With the Earth’s population exploding and nearly every arable
acre already cultivated, the future of farming is a looming
concern. For inspiration science is looking to the leaf-cutter
ant which has mastered single crop agriculture and represents
the apex of ant agriculture. Monoculture crops are the rule in
modern agriculture. This is why modern crops are especially
vulnerable to disease. A pathogen that can infect one plant will
likely be infectious to the rest. Today the banana industry is
being threatened by a fungus known as Tropical Race Four. This
infection has resisted every counter-measure and may eventually
doom modern bananas altogether. Seemingly out of nowhere, the
latest crisis has hit the Australian Pistachio nut industry. In
December 2010 torrential rainfalls created ideal conditions for
an outbreak of the moisture-loving anthracnose fungus.
Australia’s pistachios originate almost entirely from a single
cultivar developed in the early 1980s. Until recently,
anthracnose was thought to be a mang