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Climate change and global trade combine to make it ever more likely that new pests and diseases will threaten food supplies. A classic example is playing out now in Puglia, the region that includes the heel of Italy’s boot. The disease is caused by a bacterium — Xylella fastidiosa — that clogs the xylem vessels that carry water up from the roots. No water means leaves shrivel and scorch and eventually the host plant can die. In 2013, Xylella was found for the first time in Europe, in olive trees near Gallipoli. Plant health plans swung into action, to try and eradicate, or at least contain, the disease. And so did politicians and activists, blocking progress with ignorance, half-truths and manipulation. In consequence, the disease has now spread to cover the whole of the Salento peninsula.
In the view of people much more expert than I, there may now be no stopping Xylella. Rodrigo Almeida, of the University of California, published an article in Science last week, asking Can Apulia’s olive trees be saved? As he is an expert, I see no reason to present a different point of view, so you may find the podcast one sided. So be it.
Notes
- Rodrigo Almeida’s article is behind a paywall, but if you want a copy, I’m sure I can help you find one.
- Thomas Simpson is keeping a website that offers quick and helpful translations of articles about Xylella. It is a great resource if you want to know more about the foolishness.
- While I have your attention, let’s hear it for expertise.
https://media.blubrry.com/eatthispodcast/p/mange-tout.s3.amazonaws.com/2019/xylella-2019.mp3
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The most recent extension of the containment zone now covers the whole of the Salento peninsula
In 2013, a few olive trees near Gallipoli, in Lecce province in the heel of Italy’s boot, seemed to be dying of drought even though there was water. Turned out they had a disease caused by a nasty bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, and it was the first time this particular disease had been identified in Europe. In California, where Xylella causes Pierce’s Disease in grapevines, it costs about a million dollars a year to try and control it. Plans were quickly drawn up in an attempt to control the disease, and equally quickly disrupted.
One of the 10 potentially resistant olive seedlings discovered in a dead olive grove
Instead of killing maybe 3000 trees, more than four million have died in the past six years, and the disease is completely out of hand. When I was in Puglia in 2015, having just got interested in the story, it was quite exciting to see the occasional dead tree, marked for removal. This year, I was sickened to find whole landscapes, once covered with the glittering silver of olive leaves, brown and lifeless.
How did that happen?
Notes
Many, many sources provided the information that underpins this episode, notably Diffusion of xylella in Italian olive trees, a website that acts as a kind of clearing house, and the pages it linked to.
An earlier episode on Xylella clearly wasn’t pessimistic enough.
Music by Dasgoat and PSOVOD on Freesound and Podington Bear.
Photos by me, except for the seedling, which I found here.
Huffduff it
.@NatureAtCal Listen to Rodrigo Almeida in a little more depth on the extent of Italy’s olive plague problem eatthispodcast.com/xylella-is-her…
.@NatureAtCal Listen to Rodrigo Almeida in a little more depth on the extent of Italy’s olive plague problem eatthispodcast.com/xylella-is-her…
.@NatureAtCal Listen to Rodrigo Almeida in a little more depth on the extent of Italy’s olive plague problem eatthispodcast.com/xylella-is-her…