Posted on 07/06/2009 9:54:54 AM PDT by TaraP
The same virus that caused the potato blight in Ireland in the 1840s that decimated the population and drove thousands to these shores has been found in potato and tomato crops in Rhode Island.
The Providence Journal has reported that the blight has been found in crops in the state and that the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) has warned all growers to be aware of the problem and use fungicides to counter it.
The DEM has also warned growers to be vigilant to spot the telltale signs of the blight – brown spots on leaves and a white fungus growth under leaves after humid weather.
Cornell University professor of plant pathology William Fry told the Journal that this strain of the blight was extremely dangerous because it is resistant and is “causing widespread devastation" among crops in North America.
Tomato plants have been removed from shops in New York and New England and growers have to be vigilant because blight plants, if untreated, can produce sports that can be carried in the wind.
Copper fungicides are used to fight the blight and are only effective in the early stages, and organic growers face a real dilemma in fighting the blight.
Maybe because of the El Nino report that came out today....
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A nascent El Nino weather cycle threatens to wreak more economic havoc and disrupt raw material production across a wide swath of the world, evoking memories of the killer edition of 1998.
The timing could not be worse. This El Nino appears to be developing as the world is struggling to emerge from the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Eleven years ago, a damaging El Nino occurred in the middle of the Asian financial crisis which roiled financial markets.
“El Nino is a little bit like recession: you are in it before you can say you have one. If it continues as it is now, the historians will say the El Nino started in May,” said David Jones, head of climate analysis in Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. Jones said they could declare an El Nino in weeks.
During El Nino, an abnormal warming of the waters of the equatorial Pacific unhinges weather patterns in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. A La Nina weather pattern, in which waters cool, was in place last year.
In 1998, El Nino-related storms, floods, tornadoes and mudslides killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage to crops, infrastructure and mines.
The same virus that caused the potato blight
Oh, no! Viruses and fungus have bred for form a super blight. (Idiot MSM. Do they use fact checkers to find and remove facts before publication?).
Reported in New York a week or two ago.
No one told the Irish potatoes were a side-dish.
Apparently not.
They also said the wind could carry “sports”
Para surfing & sailboarding on the Columbia River comes to mind :)
Which is exactly why you don’t make laws that force food crops to be turned into fuel.
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