Goodbye beef, goodbye rice, hello jellyfish

Sooner or later, the economic solution to global warming will be adopted, a carbon tax or dividend.  When this happens beef will become very expensive, available only to the most wealthy.  Removing beef from the diet will have a greater impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide than removing all automobiles. 

Rice is going to have a different problem. 

People around the world consume rice in their daily diets. But in addition to its nutrient and caloric content, rice can contain small amounts of arsenic, which in large doses is a toxin linked to multiple health conditions and dietary-related cancers.

Now researchers at the University of Washington have found that warmer temperatures, at levels expected under most climate change projections, can lead to higher concentrations of arsenic in rice grains. The team will present these findings Dec. 10 at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

“In general, the plant is like a big tube or a straw as it draws water up from its roots to its leaves. And rice naturally takes up arsenic because the arsenic mimics other molecules that these plants preferentially draw out of the soil,” said lead author Yasmine Farhat, a UW doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering. “It’s a perfect storm for concentrating arsenic.”

We don't really want arsenic in our diet.

arsenic can cause nausea and vomiting and decrease the amount of red and white blood cells produced by the body. It also causes abnormal heart rhythms, may damage blood vessels, and causes a pins and needles sensation in the hands and feet.

However, far less is understood about what happens to people when they are exposed to low levels of arsenic over a long period of time.
“This is a relatively new area of research,” says arsenic expert Ana Navas-Acien, MD, PhD.

It’s clear that arsenic is associated with higher rates of skin, bladder, and lung cancers, says Navas-Acien, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Rice is a major part of diets in large parts of the world.  Global warming is going to have an impact on their health.  I would like to believe that rice could be genetically modified to reduce or eliminate the arsenic. 



The warming oceans are acidifying and are losing oxygen.  The result is going to be very bad for carbonate sea life, oysters, shrimp, clams, and bad for sea life dependent on krill, whales.  Sea life at the top of the food chain will be hurt the most, salmon, tuna, halibut.  There is one kind of sea life that will do well with global warming, in fact are already doing well, jellyfish.  I've posted before about jellyfish. 

In fact they are flourishing.

The jellyfish population is increasing rapidly, including in the Mediterranean Sea, and is causing havoc around the world. The overpopulation has caused the shut down of several power plants, stung people and devastated ecosystems.

We may need to get used to jellyfish as a mainstay of our diet,

They're low in calories and fat, and rich in protein and collagen. The little fat it contains is the essential omega-3 and omega-6 unsaturated fatty acids.

Try jellyfish with peanut dipping sauce. (Getty images) 

In New Zealand, chef Jacob Brown, who has been cooking with jellyfish for a few years at his Wellington restaurant The Larder, has found a way to help acquaint people who are not so sure.

“People are not necessarily open to eating jellyfish on its own so I tend to use it mixed with whitebait,” he says.
Jellyfish has a very delicate flavour, sometimes a bit salty. It’s more about the texture, somewhere between a cucumber and a glass noodle, not as gelatinous as you might expect.

To try it out, head to a Chinese, Vietnamese or Japanese restaurant. You’ll often see it on the menu and on trolleys at yum cha in salads with chicken or duck.

She thinks the endorsement of a celebrity chef or the use of jellyfish on a TV show like MasterChef Australia could entice more people to eat them. 

“All of a sudden, it would be something trendy and yummy and a slimming protein,” she says.

Or that jellyfish becomes the only edible sea life found in the oceans.