Wheat Fungus As Population Cull?
Virulent Wheat Fungus Spreads to Iran, Could Threaten Crops in Asia
"ROME (AP) -- A virulent wheat fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has spread to Iran, and a U.N. food agency warned Wednesday that it could be heading across Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said that about 80 percent of all wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to wheat stem rust -- a fungus capable of destroying entire fields.
Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the fungus in western Iran, a development which raises the alert for crops of major wheat producers like Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the FAO said in a statement."
Maybe it's just my suspicious nature. But when I see news like this it leads to questions like where exactly did this outbreak come from and just what the weather patterns are this time of year.
The TUg99 variety of rust did a number on wheat crops in east africa last year, notably in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia , and scientists predicted it was going to spread this season to the middle east. However googling for this disease in all the countries on the Saudi peninsula, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq yeilds nothing except for Yemen.
The sudden outbreaks in Iran are in the Broujerd and Hamedan regions in western Iran, just over the border from northern Iraq and southern Turkey.
Wind patterns for the area through May:
"The Sharqi wind pattern, which usually persists through the month of May, is characterized by occasionally strong, gusty, warm southerly winds. These winds become especially strong as weather systems move eastward out of the Mediterranean and across Turkey along the northern border of Iraq."
So how did this virulent pathogen, which was supposed to spread far and wide, ("Egypt, Turkey, the Middle East and India and Pakistan will be threatened as well, per Free Internet Press.")
jump over a thousand miles and begin an outbreak along the western border of Iran? Why didn't countries like Egypt, which is a huge producer of wheat, have outbreaks in the news? Isn't it curious that this plague is now expected to sweep across all the muslim countries of asia just when there's a severe worldwide shortage of grain? Just asking.
"ROME (AP) -- A virulent wheat fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has spread to Iran, and a U.N. food agency warned Wednesday that it could be heading across Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said that about 80 percent of all wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to wheat stem rust -- a fungus capable of destroying entire fields.
Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the fungus in western Iran, a development which raises the alert for crops of major wheat producers like Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the FAO said in a statement."
Maybe it's just my suspicious nature. But when I see news like this it leads to questions like where exactly did this outbreak come from and just what the weather patterns are this time of year.
The TUg99 variety of rust did a number on wheat crops in east africa last year, notably in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia , and scientists predicted it was going to spread this season to the middle east. However googling for this disease in all the countries on the Saudi peninsula, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq yeilds nothing except for Yemen.
The sudden outbreaks in Iran are in the Broujerd and Hamedan regions in western Iran, just over the border from northern Iraq and southern Turkey.
Wind patterns for the area through May:
"The Sharqi wind pattern, which usually persists through the month of May, is characterized by occasionally strong, gusty, warm southerly winds. These winds become especially strong as weather systems move eastward out of the Mediterranean and across Turkey along the northern border of Iraq."
So how did this virulent pathogen, which was supposed to spread far and wide, ("Egypt, Turkey, the Middle East and India and Pakistan will be threatened as well, per Free Internet Press.")
jump over a thousand miles and begin an outbreak along the western border of Iran? Why didn't countries like Egypt, which is a huge producer of wheat, have outbreaks in the news? Isn't it curious that this plague is now expected to sweep across all the muslim countries of asia just when there's a severe worldwide shortage of grain? Just asking.
posted by nolocontendere at 9:17 PM
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