Camembert, Im sorry to report, is in trouble. The soft cheese, which smells a bit like feet, is on the verge of extinction, according to the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Other cheeses, including brie and various blues, are under threat, too, the group has warned. This looming cheese crisis, this Camembert calamity, stems from a much bigger problem: a collapse in microbial diversity. Each hunk of Camembert or smear of brie is an ecosystem, an assortment of fungi and bacteria that turn milk fats and proteins into hundreds of different compounds. Those compounds produce the flavors, smells, and textures we love. In recent decades, however, the genetic diversity of some of those microbes has caved. And today, some of the most famous French cheeses rely on just a single fragile strain of fungi that is at risk of dying out.