Academic

RED MENACE: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation. ?90 percent of the world?s ?

By Glenn Reynolds

RED MENACE: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation. “90 percent of the world?s wheat has little or no protection against the Ug99 race of P. graminis. If nothing is done to slow the pathogen, famines could soon become the norm ? from the Red Sea to the Mongolian steppe ? as Ug99 annihilates a crop that provides a third of our calories. China and India, the world?s biggest wheat consumers, will once again face the threat of mass starvation, especially among their rural poor. The situation will be particularly grim in Pakistan and Afghanistan, two nations that rely heavily on wheat for sustenance and are in no position to bear added woe. . . . The pathogen has already been detected in Iran and may now be headed for South Asia?s most important breadbasket, the Punjab, which nourishes hundreds of millions of Indians and Pakistanis. What?s more, Ug99 could easily make the transoceanic leap to the United States.”

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on March 19, 2010 (boomark / email).