Climate change is coming for your Oreos

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The latest victims of climate change could be Oreos, as drenched fields across the U.S. make the wheat that’s a key ingredient a scarcer commodity.

Winter-wheat plantings fell to their lowest levels in more than a century as the grain got harder to seed. That was especially true for soft red winter wheat, with sowings in critical states like Illinois slumping 25%. And that might be bad news for snack fans -- the variety is used in the flour that forms the base for crackers, biscuits and beloved goodies including Mondelez International's Oreos and Kellogg's Cheez-Its.

The warming atmosphere is making the spring planting season a lot wetter and a lot muddier in the Midwest. Last year, things were so bad that record rains meant plantings were done at the slowest pace ever. That’s pressuring farmers to abandon a strategy known as double-cropping -- when the same fields get sown in the spring with soybeans and then in the fall with wheat. Forced to choose just one, growers are giving up on wheat.

Changing weather patterns are wreaking havoc on traditional agriculture calendars all over the world. The U.S. is in the midst of what some measures are showing as the second-warmest winter in 70 years, prompting fruit plants to bloom weeks early across the South. In Vietnam, earlier-than-normal saline buildup in the Mekong Delta is threatening rice paddies, and timing for precipitation is fluctuating across the globe. That’s on top of other climate threats to food production like Australia’s wildfires and drought in Russia.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/climate-change-is-coming-for-your-oreos/ar-BBZL5KC

[Boomer]

1. Does anyone else find this bizarre?

Focusing on the fate of Oreos feels like an attempt to trivialize the serious nature of the information. "Agricultural crop failure. LOL!" It's the height of hubris to think the worst that can happen to us from climate change is an interruption in our snack food supply. Who writes this stuff? Who approves it?

[Eugene]

2. Sometimes, hitting consumers where they notice it most is the most effective way to reach them.

The right is already trying to frame the climate change issue as the tree huggers coming for your hamburgers.

Consequences that people can see and understand beat abstract threats "in faraway lands," "many years in the future."

[Boomer]

3. That's a false dichotomy

It's not that difficult to write about crop failures right here and now. You can still talk about the lack of oreos without making it the focus of the article.