WHEAT STEM RUST
AUGUST
3rd
2010
This could be
interesting. It seems the destructive fungus was so successfuly
eliminated many years ago by selective breeding of resistant strains
that research and development on the subject has been largely ignored.
But not by nature. A virulent strain that attacks the widely used wheat
varieties has got going in Africa and is moving. An increasing world
population and a requirement to develop a new resistant strain and get
enough of it in time to the world's wheat-fields is not a good mix.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/05/100527_wheatrust2_md.shtml
http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/PDIS.2000.84.2.203B
Or is it?
Suppose it was possible for the countries that need to be more
self-sufficient, instead of relying on food-aid and imports from the
massive production of the developed world, were to be prioritised in
the planting of resistant new strains as the best way of limiting the
spread.
One way or another, the sensibility of the world's cereals to any sort
of spreading pathogens and/or the effects of climate change could be a
decisive factor in forcing humanity to sort out its diet, breeding and
other social customs on an intelligent, cooperative and
self-disciplined basis. The same applies to all the fundamental
requirements of civilized society. We either control our demands or
will come to rely on endless technological fixes that will eventually
divide our species into the fixers and the fixed, the latter
increasingly dependent on the former, the former expecting reward and
superior status. The very reverse of a modern, emancipated society that
has been the overt aim ever since the 'enlightenment'.
AUGUST 28th 2010 - Technology to
the rescue?
The wheat
genome is the largest genome decoded to date. It is five times larger
than the human genome and is known to be a very complex structure,
comprised of three independent genomes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11099378
nnnn