Plant Viruses That Should Scare Us
Anna E Whitfield1, Julie K Pfeiffer2, Terence S Dermody3
11Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology and Emerging Plant Disease and Global Food Security Cluster, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA ;
None:
A guilty pleasure of ours is having coffee on a Saturday morning with a friend at a neighborhood cafe where the chocolate croissants are divine and the pace of the day is unhurried. We linger longer than intended, cups refilled, as our conversations wander across art, history, science, travel, wine, and the linguine marinara we had for dinner last night. On one such occasion, the conversa-tion shifted to the recognition that many of the plants producing our favorite foods and beverages face growing threats from viral pathogens about which we know surprisingly little.An adapted version of this editorial was published in The Hill on May 28, 2026 (https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5896747-coffee-chocolate-wine-plant-viruses/).
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