Posted on 06/15/2009 12:29:12 PM PDT by The Pack Knight
Scientists are trying to develop wheat strains resistant to a fungus that has spread from Africa to Iran and is likely to show up soon in India and Pakistan. The Ug99 fungus, also known as stem rust, is likely to spread worldwide, either through wind-blown spores or carried inadvertently by people, food industry analysts said.
"It's a time bomb," Jim Peterson, an expert on wheat genetics at Oregon State University in Corvallis, told the Los Angeles Times. "It moves in the air, it can move in clothing on an airplane. We know it's going to be here. It's a matter of how long it's going to take."
Stem rust is a longtime bane of wheat farmers and afflicted wheat's wild ancestors before that. The United States has had major outbreaks of fungus, most recently in 1962 when more than 5 percent of the crop was killed.
Resistant strains of wheat apparently overcame the problem. But a new strain appeared in Uganda in 1999 and began spreading from there.
Government scientists at the Cereal Disease Laboratory in St. Paul, Minn., have begun work on wheat resistant to the latest fungus. But the process can take a decade or so.
If it ain’t the type that causes you to run down the street screaming about demons, then forget it...
“Going green” has gone too far!
"Quadrotriticale (pronounced "Quádro-trítĭ-kay-lee") is a high-yield, perennial, four-lobed grain, genetically engineered hybrid of wheat and rye. The root grain, triticale, can trace its ancestry back to 20th century Canada. Pavel Chekov, however, claimed that "it [was] a Russian invention." It is the only Earth grain able to grow on Sherman's Planet."
I predict NObama appointing a stem rust czar......
Probably not a bad move.
We're headed to worldwide food shortages this year for a number of different reasons.
NOT worldwide. elsewhere. See my tagline.
As always, the American farmer will produce far more than we need to keep our cupboards full.
Actually, this was brought to my attention while I was watching CNBC, and that might be something to look at. Another thing that was discussed was the fact that wheat is generally such a low margin product that there hasn’t been as much money or incentive to develop more advanced countermeasures to things like this as there is with other crops. This could actually create a brand new market for companies like Monsanto.
Does everyone know about this wheat but me?
LOL! I was hoping someone would get it.
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