Crop practices throughout Europe had to be altered to adapt to the shortened, less reliable growing season, and there were many years of dearth and famine (such as the Great Famine of 1315–1317, but that may have been before the Little Ice Age).
Uzgoj sadnica morao je, diljem Europe, biti smanjen, radi prilagodbe kraćem razdoblju uzgoja, pa je stoga bilo i puno godina gladi i smrti (poput Velike Gladi 1315-1317 1315-1317, premda je to moglo biti i prije samog MLD-a).