I got some questions then:
What makes growing food for the rest of the world different?
Is it a hit-and-miss affair, too?
Putting up some serious infrastructure can mitigate weather conditions but is it universal or is it statistics-based (upon usual local conditions...since we're talking a change in those here)?
We were joking that we might not have enough barley and whey for our bread but we might get to rice in a few years ;) How serious were we about that joke?
The world is an interesting place ;)
Agricultural societies have always been at risk. In my country, and Africa in general, drought is a regular problem, but then we get floods too. Wetter parts of the world are at risk of flooding. Infrastructure such as irrigation or agricultural tunnels are used here, but then there's also a possibility of a freak hailstorm that wrecks it all too.
People have always pointed fingers at Africa for being underdeveloped as if this was some product of laziness or other moral failing but with our weather conditions, it made sense for people to keep moving and keep it simple.
Europe has generally had more predictable weather but as to the rice: who knows?
There's that. The sense that the world has moved on, too. But there be forces that might decide they're coming back. On months of rain like these one can imagine Africa becoming a garden and Europe turning into a swamp.