Climate change is already impacting our food systems here in the United States. But abroad, in poorer countries, the situation is more catastrophic. Higher temperatures, droughts and floods all make farming more challenging and food production more vulnerable. Host Amy Scott speaks with international climate correspondent for The New York Times, Somini Sengupta, about how farmers are adapting. 

She takes listeners through some of her international reporting – to Malawi, Brazil, Vietnam, and back to Massachusetts – showing how we can take lessons from one region of the world and apply them on an international scale. 

Sengupta points to monocropping as one of the weaknesses in our global food system: “It means growing one thing on a really big patch of land, and it means using a lot of chemical inputs,” she says. She uses coffee as an example: “So coffee is concentrated in two countries, Brazil and Vietnam. So, if a drought strikes both those places, well, the entire global coffee price, you know, is thrown for a loop.” That helps explain why your latte is so expensive.

She also touches on beef consumption, factory farms and food waste: “Famine is not a question of not having enough food in the world. It's a question of the very poor not being able to access food, and now increasingly, it's a question of not being able to afford or access nutritious food.” But it’s not all bleak. Her reporting proves how resilient farmers, communities and countries have become. She sees some bright spots and potential solutions in agroforestry, regenerative agriculture and cultivated chicken, though she’s not a huge fan of the last one – she prefers a funkier meat, like bison or alligator. 

To hear the full, extended interview with Somini Sengupta, click the player above.