Despite living in a part of the "wheat Breadbasket" of the USA, I had missed a story that apparently has been developing for over a year. A new wheat rust fungus UG99 is attacking wheat in Africa and has spread on the wind apparently to other areas of the world, but not yet to the US except in research labs in frigid Minnesota.
You can read the story I saw in Wired Magazine today Inside the Race to Stop the UG99 Fungus by Brendan I. Koerner . Koerner notes the Wired Story and has a photo with some additional info at Micokhan .
Earlier mention of the UG99 Wheat Stem Rust from Uganda can be found in a February 18, 2009 Washington Post article In the Wheat Fields of Kenya, A budding Epidemic . A New York Times blog in a Science Area Dot Earth March 17, 2009 has an article indicating new wheat strains may resist the UG99 Wheat Stem Rust.
And an April 4, 2008 article at Asia Times Online indicates that Monsanto and other companies working with genetic manipulation or engineering may be trying to get patents on wheat resistant to UG99. This story may contain a bit of paranoia toward corporations doing GM on plants. The article in Wired noted at the beginning of this post suggests that Pakistan has another variant of the UG99, but apparently views such pathogens as something they should keep less somebody gets a patent on a way to eliminate its danger.
So, if you are a wheat farmer or a consumer who eats bread and breakfast cereals, you may find reading all the Wired story both interesting and worth your time. It indicates that the USDA's Cereal Disease Laboratory about a half mile from the Minnesota Fairgrounds in St. Paul is working on the Fungus. Les Szabo at the CDL is the recognized authority on P. Griminis discusses research and the possible result of spreading of this dangerous fungus.
I don't know if this is being considered in any kind of South Dakota research or if it is viewed as any kind of significant threat, but if you do know, let me and readers here know.
--- By Doug Wiken with information from Wired, NY Times, Asia Times, Washington Post, and Micokhan..and of course Google ..
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