21st Century Challenges: Climate Change and New Mexico Chile

• In Event: The Spicy Life: Environmental and Cultural Histories of the New Mexico Chile Pepper

Abstract

Green and red chile are essential components of New Mexican cuisine and culture. Despite its continued popularity, the 21st Century has presented numerous challenges to the chile industry in New Mexico: changes in trade policies, labor scarcity, diseases and pests, increased costs of inputs, and more. In this presentation, I focus on the challenge of climate change, examining how it affects chile production now, and how it might affect the industry in the future. For regionally specific heritage crops like New Mexico chile, climate change poses a unique set of problems in addition to those face by all agricultural production. I demonstrate how climate change can disrupt commodity values based in notions of terroir and threaten deeply rooted culinary traditions. Beyond presenting the problems, I’ll also show the work being done by dedicated professionals to preserve the New Mexico chile industry.

Author

• Holly Brause, New Mexico State University