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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Fungus Creates Crisis For Coffee Growers

Luis Arieta, 79, harvests ripe coffee beans on a coffee plantation near Poas, Costa Rica, in December 2003. (Kent Gilbert/AP)

Luis Arieta, 79, harvests ripe coffee beans on a coffee plantation near Poas, Costa Rica, in December 2003. (Kent Gilbert/AP)

Coffee growers in Central America are facing a crisis because of a fungus that’s affecting the crop. The “roya” leaf rust fungus makes the plants lose their leaves and destroys some of the coffee beans.

In Guatemala, two-thirds of the coffee is affected and hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk.

The BBC’s Humphrey Hawksley reports.

Other stories from Wednesday's show

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
What It’s Like To Grow Up In Tornado Alley
Two men go through the damage surrounding the Moore Medical Center and damaged vehicals after a tornado moves through Moore, Okla. on Monday, May 20, 2013. (Alonzo Adams/AP)

Kelly Frey, the editor of Oklahoma’s big daily newspaper The Oklahoman, is from El Reno, Okla. and describes what it’s like to grow up in “tornado alley.”

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Expert Tips On Surviving A Major Tornado
Adam Scudder, Trisha Milittle, Tamra Jones and Bridget Kline, from left, take shelter at Pelican's Restaurant in northern Oklahoma City as a tornado passes nearby Friday night, May 9, 2003. (Andrew Laker/AP)

Are home-based shelters really enough to hold back an F5 category tornado, which can have winds upwards of 300 miles per hour? And what about people who don’t have home-based shelters?

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Monday, May 20, 2013
‘Watergate: The Video Game’ Puts Player In Woodward’s Shoes
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If you find yourself waxing nostalgic for the kind of 1970s investigative journalism that led to the Watergate hearings, you can now relive the chills and thrills of the Washington Post investigation.

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