn that even though the rising heat appears to be improving wine growing conditions, climate change also makes vineyards prone to higher risks of fires in summer and frost and hail storms in spring. 

Climate change is gathering attention worldwide. At the Africa Climate Summit held last month, highlighted that climate variations have tremendously impacted agriculture and food security in Africa. Factors like soaring temperatures, fluctuating rainfall patterns and extreme weather events impact crop yields and productivity. The only way to stop the tide of climate change is to reduce emissions, says the director of CGIAR Climate Change Impact Platform. 

Meanwhile, studies state that heatwaves that were previously once in a century events, are now occurring every six years in the Midwestern US and every 16 years in Northeastern China, which could wreck agricultural production, cementing the belief that climate change is real.

By Insha Naureen