Are your favorite foods disappearing? Due to climate change, deforestation, and a whole host of other (mostly man-made) reasons, some of the most delicious grub on the planet is going extinct. We're not talking exotic sea creatures and rare strains of flax seed. Foods like chocolate, wine, and honey may all be unavailable for sale in the near future.
Image a world in which breakfasts are no longer doused in maple syrup. Or, one where baseball games are entirely peanut-free. Even worse: a planet entirely devoid of coffee. It's not just the stuff of your most terrifying nightmares. These endangered foods are all in jeopardy of disappearing completely.
Get these tasty treats and disappearing foods before they're gone!
More than half of the world's chocolate supply is produced in Ghana and the Ivory Coast - two areas severely affected by rising temps. Scientists predict that climate change will significantly reduce cocoa production by 2030.
What's more, two of the world's biggest chocolate companies (Mars, Inc. and Barry Callebaut) say we're eating way too much. In 2013, the world ate 70,000 metric tons more cocoa than it produced. By 2020 the deficit could be 1 million metric tons, and by 2030, it could be near 2 million.
The banana's great enemy, Panama disease, is on the move. In the last few years, it's jumped continents and begun devastating banana growing regions in Jordan and Mozambique.
Global warming's hotter temperatures are to blame for maple trees' shorter and shorter sapping seasons and less sugary sap. In fact, average temps in New England are 2 to 4 degrees higher than they were 100 years ago. If they go up another 6 degrees, the world may lose its sugar maple population entirely.