The US War on Currants and Gooseberries
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Marvin Pitts, a professor of horticulture at Cornell University, estimates that 99.9% of Americans have never tasted a blackcurrant. The reason? For nearly...

I remember my Grandmother having Gooseberry in her garden and joking that they would get her in more trouble than the still she ran on her property.

    • joelslaw@lemmy.world
      2·
      1 year ago

      TLDW: A fungus called “white pine blister rust” can only pollinate in the presence of white pine trees and “ribes” (pronounced rye-bees), which is what currants and gooseberries are. The lumber was deemed far more valuable so in order to save it from the spread of the fungus, cultivation of ribes was outlawed and the US Government enacted a large scale eradication.