6 ms·

America’s Pistachio Industry Came from a Single Seed

78 points by thedday 7y ago

jonbaer 7y ago
"This California pistachio is brought to you courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service and the Shah of Iran" ...
- frosted-flakes 7y ago
  This is a quote from the article.
lawlessone 7y ago
from one seed? So a disease could wipe it all out.
- aequitas 7y ago
  A disease could even wipe out a population from a wide variety of ancestors. The thing that matters if any of the ancestors has encountered a type of this disease before and has found a way to be resilient for it (and pass it on into its genes).
  - Retric 7y ago
    Genetic diversity direcrly correlated with better odds that a subset of the population will be resistant to the disease. The subset of people with increased HIV resistance for example did not develop the trait in response to HIV, they where lucky enough to have it before the disease showed up.
- Hitton 7y ago
  I thought the same. Look at Banana Industry the disease first wiped Gros Michel and now seriously threatens Cavendish. That wouldn't be such problem if only one cultivar wasn't so widespread.
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    Well, bananas are worse off, as they're all clones. Pistachios may have shared ancestry, but there'll be at least some genetic diversity in the crop now (as well as the originals back in Iran etc.).
  - snarf21 7y ago
    Yeah, it is super interesting to read about. Our food monoculture is going to be a huge problem for us in the future. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35131751 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35131751
- Jedd 7y ago
  > from one seed? So a disease could wipe it all out. It depends what you mean by 'wipe it all out' There are plenty of pistachio varieties, grown all over the planet, so the disease would need to spread far and wide -- but this is what many country's border controls are specifically designed to stop. There's about 30 named fruiting pistachio varieties (compare ~3,000 apple, or ~500 edible banana) so we're at some greater risk, but if you were to ask a random sample of consumers to identify the different pistachio varieties by sight/taste I expect you'd find most would struggle.
targonca 7y ago
Sanctions aside, Iranian pistachios taste so much better.
- Shivetya 7y ago
  how far off from Turkish pistachios are they? I can get those through nuts.com and a few other places and they are certainly different from what we encounter in the super market.
  - anthonybsd 7y ago
    Pretty far. Iranian pistachios are identical to Californian pistachios, just red in color. Commenter above probably is influenced by the red dye and in a blind taste would fail to distinguish between the two. Turkish/Armenian pistachios on the other hand are smaller, more elongated and if salted typically are packaged with coarser salt. I prefer the latter, although they can be more pain to peel.
- cat199 7y ago
  TFA states: "In Iran, more than 50 varieties are cultivated, not counting the great number of wild pistachios. But even today, the vast majority of California’s pistachio trees are Kerman." would be interesting if local producers got into this. given the prevalence of boutique tomatoes and the like, I could see this working.
- imagiko 7y ago
  How do you source/buy these different kinds? I've mostly had Californian pistachios, and I think they're amazing. But I keep hearing about the Iranian/Turkish varieties which is probably where the pistachio plant is native to.
gravelc 7y ago
The world's avocado industry essentially comes from a single tree - the mother Hass. Apparently at a conference years back, organisers gave out bud wood from it, so there're clones spread across the world now (the original is now dead). Lots of different root-stocks, it should be added.
- mikorym 7y ago
  With a few exceptions; 80% of the market is Hass. One of the exceptions is South Africa, where other varieties are common, but Hass is still a majority. Also note that there are new "Hass" varieties that are essentially mutations of the original Hass (it would seem; often it is not certain what the actual DNA of the variant would be or how it came to be). Note that the Dominican republic is usually listed as a top 3 producer, but none of it is Hass and none of it is exported.
Jedd 7y ago
Pistacchios are tricky plants to cultivate. I have 6 plants (4f, 2m) still in pots that I've yet to put into an orchard, but they have climate requirements that are very challenging -- the females are wind pollinated by the males, they need / appreciate cold winters, they really don't like wet feet, but they want a lot of heat through summer, though they really don't want much humidity (well the plants don't care, but you'll have issues with salmonella if you don't have very dry summers).
makerofspoons 7y ago
And those pistachio trees use a whopping 57 gallons of water a day in early July: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/4/6/1376064/-The-Nut-About-Pistachios https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/4/6/1376064/-The-Nut-A... And we grow them in the desert of all places.
- seiferteric 7y ago
  Whenever I see things like this, I wonder why are they talking about gallons per nut or tree or whatever? Shouldn't it be relative to how many grams protein/fat/carbs it produces per gallon compared to other food sources?
  - technofiend 7y ago
    >Whenever I see things like this, I wonder why are they talking about gallons per nut or tree or whatever? Because most people can relate to gallons and water rights are measured in terms of liquid volume. In a drought-prone area having a conversation about where the water is going is discussed in those terms instead of how many grams protein/fat/carbs it produces per gallon compared to other food sources.
    - seiferteric 7y ago
      But its not a useful metric if you are not comparing against other food sources on an equal basis.
      - technofiend 7y ago
        Sure if you're going to argue efficiency of gallons to calories, but it misses the point. Agricultural water use in California is extremely wasteful because of decades old water sharing and pricing agreements. Talking about curbing those inefficient and wasteful uses is more important because farmers need to pay fair and reasonable prices for water first. Once that happens they'll decide on their own the most effective use of the water they have.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
pvaldes 7y ago
> came from a single seed This is impossible, obviously, and should not be intended to be taken literally

78 points by thedday 7y ago

jonbaer 7y ago

"This California pistachio is brought to you courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service and the Shah of Iran" ...

frosted-flakes 7y ago
This is a quote from the article.

lawlessone 7y ago

from one seed? So a disease could wipe it all out.

aequitas 7y ago
A disease could even wipe out a population from a wide variety of ancestors. The thing that matters if any of the ancestors has encountered a type of this disease before and has found a way to be resilient for it (and pass it on into its genes).
- Retric 7y ago
  Genetic diversity direcrly correlated with better odds that a subset of the population will be resistant to the disease. The subset of people with increased HIV resistance for example did not develop the trait in response to HIV, they where lucky enough to have it before the disease showed up.
Hitton 7y ago
I thought the same. Look at Banana Industry the disease first wiped Gros Michel and now seriously threatens Cavendish. That wouldn't be such problem if only one cultivar wasn't so widespread.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  Well, bananas are worse off, as they're all clones. Pistachios may have shared ancestry, but there'll be at least some genetic diversity in the crop now (as well as the originals back in Iran etc.).
- snarf21 7y ago
  Yeah, it is super interesting to read about. Our food monoculture is going to be a huge problem for us in the future. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35131751 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35131751
Jedd 7y ago
> from one seed? So a disease could wipe it all out. It depends what you mean by 'wipe it all out' There are plenty of pistachio varieties, grown all over the planet, so the disease would need to spread far and wide -- but this is what many country's border controls are specifically designed to stop. There's about 30 named fruiting pistachio varieties (compare ~3,000 apple, or ~500 edible banana) so we're at some greater risk, but if you were to ask a random sample of consumers to identify the different pistachio varieties by sight/taste I expect you'd find most would struggle.

targonca 7y ago

Sanctions aside, Iranian pistachios taste so much better.

Shivetya 7y ago
how far off from Turkish pistachios are they? I can get those through nuts.com and a few other places and they are certainly different from what we encounter in the super market.
- anthonybsd 7y ago
  Pretty far. Iranian pistachios are identical to Californian pistachios, just red in color. Commenter above probably is influenced by the red dye and in a blind taste would fail to distinguish between the two. Turkish/Armenian pistachios on the other hand are smaller, more elongated and if salted typically are packaged with coarser salt. I prefer the latter, although they can be more pain to peel.
cat199 7y ago
TFA states: "In Iran, more than 50 varieties are cultivated, not counting the great number of wild pistachios. But even today, the vast majority of California’s pistachio trees are Kerman." would be interesting if local producers got into this. given the prevalence of boutique tomatoes and the like, I could see this working.
imagiko 7y ago
How do you source/buy these different kinds? I've mostly had Californian pistachios, and I think they're amazing. But I keep hearing about the Iranian/Turkish varieties which is probably where the pistachio plant is native to.

gravelc 7y ago

The world's avocado industry essentially comes from a single tree - the mother Hass. Apparently at a conference years back, organisers gave out bud wood from it, so there're clones spread across the world now (the original is now dead). Lots of different root-stocks, it should be added.

mikorym 7y ago
With a few exceptions; 80% of the market is Hass. One of the exceptions is South Africa, where other varieties are common, but Hass is still a majority. Also note that there are new "Hass" varieties that are essentially mutations of the original Hass (it would seem; often it is not certain what the actual DNA of the variant would be or how it came to be). Note that the Dominican republic is usually listed as a top 3 producer, but none of it is Hass and none of it is exported.

Jedd 7y ago

Pistacchios are tricky plants to cultivate. I have 6 plants (4f, 2m) still in pots that I've yet to put into an orchard, but they have climate requirements that are very challenging -- the females are wind pollinated by the males, they need / appreciate cold winters, they really don't like wet feet, but they want a lot of heat through summer, though they really don't want much humidity (well the plants don't care, but you'll have issues with salmonella if you don't have very dry summers).

makerofspoons 7y ago

And those pistachio trees use a whopping 57 gallons of water a day in early July: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/4/6/1376064/-The-Nut-About-Pistachios https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/4/6/1376064/-The-Nut-A... And we grow them in the desert of all places.

seiferteric 7y ago
Whenever I see things like this, I wonder why are they talking about gallons per nut or tree or whatever? Shouldn't it be relative to how many grams protein/fat/carbs it produces per gallon compared to other food sources?
- technofiend 7y ago
  >Whenever I see things like this, I wonder why are they talking about gallons per nut or tree or whatever? Because most people can relate to gallons and water rights are measured in terms of liquid volume. In a drought-prone area having a conversation about where the water is going is discussed in those terms instead of how many grams protein/fat/carbs it produces per gallon compared to other food sources.
  - seiferteric 7y ago
    But its not a useful metric if you are not comparing against other food sources on an equal basis.
    - technofiend 7y ago
      Sure if you're going to argue efficiency of gallons to calories, but it misses the point. Agricultural water use in California is extremely wasteful because of decades old water sharing and pricing agreements. Talking about curbing those inefficient and wasteful uses is more important because farmers need to pay fair and reasonable prices for water first. Once that happens they'll decide on their own the most effective use of the water they have.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

pvaldes 7y ago

> came from a single seed This is impossible, obviously, and should not be intended to be taken literally