Wait, what? I thought all vanilla had to be hand pollinated at great expense.. at least the article I read about Madagascars vanilla farms said that the pollinator had been lost, and now vanilla is dependent on humans.
Had the pollinators been lost because they were never natively there in the first place? Madagascar vanilla is an imperial creation, courtesy of the French. Perhaps not as much of a problem in vanilla's native habitat, Mexico.
Now I'm going to take that statement with a grain of salt; what if that's just a rumour that the vanilla industry spread to increase the value?