Ug99 Fungus: Wheat Stem Rust Threatens 80 Percent Of World's Wheat

LA Times:

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.

Read the whole story: LA Times

Comments

[loki]

03:55 AM on 06/16/2009

well its good we converted millions of acres of rich farmland into shopping malls and subdivisions. Otherwise this fungus might infect our wheat fields and we would be in big trouble!!
Oh wait, we dont have enough wheat production to really worry about anymore and get our wheat from these fungus infected areas!! Oh no!!
Kind of like getting 80% of our soybeans from Brazil and other south American countries now means that we cant use embargo threats to counter certain acts by governments, and we are dependent on those countries. Or like getting 99% of everything we use from countries like China, India, and so on, we literally dont have a leg to stand on anymore. In fact the only things of substance we still manufacture seem to be military items, and thats only because the Gov bankrolls that. sure, we make movies, video games, computer games, and debt. those we still make here. Everything else , outsourced.

[TJCole]

09:19 PM on 06/15/2009

It's the Final Days alright it all started with Chernobyl...that was the sign John Predicted his Wormwood...which Chernobyl means, and the same plant by that name grows..in the Ukraine and Northern England..

[Theou]

08:14 PM on 06/15/2009

What is the meaning of the strange garb of the man in the titlephoto?
The Grim Reaper?

[Mnemanth]

06:15 PM on 06/15/2009

Oh? Another global catastrophe for everyone to get spun up about? I'd think if this were truly a threat, it would be front page.

[joebaggadonuts]

05:21 AM on 06/16/2009

From the article:

"The oldest of the plants Carver bred for Ug99 resistance are only 3 years old, but one of the strains has been planted in the field already in case the fungus hitches a quick ride to the U.S. on an airplane or in a shipping container.

"In the absence of stem rust, it would not be the highest-yielding wheat," he said. "In the presence of stem rust, it would be the only thing that would survive.""

Until people start to starve this will not make it to the front page. If you continue to let editors select what you see as news, you won't survive either.

[MajorKong]

04:19 PM on 06/15/2009

Eeek!

[hekimanimali]

03:46 PM on 06/15/2009

The wind can spread this fungus yet it's origin is Africa. Why? Why is it that diseases, deadly diseases, seem to mysteriously originate from Africa? I find this disturbing as well as insulting due to the image that these types of headlines portray. "Africa, disease capital of the poor".

I believe that the reason that these diseases originate from Africa stems from all the 'medical' experiments that scientists freely carry out within the African borders. It pains me to read such and similar headlines.

[BrettnCalgary]

10:19 PM on 06/15/2009

If you read the article your question will be answered. Why post a question like that without reading the article?

[joebaggadonuts]

05:24 AM on 06/16/2009

We are all in this together. Africa has some of the last remnants of the natural world, and they are being exported via industrial exploitation. That's why you are seeing so much coming from there. If you look, the oceans are starting to produce their own terrors, jelly fish replacing edible fish for example. Feeling it's being blamed on Africa is a provincial reaction and it's not wise.

[naviline]

01:50 PM on 06/15/2009

Cue stories of how GMOs will save us from this deadly scourge...

[joebaggadonuts]

05:26 AM on 06/16/2009

Yeah, I thought that too. Are they really that ruthless? Don't they have children?