Is climate change changing the taste of our favorite plant foods and beverages? Are producers and consumers able to perceive such changes? What are possible implications of climate effects on food plants for livelihoods and well-being? Can we implement specific agro-ecosystem management practices to mitigate effects of the global climate challenge? In this talk, ethnobotanist Selena Ahmed explores these questions using tea as a case study. Findings draw from her field surveys, greenhouse experiments and laboratory analyses of phytochemicals in tea. This talk will start in the center of diversity of tea resources in Yunnan Province of China and end in your teacup with an instructional tasting! Enjoy photographs of southwest China from Selena’s book, Tea Horse Road: China’s Ancient Trade with Tibet, with award-winning photographer Michael Freeman.
Selena Ahmed is a NIH TEACRS Post-doctoral Fellow at Tufts University based in Colin Orians’ Lab. Herresearch and teaching interests are in human-environment interactions in the context of biodiversity conservation, management, agriculture, climate change and human well-being. These interests have brought her to forest-dwelling communities in the Venezuelan Amazon, Indian Himalaya, Belize, Dominican Republic, Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco and southwestern China.