Tequila News: In-Agave-Da-Vida Baby!
We never thought we’d say this, but “Don’t drink your tequila!” Well, ok, you can if you want, but there is a possibility that tequila may become scarce in the near future and that bottle of Jose Cuervo Especial you’ve been saving for a special occasion may be worth something…more. This is just speculation, mind you, but it seems that the biodiversity of the agave plant is being threatened, and we suspect this could pose a problem for tequila production in the near future.
The standard logic regarding biodiversity goes something like this: It is important for a given crop to be diverse (i.e. varied yet similar plants that can serve the same agricultural need). The more diverse a crop is, the less susceptible that crop will be to total destruction in the face of specific diseases or weather conditions. If you narrow the diversity of a crop, that is, homogenize it, you open the window for catastrophic fallout resulting from a specific negative factor.
So where does this leave the famed agave plant and the future of tequila? Well, if the agave plant’s biodiversity is threatened from over-farming, soil erosion, etc., basically leaving us with only a few strains of agave, and one of those gets wiped out…you do the math. Add to that the fact that the hearts of agave plants are traditionally harvested only in their twelfth year, we could end up with a long drought if we had to, in essence, start over. The moral of the story: keep an eye on tequila, and if these trends continue, you may want to start stockpiling, be it for fun or profit.
