While living in Peru (the largest producer of commercial cochinilla/cochineal, I believe) I heard a rumor that the U.S. had changed it’s rules to allow the use of cochineal to keep meats looking nice and reddish and that this was causing the domestic price of the bugs to skyrocket, negatively effecting the weavers who have been using it to dye traditionally for centuries. Well, a little googling doesn’t quite bear this out (looks like it’s been allowed since 1969 but then required to be labelled in 2009? )
Anywho, I don’t know what caused it, but the price had definitely spiked and the weavers I knew were having to adjust their designs because the huge range of hues they got from cochineal had to be limited, basically all shades of red, maroon, pink and purple plus some blues, lots of oranges and some greens (achieved with different mordants). It’s an amazing and important little bug.
