“In our experience,” writes Cornell plant pathologist William Fry and colleagues of the outbreak in their recent article The 2009 Late Blight Epidemic in Eastern U.S., available online by the American Phytopathogical Society, “the scale of pathogen release was completely unexpected and unprecedented.” Fry has tracked the plant pathogen to its roots and teased apart its DNA. Even so, no one expected the 2009 outbreak. Since its emergence on potato fields blight has remained the bane of farmers around the globe. Late blight had touched off the infamous Potato Famine, altering social structures, politics, and agricultural practices–its effects relevant even today. Some one million Irish died and more than a million sailed for distant shores. Tenant farmers in Ireland were hit particularly hard. Over a century ago a mysterious potato disease spread across Europe like wild fire. Nor were tomatoes the first vegetable (or, fruit) to be taken by blight. That 2009 outbreak may have been the first to hit northeast tomatoes but it certainly was not the first time Phytophthora went pandemic. But ever since blight, tomatoes have become harder to bring to market. ![]() And, ever since its 2009 debut, the blight that wipes out crops within days has returned each growing season. For Voiland and many CSA farmers tomatoes are an essential crop. But Late Blight, caused by the fungus-like Phytophtora infestans–a pathogen with an affinity not only for tomatoes but also for their botanical cousin the potato–was a new one for Northeast growers. Voiland and others are constantly on the lookout for early blight and black mold cut worms and leaf miners and all sorts of specks, spots and cankers. Even though I still have tomatoes on the vine, many of the beautiful heirloom varieties, which were planted, never had a chance.” Stewart’s post was accompanied by an image of an ugly diseased tomato, a far cry from the doyenne’s trademark perfection.ĭiseased tomatoes are nothing new, whether grown by conventional or organic tomato farmers. Chef and author Dan Barber penned a New York Times op-ed about the outbreak, “You Say Tomato, I say Agricultural Disaster.” The article was just one of hundreds published that year. “I, myself,” wrote Martha Stewart in a 2009 blog, “have lost seventy percent of the fifty different varieties in my garden. ![]() In 2009, writes Voiland in his farm blog, Late Blight “caused massive crop loss and severely impacted us financially.” Voiland had plenty of company that season as the blight ripped into tomato plants all along the east coast and mid-Atlantic. But for independent farmers and CSAs, such large-scale crop loss can be devastating. The 2014 outbreak left local tomato fields in tatters, but it wasn’t the worst case of the blight to hit Red Fire. When I can amble down to the Red Fire farm stand and purchase plump red Brandywines, Big Yellow Zebras, or Sungolds, tending to tomatoes is not a make or break situation. That my kitchen garden, just a few miles away from Voiland’s farm succumbed as well, was no surprise I am not the most attentive farmer. Large brown spots blossomed on the fruits turning them soft and unsellable. Rows of once lush plants resembled vegetative versions of Zombie armies upright stalks studded with browned blight infested leaves. But in 2014, a fungus-like disease called Late Blight had made its way up the valley, jumping from one farm to another until it hit Red Fire. ![]() Red Fire, now a successful Community Supported Agriculture farm or CSA, grows more than 150 different tomato varieties offering them up for tasting at their annual Tomato Festival. had a good crop and managed to send in some specimens.” Red Fire’s tomatoes won five out of twelve awards, more than any farm, organic or conventional, had ever won in a single year. “That first year was remarkable,” recalled Voiland, cracking a shy smile, “we heard about the Massachusetts Tomato Contest …. A decade or so later Voiland–a thirty-something soft-spoken organic farmer with a degree from Cornell–had become an award winning tomato grower. Farmer Ryan Voiland has been growing and selling tomatoes since middle school, setting up a road-side stand outside his parent’s home. The first inkling that things were really bad was the news that late blight had not only wilted and rotted my own tomatoes but Red Fire Farm’s (Montague, Massachusetts) as well. Photo courtesy Cornell's Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center.
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