STORY: A group of climate scientists in Belgium are currently exploring what the pears of the future might be like.
“…the pears tend to be less firm and have more sugar.”
:: THIS EARTH
:: Maasmechelen, Belgium
In the Belgian province of Limburg, the country’s pear-growing heartland, an unusual orchard stands out: it is made of a cluster of 12 transparent domes.
“It’s called an ‘Ecotron’, which is a climate change stimulator.”
Inside the domes, researchers are growing pears in an environment that imitates how climate change will affect the region in 2040.
Their aim? To understand the impact of climate change for Europe’s fruit growers.
Here is Francois Rineau, an associate professor at the University of Hasselt.
“So for 2040, it’s actually tomorrow, it’s only 20 years, but still we see differences in the frequency of heat waves. So heat waves more frequent, droughts more frequent, more intense precipitation events, so therefore even less precipitation in total, and increasing CO2 concentration.”
The three-year experiment will cover three harvests.
This year’s crop of 2040-era pears is being studied at the Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (VCBT).
Researchers compare them to pears grown in domes simulating today’s climate.
Here is Dorien Vanhees a researcher at the VCBT.
“So we measure different things in this lab. We measure sugar content or firmness, we also measure how big those pears are, that come from the future and the current climate. And we see that if we have a higher temperature on the trees, that the pears tend to be less firm and have more sugar.”
And that’s bad news for growers, because it reduces the quantity of pears they can sell.
“More sugar is good for taste. Less firm is not good for storage, because when you store them at a lower firmness, they will not keep as long. For the growers this will reduce the amount of pears that they can put onto the market.”
Climate change is already leaving its mark on growing patterns across Europe.
In recent years, extreme weather events like devastating floods, hailstorms, and droughts have taken a toll on pear-growers.
This year, Belgium’s pear production is projected to drop by a staggering 27%, according to the World Apple and Pear Association, highlighting the need for adaptation in the face of a changing climate.
