Sunday Hot Pepper Blogging

A colleague sends this LA Times article suggesting it as "perfect for New Mexico blogging." And, indeed, it is. The subject is New Mexico's chile industry, which has been in trouble lately because "since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the state's chile crop has plunged almost 50% as cheaper foreign imports from Mexico, Peru and China pushed local growers out of the market." As a result much former cropland is being sold for the developers who bring you the southwest's impressive sprawl. To the rescue, of course, come education and technology so chile scientists working at New Mexico State University are looking to preserve the state's chile competitiveness by developing superior peppers.