Hey y'all, it's Elise Hugh. This is TED Talks Daily. What's more complex than the pressures of COVID-19?

Climate change. In her 2020 Ted Salon talk, the journalist and author Amanda Little reminds us that soon, climate change will be a problem we can taste because of just how much it affects our food systems.

In today's episode, she gives us a glimpse of our food future in a hotter world.

In the early months of the pandemic, Chef Jose André circulated two photos that have come to

symbolize a modern American food crisis. The first shows

mountains of potatoes that have been left to rot in a field in Idaho. The restaurants and cafeterias

and stadiums that had consumed them were shuttered during the pandemic. The second shows a devastating

scene outside of the San Antonio Food Bank. Thousands of carloads of people lined up waiting for food with not enough supply to go around.

How is it possible? These two photos exist at the same time.

In the most prosperous and technologically advanced moment in our history, tweeted Andres.

In the months after the photos were published,

the crisis got worse. Billions of pounds of potatoes and other fresh produce were chucked by

American farmers. At the same time, food banks all over the country were reporting demand increases

and 40% were facing critical shortfalls.

Outside the U.S., especially in the Middle East and throughout Southeast and Africa,

COVID-19 was paralyzing food systems that were already vulnerable.

Oxfam has predicted that by the end of 2020, 12,000 people per day could die of hunger related to COVID.

That's more than the highest daily mortality rate recorded so far. But what's worse and what's

much more concerning to all of us is that COVID is just one of many major disruptions that

have been predicted in the years and decades

ahead. More chronic and complex than the pressures of COVID are the pressures of climate change.

And those of you who live in California have seen this on your farms. You've seen withering heat

...