virulent virus attacks Cassava plant - third largest source of world's calories

[Liberal_in_LA]

Virus Ravages Cassava Plants in Africa

MUKONO, Uganda — Lynet Nalugo dug a cassava tuber out of her field and sliced it open.

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

SEEKING SOLUTIONS At the National Crops Resources Research Institute in Namulonge, Uganda, a researcher studies cassava stricken with brown streak.

Inside its tan skin, the white flesh was riddled with necrotic brown lumps, as obviously diseased as any tuberculosis lung or cancerous breast.

“Even the pigs refuse this,” she said.

The plant was what she called a “2961,” meaning it was Variant No. 2961, the only local strain bred to resist cassava mosaic virus, a disease that caused a major African famine in the 1920s.

But this was not mosaic disease, which only stunts the plants. Her field had been attacked by a new and more damaging virus named brown streak, for the marks it leaves on stems.

That newcomer, brown streak, is now ravaging cassava crops in a great swath around Lake Victoria, threatening millions of East Africans who grow the tuber as their staple food.

Although it has been seen on coastal farms for 70 years, a mutant version emerged in Africa’s interior in 2004, “and there has been explosive, pandemic-style spread since then,” said Claude M. Fauquet, director of cassava research at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. “The speed is just unprecedented, and the farmers are really desperate.”

Two years ago, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation convened cassava experts and realized that brown streak “was alarming quite a few people,” said Lawrence Kent, an agriculture program officer at the foundation. It has given $27 million in grants to aid agencies and plant scientists fighting the disease.

The threat could become global. After rice and wheat, cassava is the world’s third-largest source of calories. Under many names, including manioc, tapioca and yuca, it is eaten by 800 million people in Africa, South America and Asia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/science/01cassava.html?hp

[proud patriot]

1. not good

[NYC_SKP]

2. Oh, shit.

The food staple for the poorest people on earth under biological attack.

:cry:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Maybe it's unwarranted paranoia, but I couldn't help but think "Cui Bono?"

[NYC_SKP]

5. Yeah, me too, a little.

Actually, first I thought, "Monsanto".

Then I thought, "genetically modified on purpose virus".

And then, "2012" and WTF is gonna happen next?

:tinfoilhat:

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. article says Monsanto is contributing resources to fight the virus

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Why do I have suspicioin Monsanto will suddenly comeup wtih a new variety?

Which has to be bought from them every year, of course.

[Canuckistanian]

11. Oh God. Not Monsanto.

I can't think of any entity more unsuited to handle an agricultural disaster.

Whatever they do, it'll increase their profits somehow and SCREW the local farmers.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. FUCK. I eat that a lot. It is heavenly.

In all its many many forms. Sorta potato's exotic cousin. (Culinarily speaking, not biologically. That I know of.)

[WinkyDink]

7. I believe this makes the Fourth Horse.

[pinto]

8. Ah, this is bad news. Cassava is basically a tough plant, a Euphorbia relative.

Big time livestock and potato-like staple for humans. And tasty, as noted above.

(edit to add the Wikipedia entries)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

10. Ever read John Brunner's "The Sheep Look Up"?

What once was dystopian science fiction is now our reality- including a contaminated cassava preparation facility...

http://reconstruction.eserver.org/BReviews/revSheep.htm

[applegrove]

12. Does Africa never get a break?

[Quantess]

13. Cassava is a food staple?

I learn something new every day.

[theophilus]

14. Haven't I seen fairly recently that bananas are having a problem, too? I

hate to put on my tinfoil, but is someone trying to kill half the planet?