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Killer wheat disease threatens starvation for millions
environment.newscientist.com — A WHEAT disease that could destroy most of the world's main wheat crops could strike south Asia's vast wheat fields two years earlier than research had suggested, leaving millions to starve. The fungus, called Ug99, has spread from Africa to Iran, and may already be in Pakistan. If so, this is extremely bad news...
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- 58 days ago, made popular 57 days ago
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Mattman9876
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An update on this is available here: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/ns- ...
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Rust has been threatening wheat for decades. This is nothing new - the fungus develops new strains all the time and breeders evaluate varieties constantly to see which strains it is resistant to. It's always been a game of cat and mouse with nature. We've just been lucky to usually be one step ahead. I've taken classes in Borlaug Hall at his alma mater about this very subject.
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Flour Power will prevail!
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Bad vibes
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Does this seem a bit alarmist to anyone but me?
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Another example of how Bush is destroying the environment. Obama will fix it for you because he has hope!
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See, folks, this is why we need MORE genetically engineered crops, not FEWER. As it stands, luddites - 0, nature - 1.
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Bring back industrial hemp! Oh, and couldn't we just build disease free skyscraper farms?
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"In chapter 6 John sees his famous vision of the Four Horsemen (based on Zechariah's imagery before him): the first two horsemen cause conquest and war, but the third, on a black horse, carries a balance and proclaims a food crisis ('a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barely for a penny')."
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Here in the US our genetically modified wheat is immune. This is extremely good news for US agribusiness. As an investor I should be seeing some very nice returns.
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I bet nobody cared when it was in Africa, now its coming over hear ... *****!
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Sweet! Now maybe a good chunk of the Asian population will die off, and the jobs will return to the USA.
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no! not my hefeweizens and wheat ales! :'(
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Hmmm... if you've ever read "The Death of Grass" (sometimes called "No Blade of Grass") by John Christopher, then this will all sound familiar. Scarily familiar. A darned good book, but a little difficult to track down.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Grass -
"(UG99) is after the wheat plants that feed more people than any other single food source on the planet. And because of cutbacks in international research, we aren't prepared."
I may be overly cynical but it seems to me that this article is about research money first and foremost. -
this is another reason i am against biofuel...if the production of fuel competes with food production, and there is a shortage due to disease or drought; we will all pay through the nose for biofuel from corn or any crop that uses arable land.
let the oil-spitting bacteria generate fuel not some farmer who wants to prop up the prices of crops.
Obama, if you are listening...don't pander to the farmers! -
::scared::
::screams:: -
Dear Sr.
I am a Nigerian Prince that was ousted by a rebellion, now our wheat fields are in a serious risk.
So i need help to get my fortune out of this country........ -
Nope. Its good news. Now all those subsidies we pay to American Farmers can be put to good use and we can sell all those starving people our wheat.
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A good famine in the East wont do anyone any harm especially in the West, except of course for those in the East.
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I'd imagine those women in Brazil who destroyed the genetically engineered crops may be feeling a bit pale...
ehh... probably not... -
monsanto will save the world with a engineered solution to this problem; creating another yet unknown problem
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You know, I mis-read the title of this article, and thought it was "Killer whale disease threatens starvation for millions." Then I started getting mad at cultures who eat whale-meat... and then I wondered how "millions" of people could be eating whales as their sole diet... and then I felt like an idiot when I re-read the title. So, kids, today's lesson is on not skimming Digg at work! :-D
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Theres a fungus among us.
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SCREW WHEAT! My wife is allergic to gluten.
Okay seriously this sucks for everyone else. -
I always thought when they talked about genetically engineering crops and animals for productivity reasons, or modifying people to get rid of birth defects, there would be some unintended consequences down the road.
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war and famine strike the middle east, where is plague and pestilence, inquiring minds want to know! the end is near :dun dun dunnnnnn: the bible must be right.
Too bad for those desert sand suckers. -
I like how both the blue and red paths are labeled Route A.
Either way Route A will be the quickest destruction. -
anyone else keeping getting famine and fanime confused?
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Oh goodie. Another immanent environmental disaster that will undoubtedly bring down civilization. I swear one of these times the doomsday nuts will get lucky and then shout, "I told you so."
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Is this the new SARS/Mad Cow disease/bird flu/MRSA for the week? I was wondering when I was going to get good and scared, it was starting to wear off and I was beginning to think again. And you know how the media hates that.
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I blame Monsanto. The most evil company in the world. They might as well be called Umbrella Corporation.
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Any bets as to when Monsanto will announce that they have a product that treats this fungus? They'll make millions off of fearmongering.
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Let me guess. Monsanto has the only rust-free wheat and their wheat product can replace ALL the wheat planted in the world.
Reeks of Soylent Green. -
QUICKLY! PURGE STRATHOLME!
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millions starving, millions killed in race wars, millions die of aids, millions die of malaria....we hear about Africa and the millions that die there every day yet this doesn't seem to put a dent in the population. If this were true why is Africa so extremely overpopulated? Why should Americans care so much about whether little hodgie gets to eat a doughball for lunch when we have crime, poor kids and homelessness rampant in nearly every city in the US? Maybe Africa can't feed itself because too many people live there anyway. Just by sheer neccessity I would think they would innovate ways to feed themselves by now. Is it up to us to save the world? Plants and people adapt, this is not hte end of the world.
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ON the one hand, I have a disease that threatens a crop that feeds millions of people, on the other hand, I have population pressure that leads to war, and on the third hand, I have jobs in the West being lost to the East, and on the forth hand, we have the economic threat that the emerging Chinese economy may pose.... if we're very lucky, all of these will cancel each other out.
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This is good, maybe if it doesn't attack millet, they can grow millet instead and get vitamin b17 (cancer killer) back into the market.
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It's been year since that article was published. Any change?
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This is one of the main weaknesses of how we grow crops. Instead of having different grains, we have specialized on a very few and have become completely vulnerable.
This is one of the perfect examples of things that should be done with those ridiculous subsidies, although it is not in a farmer's immediate interest to grow amaranth or other alternate grains, it provides long term benefits to have them grown, and we should instead be willing to subsidize a farmer a little bit for potentially reduced profits and higher seed costs in the interests of food supply security.
Of course I expect to be downmodded by the libertarians. -
So my girlfriend and I have Celiac disease, and I want everyone to see that I'm very clearly on digg.com and not out creating wheat killing super fungi. Promise.
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Any one else have trouble viewing the website? It almost made my eyes bleed, olive brown and black text, interesting article.
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The White House and the Pentagon must be rejoicing... millions will starve in the Middle East = free access to oil. It will be very convenient if the disease wipes out the crops in Iran. As for India, *sigh* - no more outsourcing. Oh, well. Oil is top priority anyway.
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Probably only a problem if there are only a handful of wheat variants grown. Those areas are diverse with many farms growing plants from their own seed. If there is enough diversity, the fungus won't reek too much havoc.
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GREAT ! now another excuse to raise fuel prices
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I guess now is a good time to go low-carb.
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Cereal murderer!!!
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As a Italian Restaurant owner I has seen the cost of flour rise because everyone is growing corn for ethanol instead of wheat so flour prices have skyrocketed ( $13.00 for 50lb is now $60 for 50lb) so this is going to be real bad.
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I think that I will stick to rice
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I have 50 pounds of wheat in my basement, I may be rich.
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