By James Taylor
The New York Times is attempting to stoke climate alarm this week with an article claiming the world’s favorite scent – vanilla – is about to disappear because climate change is eradicating vanilla plants. In reality, objective data show vanilla production has doubled since the year 2000 and the current market is saturated with oversupply.
The Times article, “This Is How the World’s Favorite Scent Disappears,” notes vanilla is the world’s favorite scent and is used in a wide variety of perfumes and other products. Citing anecdotal events like a cyclone that hit Madagascar several years ago during its annual cyclone season, the Times claims supersized cyclones are putting vanilla on the verge of extinction.
Interestingly, although the Times published its article just yesterday, the best anecdotal “evidence” for the asserted vanilla extinction was a cyclone that his Madagascar way back in 2017 during its cyclone season. According to the Times, Madagascar produces 80 percent of the world’s vanilla – actually, it produces significantly less than 80 percent – and “As a result [of the 2017 cyclone], the price of vanilla bean pods surged to nearly $300 a pound. The increasingly erratic weather, along with pressure to cut the forests that harbor the orchids, is particularly worrisome for farmers….”
So, why does the Times provide just anecdotal ‘evidence’ of climate change ravaging vanilla crops, and why does the Times have to go all the way back to 2017 to find any such anecdotal evidence? The answer is because objective facts expose the Times’ claim as false.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization provides detailed information on global crop production, including vanilla. According to the UN data, global vanilla production has doubled from 3.9 million kg of vanilla in 2000 to 7.7 million kg in 2022.
There is so much vanilla being produced that farmers are complaining about low vanilla prices caused by overproduction.
“The 2023 vanilla crop is expected to be one of the best harvests in the last two decades, forecasted at 2500 tons with exceptionally high quality,” observes the Nielsen-Massey 2023 Crop Report.
The Crop Report observes that recent strong production has created market oversupply. “The oversupply has led to aggressive price reductions, posing economic challenges for vanilla farmers as they sell their 2022 crop at low prices to meet their daily living needs,” the Crop Report adds.
Wow, talk about the New York Times getting the story completely backwards and wrong!
The New York Times points to a cyclone that hit Madagascar seven years ago during its cyclone season and caused a very short-term spike in vanilla prices. That is its sole “evidence” of climate change making vanilla go extinct. In reality, vanilla production is so strong that the market is saturated with vanilla, with such market saturation making farmers complain about low prices.
The New York Times and other “mainstream” media outlets have a long history of identifying popular foods, beverages, and luxury items that climate change is allegedly destroying. As is the case with all other such items that have come to Climate Realism’s attention, vanilla is becoming more abundant rather than less abundant as the planet modestly warms.
James Taylor is the President of the Heartland Institute. Taylor is also director of Heartland’s Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy. Taylor is the former managing editor (2001-2014) of Environment & Climate News, a national monthly publication devoted to sound science and free-market environmentalism.
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Vanilla will grow with a temperature range of about 10 to 38C
I think it will handle a couple of degrees warmer than average (which would be about 15 to 30C)
NYT is mindless.
Production doubled? All that ice-cream, so little time…
Ever about the narrative, never about the truth!
I much prefer a strong chocolate ice cream, thanks 🙂
We had a local place that made Kahlua AND Rum flavors…the Rum was really good
Ugh. I detest the taste of booze, so I sure don’t want it in my ice cream.
I make my own chocolate and have just experimented with adding expresso into the mix. My dark chocolate bars are equivalent to a 70% cocoa solids one. Adding expresso makes for a very strong flavor experience.
If you weren’t on the other side of the planet, I’d send you some with almonds or pistachios.
The New York Times increasingly looks like a left wing version of the Babylon Bee but not as funny.
Or you can just say “Satire is de-e-ead!”. Like this (the rest of site often is quite NSFW).
The NYT is not funny at all. It has become a leftist propaganda rag that isn’t worth reading at all.
Except the Bee is right more often
Who actually reads the NYT anymore? Parrots?
Facts? Who needs facts?
The BBC this morning:
“The species is in decline, and scientists attribute it to the loss of sea ice caused by global warming – leading to shrinking of their hunting and breeding grounds.”
Two polar bears kill Arctic Canadian worker in rare attack (bbc.com)
Forget data, forget facts, this is about [promoting bad] feelings…
Ever the narrative, never the facts
Of course the NYT isn’t alone. Science? Wots that then?
Heat aggravated by carbon pollution killed 50,000 in Europe last year – studyhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/12/heat-aggravated-by-carbon-pollution-killed-50000-in-europe-last-year-study
Carbon pollution???
Elisa Gallo, an environmental epidemiologist at ISGlobal and lead author of the study…
Is bang on message
There has to be a formal way to get this corrected, with a legal sign-off and apology from the New York Times.
Is there not a Press Council that has a way to handle complaints?
Surely the US has existing legislation about truth in advertising.
What am I missing? Geoff S
It’s not advertising in the legal sense. Unfortunately.
Which means the production probably is about to shrink a bit in response.
And then the
commissars“community organizers” who run in circles and demand that everyone should panic will have some scaled and precisely cropped graphs to wave around and say “Aha! Told you so!”.So drearily predictable.
Production will probably shrink a bit as farmers, discouraged by low prices, switch crops.
“the market is saturated with vanilla”
We’ll need to eat more ice cream to reduce the glut (& increase the gut ) caused by the dreadful CO2 … Yum yum,
Which kind of vanilla ice cream do you eat?
Ice cream is flavored by artificial or natural vanilla flavoring. Artificial flavorings contain 100% vanillin, the main ingredient that contributes to natural vanilla extract’s flavor. Natural vanilla extract also contains nearly 200 more compounds in addition to vanillin. The different chemical properties of these compounds may cause compatibility issues with different ice cream preparations.[9] Vanilla ice cream may be classified by the type of flavoring used. If natural vanilla extract is used, then the product is called “vanilla ice-cream”. If vanillin from natural vanilla is used, then the product is called “vanilla flavored ice cream”. If artificial vanillin is used, then the product is labelled as an “artificially flavored vanilla ice-cream”.[10] The United States Food and Drug Administration characterizes vanilla ice cream into three categories: (1) the ice cream only contains vanilla extract; (2) the ice cream contains 1 ounce (28 g) of synthetic vanillin per gallon (3.8 L) of one-fold vanilla extract; (3) the ice cream only contains synthetic ingredients.[11]
(Wikipedia)
Brymor Real Dairy Ice Cream, (Natural vanilla )
Masham
North Yorkshire
or homemade (Natural vanilla + clotted cream )
According to the Times, Madagascar produces 80 percent of the world’s vanilla – actually, it produces significantly less than 80 percent
That is a rather strange source to back up the claim that Madagascar produces significantly less than 80 percent of the world’s production of vanilla. It says:
“Additionally, 80% of all vanilla grown comes from small farms in Madagascar.”
However, according to Wikipedia, the figure is only 39 percent. Wikipedia gives a much higher figure for Indonesia than the source provided in the article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla
The Wikipedia article also states:
An estimated 95% of “vanilla” products are artificially flavoured with vanillin derived from lignin instead of vanilla fruits.
You can’t beat the real thing!
That’s what she said! 🙂
Have you tried Frozen Yogurt? Any flavor!
lignin from wood
Weather – it varies.
“NY Times…”. Anything following that is suspect of being wrong and deceitful. In other words, a lie.
Just sayin’.
Time to go back to reading The Onion.
At least they admit to publishing satire.
Nature 1:climate fanatics 0. Again and again and again!!!
Since the yield per hectare has not varied much over the long run it can be safely concluded that area planted has almost doubled over the indicated time frame. Each area/country of production has a slightly different yield factor and local conditions per season will have an impact of course. But overall it is nothing but usual.
The more hectares you plant, the more you get.
The reporting for vanilla is all over the place and not helped by some basing their figures on dried vanilla and others on green. About 1 kg of dried pods, as you buy them in the supermarket, equates to 6 kg of green beans straight off the vine.
Seemingly Madagascar is trying to control the prices, without much success as usual, while there are synthetic alternatives and an increase in supply of the natural product.
The market will dictate demand and with that supply and prices will follow, up/down/sideways.
If Madagascar production is down at the moment it would appear to be safe to say that it is the market climate rather than global warming climate causing this.
I was reading an article the other day on the French wine industry and that vineyards are being pulled up. Here we go again I thought. but it turned out that the French people have halved their consumption over the last 50 odd years. Sacre bleu.
The market does it again.
Well, we can always go back to trapping and or raising beavers.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/does-vanilla-flavoring-actually-come-from-beaver-butts-180983288/
The New York Times lying about climate causing problems? But, but that never happens!
First off, the vast majority of vanilla used worldwide is synthetic. The typical “vanilla extract” sold at the supermarket is artificial. The flavor component in artificial vanilla is “vanallin” synthesized from lignin, extracted from wood. Natural vanilla contains over 100 other flavor compounds. If natural vanilla production went to zero most people wouldn’t notice because they are consuming only the artificial product.
Second, vanilla beans are produced from a type of orchid which grows in only tropical regions. It grows best at 1,500 – 3,000 meters elevation and moderate but steady rainfall. All vanilla orchids are descended from the native Mexican progenitor. “Tahitian Vanilla” is simply vanilla grown in Tahiti from plants brought from Mexico by the French.
Finally, the native vanilla pollinator has apparently gone extinct and all commercially-grown vanilla must be hand pollinated at exactly the right time, which is labor-intensive. Drying the beans is done by placing them on screens exposed to the sun during the day but brought in at night to prevent moisture rot. The drying process takes weeks and is also labor intensive. Recently introduced mechanical drying chambers reduce both labor and time for this step.
Most of the world’s natural vanilla production is in Madagascar because they have both the climate and cheap labor. There are a number of small vanilla farms in Hawaii which get by on the “grown in Hawaii” imprimatur. One such family operation is here.
You can make your own natural vanilla extract from beans and the distilled spirit of your choice (rum, vodka, bourbon, etc). You let the beans (sliced open lengthwise) sit in the spirit for 6 months, draw off 1/3 of the bottle and re-fill with the same spirit. Add a new bean every couple of years and continue essentially forever.
Some time ago I read of a phrase used in New England during Prohibition in a book about word/phrase origins.
“He’d been baking a cake.”, referring to people who were drinking vanilla extract.