How Climate Threats to Food Could Erode Culture and Landscapes

5 hours ago

2 min read

How Climate Threats to Food Could Erode Culture and Landscapes. A paper co-authored by Dung Duc Tran (HAPRI Senior Research Associate) and colleagues warns that climate-driven threats to food security could erode traditional diets, ceremonies and landscapes such as rice terraces, and with them cultural identity. Paolo Tarolli and co-authors, including Dung Duc Tran (HAPRI Senior Research Associate). Illustrative photograph: on rain-soaked terraced rice fields in Vietnam's uplands, a young agronomist takes a handheld sensor reading at a damaged terrace bund. An older farmer beside her points to where water has broken through, with green rice terraces and forested hillside behind them.

How Climate Threats to Food Could Erode Culture and Landscapes

www.hapri.org

Dung Duc Tran — Senior Research Associate

Climate change could severely affect traditional diets, ceremonies and landscapes, eroding cultural identity and heritage, according to a paper in Cell Reports Sustainability co-authored by Dung Duc Tran (HAPRI Senior Research Associate) and colleagues. The authors say there is an urgent need for sustainable solutions to guarantee the cultural resilience and identity of landscapes characterized by unique agrifood systems.

Context

The paper is about landscapes that are unique because they reflect cultural identity linked to diet. Rice terraces are its example. The title calls the threat to these landscapes a hidden cultural impact of climate-driven food security threats.

*What climate change could severely affect*

Methods

The paper is a short commentary. It makes an argument rather than analysing new data. It considers what happens when extreme weather conditions negatively impact landscapes characterized by unique agrifood systems, and what that means for communities trying to preserve practices tied to specific crops and ecosystems.

Key findings

Climate change could severely affect traditional diets, ceremonies and landscapes, eroding cultural identity and heritage.
Some landscapes, such as rice terraces, are unique because they reflect a cultural identity linked to diet.
If extreme weather conditions negatively impact such landscapes, they can undergo profound changes at multiple levels.
These threats undermine cultural traditions, as communities have more difficulty preserving practices tied to specific crops and ecosystems.

Policy implications

The authors state that there is an urgent need for sustainable solutions, even with modern technology, to guarantee the cultural resilience and identity of landscapes characterized by unique agrifood systems.

Keywords:

Climate Change
Food Security
Cultural Heritage
Cultural Identity
Agrifood Systems
Rice Terraces

Link:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crsus.2025.100370

Citation:

Tarolli, P., Park, E., Tran, D. D., Loc, H. H., Wei, W., Mărgărint, C., Das, S., Brown, A., & Castelli, G. (2025). The hidden cultural impact of climate-driven food security threats to landscapes. Cell Reports Sustainability, 2(5), 100370.