The tasty pesto sauce that many all around the world adore so much might be really bad for the environment, and no, it's not the pesto itself that is harming the environment, it is actually the demand of the nuts that makes pesto that is ruining numerous ecosystems in the Far East.
Pesto sauce in pasta is very much loved in many areas in Europe, and truth be told, pasta in pesto is very palatable. The only problem is the best pesto's made in Italy and used by many Italian restaurants are slowly killing the pine forests of Russia and Korea.
The insatiable demand for the nuts that make the pesto is rising and rising and the major countries that export these nuts are having a difficult time supplying them.
"The entire Korean pine ecosystem could collapse if it continues," Jonathan Slaght, a leading figure in the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society and a forestry expert, said.
The nuts that make up the delicious green sauce are one of the main sources of food by many animals, from birds to chipmunks to red deer and wild boars. Even Asiatic black bears depend on the calorific and protein-rich nuts.
The lack of the nuts in the forests of Russia might have been one of the reason that there were numerous bears roaming and attacking residents in Luchegorsk, which is a town in Russia near the border of China, the New Yorker reports.
There have been many who suggested that if the nuts were sourced locally then maybe it wouldn't be so damaging to the environment.
But according to one famous chef, Luciano Belloni, owner of the Zeffirino restaurant said that other nuts would not do for pesto, the taste is just not the same when other nuts are used to make the sauce.
"Lots of people substitute peanuts. The pine nut is expensive and we pay €60 [£44] a kilo for those from Versilia. But if you want to make pesto, this is the recipe," Belloni said. He also added that the quality will fail if other nuts will be used.
