You'd better read this before trying to grow 'em :!: :!: :!:
Goji berries might look innocuous, but the current craze for this "superfood" – fuelled by the endorsement of celebrities such as Kate Moss and Sir Mick Jagger – could devastate Britain's multimillion-pound tomato and potato crops.
The Government has alerted farmers to the threat after it revealed last week that nearly 90,000 goji berry plants, which can carry diseases that are lethal to other crops, have been illegally imported from East Asia in the past year. Some of the plants have been destroyed but it is feared that most are already in the gardens of goji- berry enthusiasts.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has issued a warning to commercial growers, garden centres and gardeners, while the National Farmers' Union has warned that disease carried by the bright red berries could be "devastating".
"There are particular concerns over this," said Chris Hartfield, horticulture adviser to the NFU. "Put simply, because goji plants are part of the Solanaceae family – the same as potatoes and tomatoes – the bugs can travel on the goji plants, then easily move to, say, potatoes, where they debilitate the crop." He added: "The retail value of British tomato production is £150m, and potatoes are worth more than that, so the size of the industry that is under threat is pretty massive. If some bugs were to arrive here, they would be devastating."
Super food my @rse
![laugh :lol:](https://chat.allotment-garden.org/Smileys/green/laugh.gif)