Climate change is creating dangerous crops
We already know that climate change and elevated levels of carbon dioxide are lowering the concentrations of nutrients like zinc, iron, and protein in common grains. That’s just the beginning. VICE took a look at crops that could actually become toxic—like cassava, a staple of the African diet, and lychee, a South Asian fruit. During droughts, cassava stores hydrogen cyanide—and consuming too much of that, one neurologist observes, causes our legs to permanently warp or paralyze. And about those grains: A scientist says a buildup of nitrates could turn a crop like barley into a “poison chalice.”
