More Cyanide, Less Iron: How Climate Change Is Rewriting the Safety of Staple Crops: Lessons from Cassava and Rice (2-page summary)

This two-page summary condenses The Global Plant Council's One Health policy brief for busy decision-makers, including COP31 delegations and national policymakers.

Climate change is changing what is inside staple crops, not just where they grow. Under combined heat and drought, cassava becomes more toxic. It is the staple of 800 million to one billion people, and where processing is cut short it can cause konzo, an irreversible paralysis. As CO₂ rises, rice loses protein, iron, zinc and B vitamins, and with warming above 2 °C it takes up more inorganic arsenic, putting around 600 million people at greater risk. Neither shift shows up in yield figures.

The summary presents the evidence at a glance, including key figures, a side-by-side comparison of the two crops and charts of the main findings. It also gives three recommendations, each addressed to the bodies that can act on it:

1. Measure crop quality, not just quantity, in the Belém Adaptation Indicators and National Adaptation Plans.
2. Fund household-level cassava processing as a first-line health intervention.
3. Fund resilient seed and breeding systems that get improved varieties to smallholders.

For the full evidence, discussion of uncertainties and references, see the complete 10-page policy brief: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23233698

Keywords: One Health; climate change adaptation; food security; nutrition; hidden hunger; food safety; cassava; konzo; rice; arsenic; elevated CO₂; Belém Adaptation Indicators; COP31; policy summary