Wheat Fungus Threatens World

[TerryTate]

By David R. Sands

A lethal variant on an ancient disease affecting wheat has spread from its base in Africa to Iran and now threatens vast fields in South Asia, the Middle East and Europe at a time of global food shortages, agricultural specialists warn.


The new strain of wheat-stem rust, first identified in Uganda nine years ago, is threatening crops during a global crisis over rising food prices, depleted reserves, rising agricultural trade barriers and violent food-related protests on four continents.


The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported in early March that the new wheat fungus had been found in fields in western Iran far earlier than computer models anticipated, perhaps carried on the high winds generated by Cyclone Gonu in June. The geographical leap means that the spread of the disease to countries such as Pakistan and India may be just a matter of time.


“The detection of the wheat-rust fungus in Iran is very worrisome,” Shivaji Pandey, director of the FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, said in early March. “The fungus is spreading rapidly and could seriously lower wheat production in countries at direct risk.”


Wheat represents nearly a third of the world grain-crop production and a fifth of the world’s caloric intake, but soaring prices and competition for land from biofuels have left reserves low and prices high. Wheat hit a record $13.49 a bushel in February, up 67 percent in just 12 months.
In part because of rising global demand, drought and natural disasters, prices have been soaring for several staple foods, including rice, corn and soybeans. Many developing countries face intense pressures to restrain food prices and ensure adequate stocks of staple goods.


The Asian Development Bank said this week that more than 1 billion Asians may sink back into extreme poverty without extra aid to counter soaring food prices.


U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has become increasingly outspoken about the threat to the international system from the crisis in agriculture.
“If not properly handled, this crisis could cascade into multiple crises affecting trade, development and even social and political security around the world. The livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people are threatened,” he told reporters in New York after a fact-finding trip on the food crisis to Africa and Europe.


The East African stem rust, which is resistant to two main genetic defenses bred into 90 percent of the world’s grain crop, could pose a greater risk to stability in the Middle East than the Iranian missile program, the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Middle East Times.
“All these threats pale almost into insignificance by comparison with the confirmation [that the wheat-rust strain] has crossed the Red Sea,” the journal said in an editorial last month.


Stem-rust diseases have long been a bane of wheat harvesters. The ancient Romans prayed to a god named Robigus to protect their crops from the disease. As recently as the early 1950s, nearly half of the U.S. and Canadian spring wheat crop was lost to an attack of stem rust.


The “Green Revolution” of the second half of the 20th century benefited from more productive strands of wheat and from the development of new wheat variations that were bred specifically to resist stem rust.


U.S. agronomist Norman Borlaug, who earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for helping foster the Green Revolution, has been outspoken about the dangers posed by the new wheat-rust strain.


Mr. Borlaug said the new fungus variations originating in Uganda in 1999 are “much more dangerous” than the earlier stem-rust strains.


“The rust pathogens recognize no political boundaries, and their spores need no passport to travel thousands of miles in the jet streams,” the 94-year-old researcher said at a recent conference on the wheat crisis in northern Mexico.


The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last month approved a $26.8 million grant to Cornell University, working with 15 research partners in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and East Asia, to deal with the global menace.


The research partnership will focus on developing new wheat strains resistant to the disease.


“Farmers need access to wheat varieties that can resist the new type of wheat-stem rust, especially in developing nations where reliance on wheat is high and budgets for fungicides almost nonexistent,” Ronnie Coffman, director of the Cornell project, said in a statement.


Researchers say a solution may be more urgent, given the discovery in March in Iran.



http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080509/FOREIGN/646631468/1001


Well, this doesn't sound good.

:no:

[Luckydog]

Maybe we can trade wheat for oil. Lets see how they like being overcharged for something they need.

[Midnight Tide]

screw em, let them starve.....just keep that carp over there (and we can walk in and take what we want)

[geowhiz]

Anybody noticed the price of beer lately? Ive personally noticed a 20-25% price increase in my usual beer in the last 2 months. Higher price increase than gasoline in the last month alone. This commodities and food increase goes beyond the price increases in wheat but obviously barley, hops, and whatever else they put in beer (which will translate to bread, feed, seed, etc..)

[homy]

Maybe we can trade wheat for oil. Lets see how they like being overcharged for something they need.


Better yet, perhaps the US should consult with other grain rich producing countries to form OGEC (Organization of Grain Exporting Countries), and use this "grain" or food as a weapon. Unfortunately, it would not sound ethical, but then again, what would you do to feed yourself? You would kill if you had to, I bet. As for beer and beef prices, they will continue to go up as they both require grain and producing these require expense fuel to harvest and distribute. What a vicous circle!

[Howler]

This could be big trouble.

Strange you post this today.
I was watching the history channel last night, and science was taking on the plaques of Egypt. (Exodus?) Anyway one of the plagues was the death of the firstborn. They explained that they were in the middle of sever food shortage, and that their wheat was contaminated by a mold. Due to their customs of the time, the first born males of the families received double rations compared to the rest of the family, thus they killed their own with the toxic wheat. Very interesting show. They had a logical explanation for all 10 plagues.


Sorry! I know I hate when people interject religion into threads. I just thought the timing was interesting.

[cowpoke]

Maybe we can trade wheat for oil. Lets see how they like being overcharged for something they need.

Agree.. I JUST read an article today that said US will REAP BILLIONS because of our Farming output..

This could be big trouble.

Strange you post this today.
I was watching the history channel last night, and science was taking on the plaques of Egypt. (Exodus?) Anyway one of the plagues was the death of the firstborn. They explained that they were in the middle of sever food shortage, and that their wheat was contaminated by a mold. Due to their customs of the time, the first born males of the families received double rations compared to the rest of the family, thus they killed their own with the toxic wheat. Very interesting show. They had a logical explanation for all 10 plagues.


Sorry! I know I hate when people interject religion into threads. I just thought the timing was interesting.

That's OK I know how you Jesus Freaks are, just can't resist. We luv ya anyhow.:)

[Garf]

Anybody noticed the price of beer lately? Ive personally noticed a 20-25% price increase in my usual beer in the last 2 months. Higher price increase than gasoline in the last month alone. This commodities and food increase goes beyond the price increases in wheat but obviously barley, hops, and whatever else they put in beer (which will translate to bread, feed, seed, etc..)

We need a beer thread !

[geowhiz]

We need a beer thread !

Agreed. Although I cant afford the good stuff anymore, so I've forgotten how good the tasts of Stella is these days.

[TerryTate]

Agree.. I JUST read an article today that said US will REAP BILLIONS because of our Farming output..



That's OK I know how you Jesus Freaks are, just can't resist. We luv ya anyhow.:)

Howler? A Jesus Freak? This must be tongue in cheek...

:thinking:

[yunowu]

High food prices are killing people - literally. At least five people died in Somalia last week when violent protests erupted over rising food prices and a collapsing currency. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimates almost a quarter of the population needs food aid.
Somalia joined Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Egypt as African nations experiencing unrest due to the skyrocketing cost of food.
Last month in Haiti, angry crowds threw stones at U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police because of cost increases for rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples. More than two-thirds of the labor force in the Central American nation do not have formal jobs.
At least five people died in food-related riots in Haiti, and the senate ousted the prime minister.
As food riots rocked Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen, Asian officials grew so concerned that representatives of rice exporters Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar met last month to discuss forming a rice cartel...........

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/may/11/spoiled-by-cheap-food/

[yunowu]

MANILA, Philippines - A billion poor people in Asia require food aid and sound fiscal policies to help them cope with skyrocketing food prices, the Asian Development Bank said Monday. Four rice-exporting nations meanwhile prepared to discuss a proposed cartel to control the staple grain.....


http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-080505rice-follow-story,0,2198572.story

[creationworks]

Things are about to get real ugly. Jesus Freak

[Stout Hearted Man]

6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying,
"A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=73&chapter=6



I am looking forward to being wealthy, even so, there are BIGGER things developing. :surprised: :movie:

[tmorr37]

we are growing corn not wheat
we also have 75% of our wheat is of the same strain that is affected by this fungus. Just a matter of time before it is here

[yunowu]

BEIJING – Nothing about the lunch rush at a McDonald’s in China would feel out of place in America: Students huddled around video games and fries; a computer salesman scarfing a chicken sandwich; a teacher lingering over a hamburger and coffee. And in that all-American scene lies the next great challenge to the world’s food supply.
“It was impossible for my parents’ generation to have meat all the time,” said 42-year-old teacher Xue Wei, polishing off a piece of pie. “Now, we can eat meat every day.”
The roots of today’s food crisis span the globe, from sky-high oil prices in the Mideast to the diversion of crops from food to biofuel in the U.S, to drought-stricken harvests in Australia. But the crisis also has focused attention on a longer-term trend: the growing, evolving appetites of developing giants such as China and India........

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/357506.html

[Integrity]

6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying,
"A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=73&chapter=6



I am looking forward to being wealthy, even so, there are BIGGER things developing. :surprised: :movie:

"A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"

BINGO ! Talk about hitting the nail on the head !!

[yunowu]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Good weather will help the world's farmers reap record wheat and rice crops this year, the U.S. government said on Friday, which should allay fears of shortages and help bring prices down from current high levels.
The U.S. Agriculture Department also forecast a record global crop of feed grain, used to feed livestock.
The USDA announcement was expected to calm fears of food shortages, worsened by the cyclone that hit Myanmar's rich rice-producing Irrawaddy delta last week, and by a larger than expected 500,000 metric ton Malaysian rice purchase on Thursday.....

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=4824384

[yunowu]

By Aileen Kwa GENEVA - The high food prices that have sparked riots in parts of the developing world from Indonesia, India and Bangladesh to Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Haiti should come as no surprise. They are only the latest in a series of events many developing countries have suffered as a result of opening their borders and neglecting domestic agriculture.

A large number of developing countries have conscientiously implemented World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions and World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments. They have applied the given structural adjustment policies and have seen the damaging consequences to their domestic agricultural sector. The consequence has been the certain erosion of their capacity to produce their own food.

In the era of stronger state control in the 1970s and early 1980s, domestic food markets in the developing world were often in the hands of state marketing boards and cooperatives. Marketing boards would guarantee floor prices and provide fertilizers and seeds. They also controlled import volumes, redistributed food where there were production shortfalls, and purchased commodities from cooperatives.

These marketing boards were not always run in the best possible way; there were many instances of corruption or inefficiency, but they did fulfill certain critical functions. Farmers were provided a market to which to sell their produce, which meant they had a livelihood. Prices were stable even though they were often lower than what farmers would have liked.

As a result of these policies, many developing countries were either net food exporters, or at least were nearly food self-sufficient.

All that has changed over the past 20 years. Investment support to farmers was done away with. Small farmers were told to produce for the international market, and their markets were opened to producers from outside. Rather than supporting staple crops, government support went to the export sector. Since all would specialize in the products where they had "comparative advantage", gains were supposed to accrue all round.

But rather than producing winners, millions of the poorest subsistence farmers were knocked out of their own markets. Imports took over what was previously produced by local people. Over the past 20 years, the production capacity in many countries has severely diminished.

The Philippines has been one prime example of such policies. "During the '60s and '70s, we were self-sufficient," Jowen Berber of Centro Saka, an non-governmental organization (NGO)working on agrarian issues with farmers, told Inter Press Service. "That was the time that the government was heavily investing in rice - irrigation, infrastructure, marketing support and production support such as credits and inputs. But when the government stopped those incentives and subsidies, rice production slowly decreased."

Berber said "the acreage of irrigated land has also been falling because the government has not been maintaining irrigation facilities. We also have a very high level of post-harvest losses in rice - up to 35% because our post-harvest facilities are very old."

Instead of supporting farmers with guaranteed prices as before, Berber said "the government now intervenes to buy less than 1% of the domestic rice that is produced. They are buying more imported rice than our own local rice."

A study on import surges by David Pingpoh and Joean Senahoun, commissioned by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2006, noted that the Cameroon government support to the rice sector was removed in 1994 through implementation of IMF and World Bank policies. The fertilizer market was privatized. Rice yields of poor farmers dropped as fertilizers became unaffordable. Tariffs were liberalized, and annual rice imports doubled from 152,000 tonnes to 301,000 tonnes between 1999 and 2004.

This opening rendered the country vulnerable to the policies of other countries. At the time, India was de-stocking its rice surplus, and rice sales to the Philippines from India jumped to 60,300 tonnes in 2002 from 7,900 tonnes in 2001. As a result of this import surge, rice farmers were hard hit and many left the sector. Land for rice cultivation dropped 31.2% between 1999 and 2004.

According to the FAO, the Ivory Coast also saw imports flooding in when the market was opened up. As a result of implementing commitments at the WTO, the Ivory Coast removed import restrictions on key agricultural goods, particularly rice. Duty on all agricultural products was set at a maximum of 15%, except for 25 tariff lines.

As a result, rice imports increased at an annual rate of 6% from 470,000 tonnes to 715,000 tonnes between 1997 and 2004. Imports were mainly from Thailand, China and India. Domestic production dropped 40% over this period.

In Nepal, the civil society organization ActionAid documents that rice import surges came in 1994, 1996 and 2000, with imports increasing by 175%, 55% and 800% respectively. From 24,500 tonnes imported in 1999, by the year 2000 imports had hit 195,000 tonnes. The porous borders between Nepal and India, and the Nepal-India Trade Treaty were widely seen as the cause of these surges. In certain areas of Nepal, domestic prices fell by nearly 20%. The southern belt bordering India saw a multitude of rice plants and rice mills shutting down.

Today, in the latest twist of events, food prices have increased due to global shortfalls. Food production has been redirected towards biofuel production. Drought in Australia has contributed to shortages on the world market. Speculators playing on commodity markets have further increased prices.

Up to 37 countries have been gripped by protests and riots. In Cameroon, seven people were killed in the unrest in February. Food riots also took hold of Abidjan in the Cote d'Ivoire in March this year.

At meetings in Berne in Switzerland to address the global food crisis, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, World Bank president Robert Zoellick and WTO director general Pascal Lamy again made a plea for more free trade the panacea. But farmers remain unconvinced that more of the same policies that have contributed to the last two decades of destruction of agriculture can help.

Reacting to the push by the WTO leadership, the World Bank and the UN to stitch up the Doha Round so that further liberalization can assist in resolving the food crisis, Henri Saragih, international coordinator of the global network of peasant farmers La Via Campesina writes, "Protecting food has become a crime under free trade rules. Protectionism has become a dirty word. Meanwhile, countries have become addicted to cheap food imports, and now that prices are shooting up, hunger is raising its ugly head."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Asian_Economy/JE14Dk01.html

[Semper Fidelis]

Anybody noticed the price of beer lately? Ive personally noticed a 20-25% price increase in my usual beer in the last 2 months. Higher price increase than gasoline in the last month alone. This commodities and food increase goes beyond the price increases in wheat but obviously barley, hops, and whatever else they put in beer (which will translate to bread, feed, seed, etc..)


There is also a worldwide hops shortage, from what I read a few months back.

[BILLYG]

I firmly believe that there is a movement afoot to create food scarcities and shortages for the purposes of one world govt consolidation. Biblical Revelations played out before our very eyes IMO...

[williambedloe]

I firmly believe that there is a movement afoot to create food scarcities and shortages for the purposes of one world govt consolidation. Biblical Revelations played out before our very eyes IMO...


may not be intentional Billy G - but I agree with you. Too many people on this planet, and now that the Al Gore idiots have decided that we need food for fuel as well, things will only get worse.

Short term solution for us here in the States? Learn to grow your own - My old man was a god at growing vegetables and fruits, and luckily, the gene is inherited

As for the one world government - I still think terrorists and rogue nations will force that issue first. It will have to get MUCH worse before the Chinese, Russians, Europeans and Americans are all ruled by the same group.

The pieces are falling into place though - the UN, World Bank, IMF, European Union, GCC - these are precursors towards consolidation...you can't deny that.

Sorry back on topic