Plant-based burgers could soon be off the menu after a drought in Canada caused global pea supplies to plummet.
Peas are needed for artificial meat protein, but an arid summer on the Canadian prairies saw production fall by 45 per cent to their lowest levels in a decade.
By late July, a Canadian farming insurance company estimated that under a fifth of crops in Alberta were in good condition.
Wayne Schneider, who grows yellow peas in Nisku, said in early August that he had to harvest his crops early.
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He told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: “This year we didn’t get the rain when we needed it.
“With the exceptionally hot days, everything that was growing got heat-stressed… it just shuts the plants down.”
According to The Times, Canada hopes to be one of the top food producers by 2025, amid suggestions that climate change could prove a boon for farmers in the north.
However, agriculture expert Lenore Newman said the drought has challenged those assumptions.
“It was 42C in downtown Vancouver this summer,” she told the Vancouver Sun.
“The weather is getting more and more unpredictable… there are no winners with climate change.”
Roquette, which supplies vegan giant Beyond Meat, said pea prices have soared by 120 per cent and will push up plant-based burger prices.
Although peas makes up a fraction of the food protein industry, they are becoming more popular amid concerns over the use of oestrogen in soya.
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