Berengaria’s Reviews > Never Out of Season: How Having the Food We Want When We Want It Threatens Our Food Supply and Our Future > Status Update
Berengaria
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Did you know that agroterrorism was a thing? Brazil's cacao plantations, once the world's 2nd largest producer of coco beans, were completely destroyed by purposeful release of a pathogen.
But there are success stories, too! The all-important cassava plant, and millions of African lives, were saved by finding a predator for the mealybug which was destroying the plant wholesale.
— Jan 06, 2026 03:19PM
But there are success stories, too! The all-important cassava plant, and millions of African lives, were saved by finding a predator for the mealybug which was destroying the plant wholesale.
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Berengaria
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While the Green Revolution in the 1960s vastly increased the amount of food available and averted famine in several regions of the planet, it also polluted water and increased soil erosion. The answer to that: genetic modification of crops with a bacteria that made pesticides unnecessary...until the pests caught up!
— Jan 07, 2026 03:23PM
Berengaria
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I'd heard of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845, of course, but I'd never read the details. OMG! That's the Apocalypse if anything ever was!
Maybe I shouldn't read stuff like this because while I think science is very important, I also think the scientific community are a bunch of grade-A asshats. And the Potato Famine just puts that notion in neon letters.
— Jan 05, 2026 04:22PM
Maybe I shouldn't read stuff like this because while I think science is very important, I also think the scientific community are a bunch of grade-A asshats. And the Potato Famine just puts that notion in neon letters.
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Sounds interesting. Who released this pathogen? Valerie, I agree, Monsanto has got a lot to answer for.
Hákon wrote: "Sounds interesting. Who released this pathogen? ."
A group of men who worked for a government agency that was supposed to make sure the cocoa fields were safe and healthy.
They were angry that the richest men in the area were the owners of vast cocoa fields who were starting to get into politics and make laws benefiting themselves and other wealthy plantation owners over the interests of the local people. (Typical South American story)
So what they did was cut off branches from cocoa trees infected with a fungus called Witch's Broom in a totally different part of Brazil and secretly attached the branches onto healthy trees on the two biggest, richest plantations, thus infecting trees that had never encountered Witch's Broom before.
When it was discovered, the same gov organisation the men worked for came in and required the plantation owners cut down and burn all the trees to stop the spread of the pathogen....as the men knew they would.
It backfired of course, because tens of thousands of people lost their jobs, small time farmers' trees also became infected and they lost everything, plus Brazil lost a huge source of revenue....on top of bankrupting the handful of rich men the perpetrators were really targeting.
That chapter also talks about governments doing research on how to weaponise pathogens to destroy an enemy's crops. Was pretty popular around WW2 and up into the 1970s.
This looks like a great read Berengaria. We do audits on the farm every year and a big thing in it is food defence and all the measures we have to employ to protect our product from deliberate harm/agroterrorism. The food industry is one of the most cutt throat industries there is. In the end the problem lies with humans in general because the way we eat and demand better products unfortunately.
Thanks for sharing the mealybug tidbit! There is good news tonight 💛🧚♀️🙋🏼👍.