Some of the most endangered food species in the world right now are avocados, cacao, and the grapes that make wine. But also some of the most basic ingredients in the kitchens all over the world, such as potatoes, chickpeas, fish, bananas, or coffee.
Increased temperatures caused by climate change have an impact on agriculture and the availability of high-demand items including coffee, chocolate, honey, avocados, wine, seafoods, strawberries, and bananas. These foods are currently in danger of going extinct in the near future.
While there is no way to know for certain that avocados should have gone extinct, some studies suggest that without human intervention a long time ago, the avocado plant would have gone extinct. Avocado plants are that plant world's version of a living fossil.
So next time you enjoy your avocado toast, remember that avocados almost went extinct. In fact, avocados ran the risk of extinction before the earliest humans even walked the Earth. Thanks to the long lives of the avocado tree, we can now grow our own and enjoy as many avocados as we want.
Vanilla, an orchid native to South and Central America, is facing the highest risk of extinction, with all eight wild species found in the region listed as endangered or critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list of threatened plants and animals.
This plant grows in the tropical forests of Mexico and Central and northern South America but is now rare in the wild due to habitat reduction and overexploitation. Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron because of the intensive labour required to grow its pods.
Giant ground sloths were one of the few ancient herbivores large enough to swallow avocados whole, thus serving as an important seed disperser for these delicious fruits that we know and love today!
Wild avocados were appealing to larger animals because it had enough tasty flesh to lure them in and could be eaten in one bite. The fruit had a larger pit and less flesh than today's avocados, but it really served as a quick snack for big mammals like the mammoth.
The primary danger of avocados to dogs and cats concerns the possibility of swallowing the large pit, which can cause a blockage or obstruction in the animal's esophagus, stomach or intestinal tract.
Potential anthropogenic causes of human extinction include global thermonuclear war, deployment of a highly effective biological weapon, an ecological collapse, runaway artificial intelligence, runaway nanotechnology (such as a grey goo scenario), a scientific accident involving a micro black hole or vacuum ...
The seven natural causes are volcanic eruptions (flood basalt events), methane eruptions, asteroid and other extraterrestrial collisions, sea level falls, anoxic events, global warming, and global cooling. Over 90 percent of all organisms that have lived on Earth at any time are now extinct.
Habitat loss is the primary cause of higher extinction rates. Other causes include habitat changes, over-exploitation of wildlife for commercial purposes, the introduction of harmful nonnative species, pollution, and the spread of diseases. Learn more: Endangered Species Act.
Studies have been conducted that show that avocado is not highly toxic to dogs; however, if a dog were to ingest the large seed (pit) of an avocado, it could cause illness. Avocado pits can cause blockages within the gastrointestinal tract and different varieties of avocado have varying amounts of persin.
Even though avocado has many benefits in a human diet, they contain a toxin called persin that can be harmful to animals, cats and dogs alike. Persin is mostly found in the skin, leaves, and pit of the avocado and when consumed in large quantities, can cause health issues in cats.
Dogs can eat small portions of an avocado's mesocarp (inner area). Large portions can cause vomiting & diarrhea due to persin - a toxin in avocados. Persin is more prevalent in the leaves and skin of avocados and the seeds are choking hazards, so if your dog eats an entire avocado, contact your vet.
The Giant Ice Age Sloth,Megalonyx jeffersonii, the famed "Giant Claw" discovered by Thomas Jefferson, stood almost ten feet tall and weighed 2 to 3 tons, as much as a small elephant.
Description. The large clawed sloth, or Megalonyx, was a large ground dwelling sloth which grew to about 10 feet long and weighed roughly 2,200 pounds. Compared to the Shasta Ground Sloth, Megalonyx and had a more blocky-shaped head with an additional set of peg-like incisors in the upper and lower jaws.
Giant ground sloths have to be among the strangest mammals that ever walked on Earth. Their living relatives include the tree sloths, and more distantly the anteaters, and armadillos. Unlike living tree sloths, the extinct sloths were large, ponderous animals that presumably spent all their time on the ground.
Their diet consists mainly of leaves but occasionally they will eat fruit and they have been known to eat bird's eggs, lizards and insects. In the wild, they live in the rainforest so have access to a wide range of trees and plant species.
It was only in 1997 that the U.S. lifted a ban on Mexican avocados that had been in place since 1914 to prevent a range of weevils, scabs and pests from entering U.S. orchards. The inspectors work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services.
Last but not least, the most alarming environmental impact of avocados is the amount of water it takes to produce them. It takes a whopping 320 liters of water, or around 84 gallons, to produce a single avocado. That's around four times the amount of water it takes to produce almonds for almond milk.
Since its natural pollinators only thrive in their native home of Mexico, most vanilla cultivated elsewhere in the world must be painstakingly pollinated by hand. Due to this high cost, less than one percent of all vanilla flavoring on the global market comes from real vanilla pods.
Pompona - The rarest species in modern times, Pompona was the most common in the days of the Aztecs, and believed to be the original variety of Vanilla the Spanish encountered in Mexico. They are 4x larger than Plantifola, but have a far lower yield so they are rarely profitable to cultivate.
All parts of the onion plant are toxic to dogs, including the flesh, leaves, juice, and processed powders. Whether raw or cooked, fried or powdered, onions and the rest of the allium family, which includes shallots, leeks, chives, and garlic, are harmful to dogs.
