Climate change invites itself into your salads

Normally, summer is synonymous with colorful salads made with fruits and vegetables at low prices. But obviously, the 2022 season is not normal.

The cultivated blueberry is the perfect example. For perhaps two decades, three-for-$5 sale cans were easily found in supermarkets as soon as the plump New Jersey berries were ripe. Have you seen any this year?

The price of a 340-gram pint was $7 at the start of last week, in Quebec Metro, before dropping to $5. I’ve toured supermarkets across Canada—virtually, of course—and it’s the same everywhere.

It feels like the middle of winter. That’s the general trend. We can, of course, come across a windfall on occasion. Walmart, for example, announced the tray at $2.97 recently. But it’s still considerably more expensive than other summers.

The current price of this succulent berry is surprising.

“It is the most expensive fruit. I’ve never seen this in 40 years for the price to go so high, for so long,” Joe Lavorato, president of Gaétan Bono Fruits et Légumes, a major Montreal importer, told me. All of this is entirely the fault of Mother Nature, which has not been kind to the American east coast, he explains, the fields having been “destroyed by hail and abominable heat”.

This weather cocktail has considerably reduced the amount of fruit available in the market.

“The supermarkets collect all the volumes we have”, reports Joe Lavorato, so that the small fruit shops have to pass their turn. Grocery stores have also decided to no longer sell blueberries, the casseau being too expensive.

The blueberry is just one example among many. Corn and bean fields have also suffered in this region. Can’t wait for the arrival of Quebec beans on the stalls, because for months, this vegetable has cost as much as cherries.

Speaking of cherries, California and Washington State suffered bouts of frost and downpours. Result: scarlet pearls are rare, reports Joe Lavorato. “Normally, California will harvest 9 or 10 million boxes of cherries. This year, we will be at 4 million. It’s less than half. It puts pressure on prices. »

Importers of fresh fruits and vegetables have always been forced to deal with the occasional vagaries of weather, currency fluctuations and roller coaster transportation costs. But now climate change is clouding the future. “In my book, it’s the biggest fear. How can we ensure that the planet eats adequately at reasonable prices? It’s a challenge world”, loose Joe Lavorato, pensive.

Oxfam is also concerned about the consequences of climate change on world hunger. The drought that has been raging for years in some African countries is forcing farmers, fishermen and herders to find other means of subsistence, gives the organization as an example. And reduced food production capacity threatens populations with famine^⁠1.

These days, the heat wave is hitting all over the world. A heat record from 1873 has just been broken in Shanghai, forests are burning in Europe, Mexican farmers have ceased operations to save what little water is left^⁠2. In Italy, the Po River, which supplies nearly a third of the country’s agricultural production, has dried up^⁠3. Cow’s milk production has dropped by 10% due to the heat, threatening the parmesan cheese industry, CNN reports.^⁠4.

All this news should cause us serious concern, even if it doesn’t seem to be the case.^⁠5. It’s not like we can go without food!

When we hear about food inflation, the impact of climate change is less easy to quantify than the increase in the price of fertilizers, transport or wages. More blurry. However, it is a key element of the equation whose weight is likely to increase.

Global warming even affects the discounts you see (or no longer see) in flyers. Joe Lavorato says it is increasingly difficult for him to “give prices to retailers who want them three weeks in advance for their flyers”. The big chains must therefore “be careful what they advertise”.

Eating 5 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day is becoming unaffordable for a growing number of Quebecers. Even in the middle of summer. It’s a shame for food quality and budgets.

Planting a vegetable garden has never been so profitable, provided nature cooperates.