Climate change is stripping nutrients from food, global study with Israeli expert warns

A global study co-authored by Professor Asaph Aharoni of the Weizmann Institute of Science warns that climate change is accelerating the decline of essential nutrients in food, leading to "hidden hunger" where people consume enough calories but lack vital vitamins and minerals. Published in Nature, the review, titled “Genetic technologies to enhance crop nutritional value under climate change,” proposes a roadmap to address this issue by utilizing advanced genetic technologies, including CRISPR gene editing, to improve crop nutritional quality and resilience to climate change. Professor Aharoni emphasized, “Already today, up to two-thirds of the world's population does not get enough essential micronutrients.” The researchers advocate for combining CRISPR-Cas technologies with metabolic engineering to achieve biofortification targets. This initiative is particularly timely given the European Union's recent approval of new regulations for gene-edited crops, which could facilitate the development and adoption of more nutritious and climate-resilient food sources.