New Scientist has been banging the drum about wheat virus doom of late, but I wasn’t convinced that they were not being alarmist. (My key metric: no one else was writing about it.)
Oh crap. Other people are writing about it:
The fungal disease could spread to other wheat producing states in the Near East and western Asia that provide one-quarter of the world’s wheat.
The FAO warned stated east of Iran — Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan to be on high alert.
(h/t Tim Haab)
The perils of monoculture and just a few strains to choose from (or a close relative: industrial ag and a handful of companies controlling seed in the developed world [and a few companies controlling our food]).
IOW: ruh-roh!
Best,
D