The United States is the largest producer of corn in the world, but recent findings from a Michigan State University researcher suggest climate change is putting the nation’s top crop at risk.
The culprit, aspergillus fungi. It is typically found in field corn grown in the south and can produce a toxin known to cause liver cancer.
Felicia Wu is an expert on food science at MSU. She says the fungi is usually found in crops in the south, since it thrives in warmer temperatures. But it has made its way to the corn-belt region during hotter years.
“It was a real problem in midwestern states and that is not something that we had been seeing all that regularly and unfortunately what we saw in our results is that it’s going to become much more of a regular problem in the years 2031 to 2040," Wu said.
Wu calls the issue a critical food safety problem. But she adds new developments in biotechnology and growing methods, including increasing farming further north in states like Michigan, may help.