Grain drain

With global wheat stocks at all-time lows, a killer fungus looms

Posted by Tom Philpott at 2:19 PM on 19 Mar 2008

Read more about: agriculture | food | Iran

Remember awhile back, when a fertilizer magnate raised the specter of global famine? He said:

If you had any major upset where you didn't have a crop in a major growing agricultural region this year, I believe you'd see famine ... We need to have a record crop in 2008 just to stay even with this very low inventory situation.

In that context, you hate to read stuff like the following, from the U.N.:

A dangerous new fungus with the ability to destroy entire wheat fields has been detected in Iran, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today.

The wheat stem rust, whose spores are carried by wind across continents, was previously found in East Africa and Yemen and has moved to Iran, which said that laboratory tests have confirmed its presence in some localities in Broujerd and Hamedan in the country's west.

Oh, oh -- it gets worse.

(Hat tip to the Ethicurean.)

Up to 80 per cent of all Asian and African wheat varieties are susceptible to the fungus, and major wheat-producing nations to Iran's east -- such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan -- should be on high alert, FAO warned.

"The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk," said Shivaji Pandey, Director of FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division.

Widespread susceptibility to a single disease is a symptom of monocropping and the razor-thin genetic base on which we've chosen to hang our agriculture. When entire regions grow the same few varieties of a key staple, something as tiny as a fungus can cause loads of trouble. Just ask the Irish.

So the U.N. is working to boost crop diversity in the affected regions, right? No. Instead, guys in white lab coats are concocting "disease-resistant" wheat strains -- which they'll try to get farmers to plant en masse, in vast monocrops. Of course, diseases evolve, developing resistance to the resistance that's been cooked up in the lab. Back to the article:

The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) -- founded by Norman Borlaug, Cornell University, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the Internatioanl Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and FAO -- will continue its work in assisting countries develop drug-resistant wheat varieties, upgrading their plant protection measures and creating contingency plans.

For story: Grain drain
5 Comments | Post a Comment

Amaranth

All parts of the amaranth plant are edible (although not always particularly tasty, varieties differ) it grows like a weed and yields a LOT of grain that is high in protien. Most importantly just about anybody can grow it as it really is a free seeding weed.

So if you're inclined to garden and have a few chickens this might be a plant you want in a back corner. Just remember to never put any form of amaranth on the compost pile. If you do you have a new intercrop to go with everything else you planted.

The lack of biodiversity in our food supply will someday create a great tragedy. Every few years we get a wake-up call like this but so far they have turned out to be false alarms. One day the famine will be real.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 2:57 PM on 19 Mar 2008

Why Can't the Fungus Attack Tobacco Plants?

Geez, why can't the Universe deliver us a KILLER FUNGUS, please, which will wipe out all Tobacco Crops on the frackin' planet, & end the bloody curse of that useless, disease-producing, nasty addictive & poisonous toxic weed?

There's the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, but that's not a Fungus, is it? I'm not a botanist. Just tired of having generation after generation, pass on this curse, this "merchant of death" product.

At least you can make something useful out of HEMP, & medical marijuana (not smoked) has actual uses for some conditions. Tobacco, nicotine? What the frack is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Like the stupid bloody Bush's War in Iraq.

by AtomicWarBaby at 1:13 AM on 20 Mar 2008

North America just as vulnerable

Dear Tom

You single out the quote about Africa and Asia's wheats all being susceptible.

You think North America's are any better off? The big difference is, North America can afford fungicides.

Jeremy

by Jeremy Cherfas at 3:06 AM on 20 Mar 2008

Make better compost

If you get intercrops of anything after spreading compost, you're not making your compost properly.

Having said that, I agree that amaranth is a fine and overlooked crop.

False alarms? I don't think so. Just that in the agriculture you're familiar with, people pay for fungicides and the like. Asian soybean rust has cost Brazil millions of dollars a year.

by Jeremy Cherfas at 3:08 AM on 20 Mar 2008
[ Parent ]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Tom

Of course, the ethanol industry continues to assert that the low grain stocks and high prices have NOTHING to do with the push into biofuels.

The price of wheat is so high now that one of Canada's leading producers of ethanol, Husky Oil, has decided to back off on wheat as its main feedstock and use more corn.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 11:30 PM on 20 Mar 2008

ADVERTISING POLICY

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