The moringa tree seems fictional.
It thrives in areas prone to drought and punishing heat; it produces leaves and seeds that amount to a “nutritional Swiss Army Knife”; and it can grow up to a foot per month.
In other words, it’s a tree that’s perfectly suited to the era of climate change, when a reliable source of food could be hard to come by for many people.
As climate change accelerates in the decades ahead, poor communities around the world will be most affected. Rising temperatures, increasing droughts and floods and fiercer pests will threaten global agriculture, most of which is handled by small-scale farmers who don’t have much insurance or alternative livelihoods.
Already, extreme climate patterns are endangering lives. Last year’s El Nino was one of the most severe in decades and people across the Horn of Africa and parts of Asia were hurt by severe flooding and droughts.
In the years ahead, such events are expected to become routine.
To prepare for this, some scientists are studying the moringa to develop an optimal breed.
In Agua Caliente, a dry part of Western Mexico, Mark Olson has a farm of about 600 moringa trees.
He’s become an evangelist for the species, as The New Yorker recently wrote about.
As the article describes, “[The Moringa] produces edible leaves that are unusually rich in protein, iron, calcium, nine essential amino acids, and Vitamins A, B, and C. Its seedpods, which are as thick as the meaty part of a drumstick and about a foot long, are also high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids. Jed Fahey, a biochemist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has collaborated with Olson on Moringa research for more than a decade, has found that the tree’s leaves and pods have strong anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties, and may also contain enzymes that protect against cancer. Mature Moringa seeds can be pressed for vegetable oil, and the seed cake that is left over can be used to purify drinking water. (It contains a protein that makes bacteria glom together and die.) When dried, crushed seeds can also serve as a good fertilizer.”
Moringa is currently limited to a handful of places in the world, but Olson hopes to change this by developing a seed and then widely distributing it.
It’s also viewed by many people as a last-resort source of nutrition. For some, it can be an acquired taste raw and it deteriorates rapidly after it’s plucked so it has to be prepared quickly.
But there’s a sign that moringa will become a hit in the years to come.
It’s already becoming a favorite in the super food world, so much so that NPR mused whether or not Moringa would become the new kale.
Of course, Olson doesn’t want moringa to simply adorn the shelves of some Manhattan natural foods store.
He wants to see moringa planted all across the world so that if extreme weather ever destroys a community’s food supply, they can turn to this magical tree for sustenance.