Beer crisis: how we discovered climate change could cause a global barley shortage
(WorldNews Environment)

Vaclav Mach / shutterstock The price of beer could double under unchecked climate change, as droughts and extreme temperatures cause barley yields to drop. That´s one conclusion of research we recently published in Nature Plants . We first became curious about barley, and the beer it produces, as this relatively minor crop was clearly affected by climate extremes yet had never caught the attention of climate scientists. And, unlike many other food crops, barley grown for beer is required to meet very specific quality parameters. Malted barley gives beer much of its flavour, yet if it is too hot or there isn´t enough water during critical growing stages, the malt cannot be extracted. This is...