Timely -- given the COVID sourdough boom -- but misleading title. If you know about cultivating a sourdough "mother" you know that it relies on spores from the

Timely -- given the COVID sourdough boom -- but misleading title. If you know about cultivating a sourdough "mother" you know that it relies on spores from the air. This article has nothing to do with that. A better title would have been "Cleaner air may be bad for grain production". The point is that as coal power plants shut down there is less acid rain. Acid rain is actually good for crops in the sense that they need sulphur, which acid rain provides. Farmers are now having to provide sulphur in the form of fertilizer.