Snap, Crackle, and Pop! The sonic slogan of Rice Krispies is now becoming an anachronism.
The classic puffed rice foodstuff now no longer contain actual rice grains, at least in UK and European markets, the manufacturer Kellogg’s recently admitted. It will now use rice flour and corn flour, which aside from gustatory concerns, will result in it being noticeably quieter than it used to be. Kellogg’s, in the face of complaints online, insists that retaining the original sound was a “huge focus.”
It’s yet another example of the corporate cost-cutting putrefaction we’ve come to expect — and the reason for it is grim: climate change.
A spokesperson told media outlets that the reformulation will help “maintain consistent quality at a time when changing weather conditions are affecting the quality and availability of some of the rice and grains used in our cereals.”
The company didn’t get into specifics, but the recipe change comes as a powerful “super El Niño” climate phenomenon has devastated agriculture in South and Southeast Asia, where more than half the world’s rice is grown.
Scientists say that the impacts of the weather event, which is on track to be the most powerful of its kind in recorded history, has been exacerbated by climate change. The “changing weather patterns” referred to by the Kellogg’s spokesperson was an understatement.
El Niño is characterized by warming ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific. This kicks off a chain reaction that causes formidable storms and rainfall in the Americas while severely disrupting rainfall patterns and bringing devastating droughts across Asia.
Asian rice prices have climbed to their highest in almost two years as El Niño has impacted rice production, Bloomberg reported, while the US Department of Agriculture is forecasting a decline in global rice production for the first time in over a decade.
In the grand scheme of things, a cereal reformulation sounds like a trivial casualty in the face of an unfolding climate crisis. But it’s just one of many more to come.
More on climate change: World Braces for Nearly a Half Million El Niño Death