Jul09
scary as hell, wheat, global food security
World Wheat At DEFCON 5
While most of my posts are fun and generally fluffy little pieces, I ran across this article and it scared the beejezus out of me. Wheat around the world has an old enemy, stem rust. We’ve been able to develop variations on wheat that have, up till this point, been effective in resisting the fungus. It’s the fungus’ turn to have an advancement and it’s a doozie, it’s able to attack the current wheat variety. To quote The Incredibles “It’s penetrating our defenses, avoiding all the obstacles!“
To put this in perspective, a similar fungus, yellow rust, emerged in Eastern Africa in the late 1980’s. In four years, it was able to spread to wheat fields in Southeast Asia, causing catastrophic losses in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The losses totaled over $1 Billion USD. As these spores travel by wind, it is probable that the outbreak currently in Yemen will spread to the vast wheat growing areas of North Africa, the Middle East, and India (representing roughly 25% of the total global wheat harvest) in the next few years. The loss of wheat production in those areas would devastate not only the ability of the people to feed themselves, but also the national economies of those countries. As always, I put my faith in science and my hope in the communal activity of farmers and politicians.
May wheat be with us.
Posted by Jennifer Carey on Jul. 09, 2009