Food in the age of climate change

Third, is the crop choice. Varieties should be both nutritive and compatible with the local environment. In other words, where water is scarce, farmers should grow crops such as millets that are water prudent. But such choices are not entirely in the hands of the farmer. Governments must enable them through policies on procurement and pricing. For instance, more biodiverse and climate-appropriate millets will be grown by farmers where governments have included them in the schemes for mid-day meals (this is one of India’s most important programmes as it aims to provide hot-cooked food in every school). Change of cropping patterns towards climate-resilience will need this supportive structure. We know now that crop productivity is about soil health, which in turn is measured by the diversity of living organisms—bacteria and fungi—that thrive when crops are diverse.

Fourth, and, perhaps the most critical, is the choice of crops. What farmers grow is in the hands of consumers—us. What we eat—and why—sends signals to them. We know today that food shapes the bacteria in our gut-microbiome. And the health of our gut-microbiome depends on the diversity and quality of food we consume. The human gut, critical for health and well-being, is host to trillions of bacteria, which perform functions that are critical for our body, including food and medicine absorption. This “second brain”—our gut—requires food that does not kill its functioning. In other words, it needs natural, high-fibre food that is diverse so that it builds this bacteria diversity in our gut. It also does not do well with ultra-processed or high-sugar food that kill the good bacteria. So, in this way, the soil health is linked to gut health—the greater the diversity of crops, the healthier the soil, and the more varied the food we eat, the better the effects on human health.

So we must bring back the knowledge of good food—what our grandmothers and mothers cooked in different seasons. This cuisine was crafted, in many ways, for it to be appropriate for nutrition and health. In this way, food can be medicine—for people and for the Planet.