White Truffles Are Worth More Than Gold, And They’re Being Threatened By Climate Change
In a forest around the Italian town of Alba, located in the northwestern Piedmont region, there grows a culinary treasure called the white Alba truffle.
Some of the most prized specimens are worth twice the price of gold. However, climate change has made the truffles increasingly rare.
The white truffle is the most prestigious in the world. It is highly sought after by acclaimed chefs around the globe. It is a fungus that grows underground, attaching itself to the roots of certain hardwood trees.
The truffle is particularly fragrant, giving off hints of hay, honey, and garlic. Its intense scent allows hunting dogs to sniff it out, even when the truffle is buried up to about three feet deep.
Each fall, Alba, which has been deemed the “white truffle capital of the world,” holds a truffle fair and a charity auction that always causes the value of the truffles to skyrocket.
At this year’s auction, a truffle weighing two pounds and 3.4 ounces fetched $133,000 from a Hong Kong buyer.
Like other fungi, the white Alba truffle grows best in cool, rainy conditions. But climate change has delayed peak production from October to November. At the beginning of November, the temperature was 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
Climate change is the biggest threat to the white truffle, whose harvest was classified as an “intangible heritage of humanity” in 2021 by UNESCO.
The harvest season runs from October to the end of January, but the prolonged summer weather is cutting it short.
framarzo – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only – pictured above a white truffle is shaved over a plate of spaghetti
In addition, drought, deforestation, global warming, and sudden temperature changes all contribute to the decline of the fungus’s natural habitat.
If there is too little water, the truffle does not grow, but too much rainfall can be harmful as well and cause the truffle to rot.
Furthermore, the land dedicated to white truffles in Italy has dropped by 30 percent in the last three decades, giving way to more profitable vineyards and hazelnut groves.
“It’s been a few years that we have been worrying about truffle production,” said Antonio Degiacomi, the president of Italy’s national center for truffle studies.
“We have had over the last three seasons one terrible year, one excellent season, and one that is decent.”
Experts have launched initiatives to try to counter the impact of long-term climate change on white truffle production by better preserving the areas where the truffles grow.
The aim is to protect the symbiotic relationship between the truffle and its host plant by maintaining harmony between truffle hunters and land owners, who often have conflicting interests.
Unlike the more common black truffle, white truffles cannot be cultivated, making the protection of their environment absolutely essential.
Currently, there is a program in place that involves paying property owners $26 a year to maintain host trees they might otherwise cut down.
It is not too late to stop the white truffle from going extinct, but action must be taken now to ensure the delicacy does not become just a memory.
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