Why the heck isn't this bigger news??

[dianeduane]

It's not quite like finding yourself stuck in the plot of No Blade of Grass. But bad enough.

Billions at risk from wheat super-blight

An infection is coming, and almost no one has heard about it. This infection isn't going to give you flu, or TB. In fact, it isn't interested in you at all. It 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. The famines that were banished by the advent of disease-resistant crops in the Green Revolution of the 1960s could return, Borlaug told New Scientist.

The disease is Ug99, a virulent strain of black stem rust fungus (Puccinia graminis), discovered in Uganda in 1999. Since the Green Revolution, farmers everywhere have grown wheat varieties that resist stem rust, but Ug99 has evolved to take advantage of those varieties, and almost no wheat crops anywhere are resistant to it.

...Argh.

Comments

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

Isn't this how The Trouble with Tribbles got started? Blight on someone's crop required importation of massive amounts of quadrotriticale?

I just started reading the first three Rihannsu books, btw. CURSE YOU I CANNOT PUT THEM DOWN. ::fistshake::

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Re the tribbles: You know, I don't remember if there was a blight. But there seemed to be a consensus that this strain of triticale was needed because it would work best on that planet. Or something.

Re the books: Snicker-snicker-snicker-snicker. I love it when that happens. (runs off)

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I too thought I remembered a blight angle re: Sherman's Planet as contributing to the famine in the original "Tribbles". I may be wrong, or I may have an element of an earlier novelization rattling around in my skull. Perhaps one of the Blish collections contributing to that.

So long as we don't let private companies keep IP control over the results of the counter-research responding to this blight threat, such that we don't have any more Percy Schmeiser-type situations...

[(Anonymous)]

The nice, handy PDF says:
LURRY
(interrupting)
Captain, quadro-triticale is the only Earth grain that will grow on Sherman’s Planet. We have several tons of it here on the station, and it’s very important that that grain reach Sherman’s Planet safely. Mr. Baris thinks that Klingon agents may try to sabotage it—

The word "blight" wasn't found when I searched.
----
Peter Murray

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I suspected my memory was faulty. Thanks much. I stand corrected.

[hrrunka]

I fear a large part of the reason it's not bigger news is that it's primarily affecting sub-Saharan Africa at present...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Dammit, here we go again. Because it's in the African nations, we're supposed to be trained to believe it irrelevant until it's crossed the oceanic threshold.

No thanks to that demand for stupidity.

[kellan_the_tabby]

...oh, yeah. That'll be _great_.

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

Do I detect a note of ... sarcasm, perhaps?

[kellan_the_tabby]

Only if you're paying attention.

;)

[a-muse-d.livejournal.com]

i wonder if that's why the price of bread has gone up lately in the grocery store.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

so, we've got War on terror,
Bird flu pandemic
Now this super rust blight...

I don't think I want to be around when the next Horseman turns up!

[conuly]

Don't forget all the bees that just aren't there anymore!

[dewline.livejournal.com]

CBC isn't forgetting. Especially since it's right on our doorstep now. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/insects/index.html)

[marmelmm.livejournal.com]

And with our luck, the only ones who'll be left are the killer bees... ;)

[wyrmwoud.livejournal.com]

If not for the extremely serious nature of this (what with all the bees dying off too), I would have almost had a heart attack that one of my favorite authors just referenced my favorite book by one of my other favorite authors...

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Didn't someone do a StarTrek novel about this...? (I'm pretty sure it wasn't you or Peter, though. You two don't tend to put sex in yours.)

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

Sex is connected to grain... how?

... wait. Do I even want to know? o_O

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Interspecies sex at that. Nubile Federation scientist is 'under the protection of' Commander Kang. It's called Pawns and Symbols. A read-once, not a read-many.

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

It sounds like fanfic. :p

Not that there's anything wrong with interspecies romance, but it just sounds very ... typical, if you know what I mean.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Thank god I'm not the only one who thought of that novel and knew which one it was. My ST geekdom would have been beyond beyondness, if that had be so ;)

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

The message to take away, BTW, is applicable to the afore-mentioned blight:

Crop diversity and hybrid vigor are our friends.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, that was one of the books I picked up at P-Con...

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

The Novel "Death Of Grass" Springs to mind.

[gmh.livejournal.com]

'No Blade Of Grass' is the US name for the book.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Ah wasn't aware of that.
It's an interesting warning against the growth of monoculture.
If I remember it came across more like "Survivors" than "Day Of The Triffids".
There is something to be said for diversification.

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

Probably people have had their fill of Tabloid headlines like "Bird Flu To Kill Millions" or "BSE - We're ALL Infected!"to care. And, sadly, it's not really going to be big news until either (a) Michael Buerk does a heart-rending article on its effects for the 6-o'clock news or (b) it starts attacking crops in Europe and/or the USA. :/

[sibylle]

Also, "Nordenholt's Million" by JJ Connington.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Thank you for linking me - holy hannah!

[occams_pyramid]

It's simple. Everyone is concentrating on the important stories.

All the newspapers, the television, all the religious leaders, everyone is focused on the one single overwhelmingly important topic: What people get up to in their private bedrooms. Nothing else can possibly be as vital.