Climate Change and Kimchi? How The Two Might Be Related

Veuer

There is perhaps nothing more Korean than kimchi, however a changing climate might make their homemade varieties disappear. Farmers say they “can feel the climate crisis approaching,” and that their cabbage growing lands are shrinking by the day. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.

Transcript

00:00There is perhaps nothing more Korean than kimchi. However, a changing climate might make

00:04their homemade varieties disappear. This is the head of the Highland Cabbage and Radish

00:09Producers Association in South Korea, farmer Kim C. Gap. He says he can feel the climate

00:14crisis approaching, saying that the cabbage cultivation area has already been halved due

00:18to soil diseases and various viruses. His farm is in Gangwon Province, an area that resides at

00:24high altitude with a cooler, drier climate. The area is also known for producing 93% of

00:30all of the kimchi cabbage during summer months, and that halving of cabbage-growing farmland

00:34has only occurred in the last two decades or so, meaning things are happening quickly,

00:38and projections for the next few decades are even more grim. The Rural Development Administration

00:43of South Korea put out a report outlining what they anticipate over the next quarter century,

00:48finding that the kimchi cabbage-growing area could shrink to just 109 acres, with cabbage-growing

00:53lands completely disappearing by 2090. A harrowing fact, considering South Koreans consume nearly

00:592 million tons of kimchi every year.

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