Courtney Brown / Kate Davidson (reporting lines chiefly Courtney Brown)

She's excited about voting, taking college classes, getting a better job.

She's a supervisor of a team of around 50 professional cleaners.

Her team recently lost about 20 workers, many from Cuba.

They hadn't found replacements, so she's picked up some of the slack, she says.

She actually studied for the citizenship exam while picking up trash.

The next day, I catch up with Alexandra's mom, Yanet, at a park near her house.

She also cleans office buildings.

She's seen good workers and good friends leave because they lost their work permits.

She estimates about 20% of her team have left.

And her company, which pays her $12.50 an hour, hasn't found replacements either.

The new hires last for maybe one, two weeks, she says, because it's a lot of work and the pay is bad.

In Houston, I'm Elizabeth Troval for Marketplace.

Imagine a future where chocolate and coffee are rare and expensive, where cheap nutritional staples like corn and wheat are threatened.

Sounds unpleasant, doesn't it?

Well, we could be heading there if we don't recognize that the climate crisis is also a food crisis.

We have had dry spells that have lasted years.

I'm Amy Scott.

This season on How We Survive, we investigate how the climate crisis is threatening our most vital food systems and how scientists are racing to develop alternatives that will shape the future of food.

Listen to this season of How We Survive on your favorite podcast app.