"Tomato plants throughout much of the Northeast were hit last summer with a devastating fungal disease called 'late blight.' It's the same disease that led to the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s.

But as the climate gets warmer this year, green thumbs probably won't face the same threat, says Mike McGrath, the host of the weekly public radio show You Bet Your Garden.

That is, as long as there's cleanliness on the back end of the industry."

NPR's All Things Considered had the story March 30, 2010. [2]