Birdseye Frozen Food as Another Example of Human Ingenuity Getting Us Ready for Climate Change

Janet Maslin's review of Mark Kurlansky's new book is worth reading.  I have read Kulansky's Salt and Cod. In his new book titled "Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man’, he writes about one of the fathers of frozen food.  Mark and I were on a USC Book Festival panel together last year.


Here is a photo of me, Mark and a young fan of Mark's.  

and here is the C-SPAN video of our crazed USC event.  


How is Birdseye relevant for climate change adaptation?  Here is a quote from Janet M. 
"But it indeed coaxes readers to re-examine everyday miracles like frozen food, and to imagine where places with no indigenous produce would be without them. It emphasizes the many steps that went into developing such a simple-seeming process."


While I don't eat frozen food,  this storage technology (like dried fruit) offers us a technology for guaranteeing that we have some tasty things to eat even when weather shocks do take place.  If you don't have access to a freezer, you face more variability with respect to your daily consumption.  Climate change increases the volatility of shocks to climate and this makes agricultural output more volatile.  You can smooth your consumption by trading with someone who produces under different climate conditions (so if it is rainy somewhere in Europe but there is no rain in Phoenix then the Phoenix consumer can import from Europe) --- or the U.S farmer can grow some output when she is able to and then freeze it and eat it later.   Trade at a point in time or freezing and storage over time are two different strategies for coping with climate shocks.    Clarence Birdseye is a hero to me because his ingenuity helps us to adapt to climate change.