A Threat To The World Food Suply Is On The Horizon

Oregon State scientist Mary Verhoeven is among those working to develop wheat varieties resistant to a strain of “stem rust” that a colleague calls “a time bomb.” Katharine Kimball / For The Times

A 'Time Bomb' For World Wheat Crop -- L.A. Times

The Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, could wipe out more than 80% of the world's wheat as it spreads from Africa, scientists fear. The race is on to breed resistant plants before it reaches the U.S.

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 characteristic of the scourge known as Ug99.

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My Comment: Talk of a food crisis and the high price for food would pale in comparison if such an affliction spreads to the major wheat growing countries in the world. The economic and social crisis that it will bring about would be disastrous from a national security point of view, and unprecedented for modern times.