Multiverse News

Pumpkins are normally hardy crops that are resistant to most adverse weather and pests. However, increasing rainfall over the past decade due to climate change has led to a decrease in the number of viable pumpkins due to black rot. Pumpkins affected with black rot look scarier than many of the faces and images normally carved into them during Halloween. Didymella bryonaie, the fungus that causes black rot, has evolved and become resistant to current agriculture fungicides. Wind and rain leads to the spread of spores from the fungus that can quickly affect an entire field and propagate to neighboring fields. Farmers continue to battle Didymella bryonaie, but they are slowly losing the war. The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) issued a report today projecting the eventual end of US pumpkin production in twelve to fifteen years without a solution to the unfolding fungus crisis in America's pumpkin patches. The Thanksgiving Association of America issued a dire warning that the Thanksgiving holiday, traditions, and the subsequent spirit of thanksgiving will also end with the collapse of pumkin crops, the lack of pumpkin pie, and pumpkin-themed fall decorations. The President issued Executive Order 15021 to focus research and development across Federal agencies and agricultural industry partners to protect the Fall Season and to strengthen America's resolve to save pumpkins for future generations.