How is the climate crisis changing not just landscapes, but fundamental sustenance sources such as plant foods and medicines?
I’ve been leaning into this question for decades, starting as a reporter in the early aughts and now as a naturopathic doctor who regularly prescribes food and herbal medicines to help patients get and stay well.
For the past year, in collaboration with colleagues from the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, I’ve been putting together presentations specifically for my medical colleagues. We need to know what to expect (although much will still be unexpected) to do the best possible job caring for our patients. And, really, for each other.
the climate crisis is changing our plant foods and medicines
The science is still in the early stages, and much of it is incomplete. Climate is changing growing conditions on multiple levels, including temperature, hydrology, carbon dioxide and smog levels. And it’s hard to perform good studies that look at all those variables — or which other variables the climate crisis will impact.
But we do know that climate change will sift where certain crops can grow. Excess atmospheric carbon alone — even without the climate-warming effects — is changing the nutritional profiles of plant staples.
And we know that our plant medicines will have different levels of their medicinal constituents: In some cases, this will make medicines less effective, in others it may make them dangerous.
These are things we need to know about, even if we don’t have definitive knowledge yet.
upcoming continuing medical education event Feb. 1-2, 2025
I touched on these issues in April 2024 at the Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians’ spring seminar. There I presented an overview of climate and health issues with CPA colleague Dr. Janet Lewis, called Feeling the Heat: Adapting Naturopathic Medicine in a Climate Change World. We offered brief coverage of some major topics, including trauma, air quality, heat, food and medicine.
In early 2025 I’ll be digging into the plant foods and medicines part at the NUNM Environmental Medicine Conference: Harmony Heals, Feb. 1-2, 2025. (On Zoom; 12.0 CEUs for NDs (NANCEAC) and 12.0 PDAs for acupuncturists.)
My talk is “Dude, Where’s My Coffee? True Stories of Plant Foods and Medicines in the Climate Crisis.” Because I know people love their coffee, and the climate crisis is going to change where, how much and by whom it’s grown. (We’re already seeing coffee growers displaced by climate, including showing up at the U.S. border.)
There will be several climate-related talks at this event, so it’s super important. I you’ll join us.
— Dr. Orna
P.S. If you’d like to get a head start on the topic, check out the resources I’ve curated at NDClimate.org or catch the OANP replay.
Header photo by Tatiana Fernández R on Unsplash.