Rising temperatures are making agricultural production in the tropics more difficult. Food systems in Caribbean and Pacific Island countries are particularly vulnerable, hard hit by heat waves, droughts and unseasonal rains. The impacts of climate change in these regions are likely to increase significantly over the next decade, especially for farmers who grow the most common staples such as corn, wheat and soybeans.
But there is one type of crop that likes hot weather and is not easily affected by weather changes. Known as breadfruit, it’s enjoying a quiet resurgence in its homeland in the Pacific Islands and Caribbean, amid hopes that the tree and its products will thrive in a climate-changed future.
“The climate is not too hot for breadfruit,” says Russell Fielding, a geographer at Coastal Carolina University. One of the most prolific food plants in the world, breadfruit is a large-leafed evergreen plant in the jackfruit family that produces an abundance of gnarled fruit that can be used in a dizzying array of different dishes.
As global temperatures rise, the trees’ growing range is steadily expanding, and thanks to their extensive root systems, breadfruit trees are nearly indestructible. They can survive hurricanes and can also grow near salty or brackish water, a big advantage as sea levels continue to rise, Fielding said. They stabilize and enrich even the most degraded soils. One large tree will sequester 1.3 tons of carbon when mature, according to calculations by the Trees That Feed Foundation, an Illinois-based nonprofit that provides breadfruit trees to help feed people and create jobs throughout the tropics.
“People are starting to realize the incredible potential of breadfruit,” Fielding said. “It is one of the most productive trees in terms of calories per unit area per year. One breadfruit tree can easily supply all the fruit a family needs.
If you have seen this movie Mutiny on the Bountyyou are already familiar with breadfruit. These were the fruit trees transported by merchant ships on their fateful journeys. But if you haven’t been to a remote Pacific island or the Caribbean recently, chances are you’ve never tasted this football-sized, spiky green fruit with creamy flesh. Breadfruit has a short shelf life and is rarely exported to tropical countries.
Originating in the Pacific, breadfruit was once a staple food in Tahiti, Hawaii and Jamaica, but has since fallen out of favor, being replaced in these regions by a standard Western diet rich in processed foods, saturated fats and refined carbohydrates. Breadfruit has a mild flavor, somewhere between mashed potatoes and yeast bread. Its viscous consistency when ripe has been likened to wallpaper paste. Yet despite these lackluster qualities, some still believe it is the next big superfood.
Diane Ragone has had a personal fascination with this humble fruit since the 1980s. She is president emeritus of the Breadfruit Institute, a research and advocacy organization based on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. On the one hand, breadfruit is more nutritious than staple foods such as rice and corn, and is rich in micronutrients and vitamins, she said. It’s also relatively high in protein, she said. A Samoan variety called Ma’afala has even more protein than soybeans.
