What was behind Australia's potato shortage? Wet weather and hard-to-control diseases

By Ronika Thapa, PhD Student, University of Tasmania
Calum Wilson, Professor, University of Tasmania
Robert Tegg, Research Fellow, University of Tasmania

If you’ve been into a fish and chip shop in the last 12 months, you may well have seen a notice tacked to the wall about the impact of the potato shortage. Supermarkets, too, slapped temporary limits on frozen chip purchases.

What was behind it? Wet weather, floods – and highly persistent fungal diseases. Growers in Tasmania were worst hit, with mainland growers in New South Wales and Victoria also hit.

Even 175 years after Ireland’s devastating…

Read complete article

~	Global: UN Special Rapporteur is right to raise human rights concerns about carbon markets

~	On X, Elon Musk pushes a campaign against a Brazilian Supreme Court Justice

~	US Universities Should Respect Right to Protest

~	Burkina Faso: UN rights office deeply alarmed at reported killing of 220 villagers

~	A new dash for copper is underway - how will it play out? Expert Q&A

~	Why does it feel so cold in the UK right now – and when will it warm up?

~	Artificial sweetener could harm your gut and the microbes that live there – new study

~	Gaza war: ‘no evidence’ of Hamas infiltration of UN aid agency, says report – but US and UK dither on funding while famine takes hold

~	Five books by Maryse Condé to introduce you to the award-winning Guadeloupian writer

~	How maps are used and abused in times of conflict