Vanilla fungus in Madagascar.

Post #301,377 by Another Scott 12/22/08 10:29:48 PM Reply	Vanilla fungus in Madagascar. http://www.newscient...nilla-supply.html Savour the egg-nog while you can - a lethal disease is wiping out vanilla plantations in Madagascar, the world's major producer of the spice. Last week Simeon Rakotomamonjy and his team at the National Center for Research Applied to Rural Development in Antananarivo reported that an unknown fungus has struck 80 per cent of plantations in two of the country's main growing areas. They blame a price surge in the 1990s, which prompted farmers to plant seedlings too densely and without optimal shade and moisture. Since vanilla is propagated as cuttings it has little genetic diversity. Both factors make it a prime target for the fungal disease - which has yet to be properly diagnosed. It seems likely that problems like this will increase as the population (and demand for food) continues to increase. :-( Cheers, Scott.
Post #301,383 by Ashton 12/22/08 11:53:25 PM Reply	Ugh.. Madagascar beans were the best, back when I did QC on such. Beautiful vanillin crystals nearly shrouding each bundle. Locked in an almost-Safe they were - pricey way-pre creeping inflation. One sniff of pure M. extract, before mixing with the cheap stuff for supermarket shelves: was sufficient. That was billions of consumers ago. Guess this shows that virtually everything can be screwed up via er, unrestrained bean-counters -- even the beans. (Decimation may solve this for the vanilla beans, but there would be objections raised by whiny complainers.)
Post #301,428 by crazy 12/23/08 4:20:15 PM Reply	Got a source? http://www.essortmen...plantsgr_syjg.htm I'd like to try to grow them.
Post #301,384 by Andrew Grygus 12/23/08 12:00:16 AM Reply	Not the only problem of that sort. Tiny insects infect citrus trees with a bacteria that kills them. Much of the orange orchards in Brazil (the largest orange grower) has been wiped out. It has already started wiping out the orchards in Texas and Florida. No known cure at this point. Bananas soon - the cavendish cultivar is genetically identical through all commercial banana production, and there is a known disease that will eventually get away and wipe out all the banana plantations.
Post #301,389 by Ashton 12/23/08 4:35:10 AM Reply	Bummer Life follows <-- Sci-fi Art? Are we entering the nouveau round-the-campfire scenario.. where geezers of 45-50 tell the tykes, over their bowls of gruel -- about fruits, spices, avocadoes! ____? Time to reread about the pre-Nintendo Eloi. (Only now, instead of that mouldering library, they will have modern spinning magnetic things, where nothing-can-go-wrong ... and all the pictures of the missing foods will be preserved for inspection, perhaps even with smell-o-vision.) {sniff} Maybe a bit cruel though, Hey, bunky: >this< was a banana frappé. Want one? Sorry, sucker; your ancestors cudn't spel monoculture. Have an ersatz-chocolate gruelburger.
Post #301,942 by mhuber 1/5/09 12:40:40 PM Reply	The Clone Wars Well, actually, that's why there are more Irish in the USA (or was that just Chicago) than in Ireland. The potato famine wouldn't have happened if potatoes were grown from seed. But they are clones, so one bug can wipe out an entire island's crop. Or planet's, if it comes to that. Biodiversity isn't just for the poetic jollies of people who are unpoetic enough to invent a word as lame as "biodiversity". It is a matter of survival.
Post #301,943 by Andrew Grygus 1/5/09 12:51:25 PM Reply	Part of the problem was stubbornness. Potatoes not subject to the blight were available - but the Irish had their favorite potato and declined to try others. Food habits are difficult to uproot - even one that had only recently came to Ireland from Germany along with shipments of guns and ammunition.

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