A 'time bomb' for world wheat crop

Los Angeles Times by Karen Kaplan | Jun. 14, 2009 (News Report)

The spores arrived from Kenya on dried, infected leaves ensconced in layers of envelopes.

Working inside a bio-secure greenhouse outfitted with motion detectors and surveillance cameras, government scientists at the Cereal Disease Laboratory in St. Paul, Minn., suspended the fungal spores in a light mineral oil and sprayed them onto thousands of healthy wheat plants. After two weeks, the stalks were covered with deadly reddish blisters ... Full Story »

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4.0

by Dwight Rousu - Jun. 15, 2009

The story is a moderately fascinating current day story of evolution of predator fungi and the evolution of wheat defenses in order to survive. The evolution is accelerated by scientific laboratories working on defenses, and the predator can be spread rapidly by modern transportation. The combination of fungal mutation via sexual reproductions and rapid dispersal via asexual reproduction takes advantage of both major reproduction schemes in these organisms more closely related to animals than to plants.

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3.9

by Glenn LaBauve - Jun. 15, 2009

This report shares the worst case as well as potential for prevention of it happening

There have always been and always will be threats to the food system, it is only when threats are couched in their worst case situation, that funding becomes available to avoid the worst case. We have seen similar projections in the past for soybean, rice, corn and bananas, so far only bananas have fulfilled the proficy, and we are seeing the second coming of banana extinction in the next few years.

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