By Bond Robertson 
Burger King is removing the tomato from its hamburger in one of the world’s most populous countries. Thus the hamburger chain is the latest in the chain of fast food chains to be affected by the rising food prices in India.
McDonald’s announced last month that many of its restaurants in India will be removing tomatoes from their hamburgers for a limited time. The hamburger chain cites supply shortages as the reason for this drastic action.
It was reported that Subway has also removed tomatoes from its sandwiches in several of its outlets in India Reuters.
Subway has also stopped offering free extra cheese to its Indian customers, as a result of the hike in food prices.
Read also
The activist party leader disrupted the debate
confirms Burger King, which has about 400 outlets in India their Indian clients that the tomatoes would soon be back in the burgers, and that the action was due to “unforeseen circumstances relating to the quality and availability of the tomato crop”.
India is affected by the sharp increase in food prices.
Prices increased by more than 400 percent
Heat waves and heavy rains have led to tomato crop failures in India. This, in turn, caused the price of tomatoes to rise more than 400 percent from January to August, according to the company CNN.
– It doesn’t surprise me. You see that there is a chain reaction that affects the social economy. Droughts, heat waves and floods mean that some plants do not produce such good crops, says climate researcher Rasmus Benstadt at the Institute of Meteorology in Nettavisen.
A kilogram of tomatoes was sold for 107 rupees (13.70 kronor) in New Delhi this week. In January, the price per kilogram was 27 rupees (3.46 kronor), according to CNN, referring to data obtained from Indian consumer authorities.
The rise in food prices is due to extreme weather and climate change, researcher Jocelyn Boitou at Cornell University’s Tata Institute of Agriculture and Nutrition told CNN.
Read also
Industry warns: – We need a new climate settlement
– “Perfect Storm”
Benstadt has researched the weather for several decades, and is one of the world’s foremost researchers in the field of precipitation.
We’ll likely see more of this in the future. Food safety is one of the biggest concerns we face. Agriculture has adapted to the climate as before. When the climate changes, agriculture becomes unadaptable. He says it creates great challenges.
There are many other examples of food products that have been directly affected, says Benstad, everything from wine to coffee.
– We see that the water cycle is associated with greenhouse effects like the Siamese twins. As we continue to use coal, oil and gas, the greenhouse effect will increase, which in turn affects
– This means that precipitation gathers together and becomes more intense in some places, and less precipitation in others. This means more floods and droughts.
Read also
Meteorologists: It’s been more than 100 years since it rained heavily in eastern Norway
In addition to man-made climate changes, Benstad says, there are also natural changes that occur.
You have, for example, the weather phenomenon.
The fact that many events are happening at the same time, whether man-made or natural changes, is something we call a “perfect storm.” He says this could cause crop failure.