Noodles, Pasta under threat from rising temperatures

Pasta and noodles are made from wheat. And rising temperatures, increasing storms and droughts in the years ahead, will hit this wheat hard. Though danger is also looming large for corn and rice but as wheat is a cool season crop, it stands to fare the worst in the years ahead. Wheat grain is most vulnerable to high temperatures that are negative for its growth and quality.

According to a professor at North Dakota State University, a mere 1 degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperature has brought down the world wheat production by 5.5 percent over the past 50 years. Scientists project the world wheat-bowls such as the U.S, Canadian Midwest, northern China, India, Russia, and Australia will experience every other year a hotter summer, hotter than even the hottest summer till now on record, on an average. Wheat production in that period could decline between 23 and 27 percent.

Hurricane Sandy’s recent devastation of New York and neighboring states reminded us that global warming is possibly making weather more extreme, which can imperil the very foundation of human existence: our ability to feed ourselves.

Photograph by Michael