Kale's popularity leading to worldwide shortage

Updated
Warning, There May Be A Global Kale Shortage
Warning, There May Be A Global Kale Shortage


Calling all yogis, juicers, salad eaters and superfood enthusiasts - we are on the verge of a global crisis.

The world's kale supplies are running low.

Yes, that's right - one of the top global kale seed suppliers has run out of stock. Tony Hubbard, head of the Bejo Seeds company in Australia, said, "you could describe it as embarrassing to us, but it's just one of those things that's happened on a global basis... It's caught us out well and truly, we put our hands up to that."

Bejo Seeds supplies farms in the United States, so it's possible that Australia's shortage could be felt on American shores.

Since becoming the trendiest green at the salad bar, kale has been taking over farms. At a major farm in Melbourne, Australia, Deborah and Darren Corrigan planted 1,500 kale seeds a few years ago. Now they plant 150,000 kale seedlings each week.

So what's so special about the leafy green? Its full of fiber, vitamins, iron, calcium and antioxidants, and it's low in the calorie department.

The superfood has been around for ages but really took off in the past three years. Data scientist Dan Stone crunched the numbers on how Google searches for kale exploded between 2012 and 2013 - up to 18.2 million searches per year, nine times as many searches as the year before.

Kale has become so popular that in 2013, 257 boys and 5 girls born in the United States were given the name Kale. Yes. Babies named Kale.

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