| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
09 Mar 2006 12:03:20 PM |
| Object: |
Our Food is Dying |
Our Food is Dying
Infectious agents are threatening the world's crops
http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/3/1/62/1/
You have no doubt been reading about the millions of chickens being
slaughtered in what appear to be increasingly hopeless attempts to
contain avian flu. Poultry, the most efficient converters of vegetable
matter into meat, pound for pound, are being taken out of the food
chain in many places. But crops, the staples the world relies on for
its basic calorie supply, are also threatened, as Canadian plant
pathologist ***** Hamilton, the former ProMED-mail plant moderator,
recently wrote. Here are a few morsels to give you the flavor:
Citrus: Due to a bacterial disease called citrus canker, production
will cease in the Emerald area of Queensland, the main citrus
production area of Australia. Tough luck on the Aussies, you may say,
but in terms of world orange juice supply, can't the United States and
Brazil easily fill the gap? Sorry. The exotically named bacterial
disease Huanglongbing has recently spread to citrus orchards in Japan,
Brazil, and the United States, where it threatens to become a serious
problem.
Wheat: Leaf rust, also known as brown rust, is a fungal disease and
one of the most important wheat destroyers worldwide; yield losses may
reach 40%. Resistant strains of wheat had been developed, but it is
now reported that the Lr 19 resistance gene for leaf rust no longer
works.
Rice: Bacterial leaf blight and the kernel smut fungus have reduced
Asia's annual rice production by as much as 60%.
Bananas: Together with plantains, these are the most important
agricultural products in the tropics, with annual production of more
than 100 million metric tons. Their most important plague is known as
Panama disease, or Fusarium wilt, which is caused by a fungus. A new
variant of the fungus has been responsible for outbreaks and is
spreading in Southeast Asia. If it reaches the Americas and Africa, it
could have a severe impact on production.
Soybeans: Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) caused significant crop losses
in 2005. Yields from infected plants were lowered by 10%-40%, and
grain quality was reduced both in oil and protein. BPMV is spreading
in the North American region but has also been reported in Iran,
suggesting that infected seed may have been used for planting there.
Southern bean mosaic virus causes severe symptoms in beans and other
important leguminous food crops. It has been reported from Africa,
North America, South and Central America, France, and Iran. Soybean
decline means less animal feed, which has an impact on meat and dairy
supplies.
Tomatoes: Begomoviruses are inflicting heavy damage on tomato crops in
Asia. Tomato leaf curl virus disease reduces tomato production
significantly, often causing 100% loss.
Cassava (mandioca): Cassava mosaic disease is caused by a group of
viruses, occurring in all cassava-producing regions of Africa, India,
and Sri Lanka. The disease results in annual yield losses estimated at
1 billion pounds sterling (US $1.8 billion).
Potato and onion threats were also reported in the second half of
2005. These scourges are spreading and getting worse. Imagine
breakfast without orange juice and cereal, lunch without tomatoes in
our BLT sandwiches or on our pizzas, and dinner without ketchup on our
fries or tomato sauce on our spaghetti, not to mention the demise of
the bloody Mary. But joking aside, serious damage to the cassava or
plantain crop in Africa or to the rice crop in Asia could lead to
starvation or at the very least, severe malnutrition, leaving people
open to infections that would more likely be fatal in their weakened
state.
Rather than pouring more chemicals onto the problem, or having to
leave fields unproductively fallow for years, gene sequencing of these
pathogens should be expedited to allow more rapid identification of
resistant strains of crops.
Jack Woodall is director of the Nucleus for the Investigation of
Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Institute of Medical Biochemistry
at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.jwoodall@the-scientist.com
--
"The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing
their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to sit by and
let them rewrite history." -- ***** Cheney 11/16/2005
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
.
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| User: "George Leroy Tyrebiter, Jr." |
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| Title: Re: Our Food is Dying |
09 Mar 2006 03:38:29 PM |
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On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:03:20 -0800, Captain Compassion
<daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net> wrote:
--
"The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing
their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to sit by and
let them rewrite history." -- ***** Cheney 11/16/2005
funny
keep em coming
.
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| User: "uri" |
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| Title: Re: Our Food is Dying |
09 Mar 2006 03:58:12 PM |
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Some places are running out of water also...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4788298.stm
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52022&SelectRegion=East_Africa,%20Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=KENYA-SOMALIA
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| User: "effty" |
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| Title: Re: Our Food is Dying |
11 Mar 2006 05:01:18 PM |
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"uri" <danny99@bezeqint.net> wrote in message
news:1141941492.447376.290310@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Some places are running out of water also...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4788298.stm
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52022&SelectRegion=East_Africa,%20Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=KENYA-SOMALIA
I've been reading the newest Jared Diamond book 'Collapse.'
http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2005/02/08/kavanagh-collapse/
It has a lot of valuable information relating to modern agriculture and food
production. Soil science, water science, aquaculture science, etc. Very
few of our food production methods are actually sustainable in the long run.
The chapter that talks about water-use in Australia is particularly
disturbing. Even water we think of as pure (like in glacial Montana) has
been heavily polluted by mining and agriculture.
It's worth checking out.
~e.
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| User: "Captain Compassion" |
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| Title: Re: Our Food is Dying |
12 Mar 2006 12:41:50 AM |
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On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 23:01:18 GMT, "effty" <gospameffty@yahoo.com>
wrote:
"uri" <danny99@bezeqint.net> wrote in message
news:1141941492.447376.290310@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Some places are running out of water also...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4788298.stm
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=52022&SelectRegion=East_Africa,%20Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=KENYA-SOMALIA
I've been reading the newest Jared Diamond book 'Collapse.'
http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2005/02/08/kavanagh-collapse/
It has a lot of valuable information relating to modern agriculture and food
production. Soil science, water science, aquaculture science, etc. Very
few of our food production methods are actually sustainable in the long run.
The chapter that talks about water-use in Australia is particularly
disturbing. Even water we think of as pure (like in glacial Montana) has
been heavily polluted by mining and agriculture.
It's worth checking out.
I read Diamond's book a couple of months ago. The part about Greenland
and Meso America interested me most. The unsustainability of human
life on earth has been hypothesized for a long time yet mankind keeps
dodging the bullet.
--
"The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing
their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to sit by and
let them rewrite history." -- ***** Cheney 11/16/2005
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
.
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