Posted on 07/05/2025 5:54:59 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The quintessential ice cream flavour is under threat, and many other dessert staples along with it, according to climate change researchers at the University of Costa Rica and Belgium's KU Leuven university.
Increasing climate extremes are changing the habitats of wild vanilla species — primarily found in the tropical regions of Central America — and their mainly animal pollinators, the researchers say. This, in turn, is putting global production of vanilla at risk.
In some regions, the plants may find more favourable conditions, but the insects that pollinate them may no longer find suitable habitats, according to the study published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science in July.
The researchers used modelling to analyse the distribution areas of 11 neotropical vanilla species and seven observed bee species under two climate scenarios up to 2050: one moderate scenario with climate protection measures, and another with more conflicts and less global climate protection.
While some species could expand their potential habitats due to global warming, others face a decline of more than half. For all bee genera, the models predict a reduction in suitable habitats, with particularly severe consequences under the less climate-protective scenario.
The authors noted a limitation of their study: comprehensive information on pollination mechanisms was not available for all the species examined.
The team called for increased international collaboration and further research, aiming to enhance the resilience of vanilla cultivation and thus secure the livelihoods of many small-scale farmers in tropical regions.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Yawn...another bogus article about Climate Change...Yawn...
Isn’t vanilla flavor from beaver anal glands??
It have been impressed that the call of the Whippoorwill is three syllables versus the call of the Bobwhite which is only two syllables.
As long as it’s delicious butt juice, who cares?
mike + oh + rise + el. mycorhyzal.
Never heard a Whippoorwill sound.
Bob Whites have always been in our pasture and some old home sites. They are drawn to chaparral bushes. We have those all around.
NO! Not vanilla! Ok, I give up. Climate change deserves all my extra tax dollars. Whoops. Don’t have any. Sorry, vanilla. You’ll have to become another sweet memory.
Artificial vanillin is a dirt simple molecule easily and inexpensively synthesized.
Indeed. There is enough artificial vanilla to float several aircraft carriers.
They keep searching for the calamity hook that will make people demand action.
Thank God I had my Apfel Strudel this Morgens!
🇩🇪
Presumably this sort of claptrap is getting harder to find. I mean, besides a few bitter clingers, who is still talking about climate change?
I am profoundly not worried..
Their ice cream machine was actually working?
“Vanilla flavor” is vanillin, the artificial flavoring, which does have a slightly sickly, cloying odor and taste.
But if labeled vanilla, it is actually vanilla, which is phenomenal. Nothing cloying about it.
Ice cream made plain without some vanilla, chocolate, fruit or even green tea is not that great, no matter how good the milk is. And I say that as someone who drinks 2 gallons of delicious whole milk a week.
But as I suspect most vanilla orchids are grown in greenhouses and is hand pollinated, and very little comes from wild vanilla plants.
See the link in #42
Just saw a 16 ounce bottle of vanilla extract at Costco for $9.99. It was $30+ a few years back.
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