Damn You Climate Change

I just read the latest bad news about climate change, and this time it affects something very personal to me. Beer. It turns out that several different factors related to beer production are creating a shortage of barley and hops, thus causing an increase in the cost of beer.

In the southern hemisphere, climate change is affecting the production of malting barley in parts of New Zealand and Australia, according to Jim Salinger, a climate scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Changes in weather patterns and severe storms can damage crops throughout the world.

In Europe, farmers have been switching from barley to biofuel crops, as government subsidies make those crops more profitable. This has already resulted in an increase in beer prices in Germany. Additionally, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the benefit of biofuels (other than weaning us off our dependence on OPEC).

The global shortage of hops and barley is being felt here in the US, although many major brewers have futures contracts with hop farmers. Still, many of the smaller breweries are being affected. It is estimated that the cost of a microbrew may increase by up to $3 per six pack.

Of course, not everyone is as concerned about this as I am.