I need to be very careful in what I say about this topic because it would be easy to scare people beyond what is rational. I could also also easily make enemies in the Wheat industry which is about the last thing I’d like to do. I’m going to try to hit the right balance, but it is risky.
Mycotoxins
Most people don’t know that Mycotoxins are a very real issue in our food supply. These are nasty, natural chemicals that are produced by certain fungi that infect crops. This is not something new. In Medieval times there was a wide-spread neurological disorder called “Ergotism.” It was caused by mycotoxins in the rye crop produced by a disease called “ergot.” The poor people who lived off of rye, rather than wheat, were disproportionately effected.
Mycotoxins are still an issue today. 2009 has been a particularly bad year for a toxin called “vomitoxin” in wheat, barley and pasta wheat. Its not a secret, but unless you read the farm press or trade news, you would never know. Sometime do a Google News search for “vomitoxin.” If there is rain when these grains are flowering, they can become infected with a fungus calledFusarium graminierum. The disease starts by reducing the farmer’s yields, but it can also produce a toxin in the remaining grain called deoxynivalenol (more commonly called DON toxin). The trade term, “vomitoxin,” comes from the physical response that animals have if they are fed too much of this contaminated grain (which is obviously not pretty).
Lots of people in America are worried about their food - usually not about having enough food, but mostly about things that might be in their food that could potentially hurt them or their children. People also worry about the environmental impacts of food production. At one level I’m glad that people are engaged in this way and I do believe that there are legitimate concerns. I happen to think that some of the fear about food is misplaced.
I believe that much of this fear stems from a limited understanding of toxicology, molecular genetics, and also what farming is actually about today. Very few Americans have any real contact with farming. Frankly, some of this fear is also driven by the activities of businesses and organizations with a vested economic interest in alarming people.
I’ve been working as an agricultural scientist for 32 years. I’ve had the opportunity to learn about lots of crops grown all over the world. I’ve been involved with all sorts of different technologies. I’ve seen huge changes in agriculture over time. So from all of this experience, do I worry about anything to do with food? Yes, absolutely I do worry! But my list of worries is a little different from the norm
Dr. Norman Borlaug passed away this weekend at 95. He left behind an amazing legacy of contribution to humanity. It is likely that he saved more human lives than any other person in history. He did it by developing far more productive wheat than had ever been grown. His “short stature” wheat had shorter, thicker stems so that it could hold bigger heads of grain that would otherwise “lodge” (collapse over on to the ground where it can’t be harvested). It was also resistant to the devastating wheat disease called “Stem Rust.” This wheat ended up feeding millions of people around the world, particularly in Pakistan and India in the 1960s. Borlaug’s breakthrough was a key part of the “Green Revolution” and it did much to address the hunger and poverty issues of the time. For this, and his life-time of additional work Bourlag recieved the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Metal . Only Martin Luther King, Elie Wiesel, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa have received all of these commendations. He was also awarded the National Medal of Science and a host of other awards from around the world. There is an excellent article about the life and career of this remarkable man in the Des Moines Register.
Sean Daily, Green Living Ideas’ Editor-In-Chief, talks about Fair Trade, organically grown Yerba Mate energy drinks with David Karr, Co-Founder of Guayaki.
There is an old saying in the fresh produce industry: “Produce is purchased based on appearance, not by taste.” This is unfortunately often true. People buy their fruit and vegetables based on how fresh and blemish-free they look. They don’t normally have the chance to do taste comparisons. The reality is that lots of fruits and vegetables look better than they taste.
Fortunately, there have been some produce improvements that break through this “appearance” paradigm. I’ll describe just four examples that are favorite of mine and about which I have some background information (don’t worry, no-one is paying me to promote these).
The Golden Pineapple
It used to be that buying a fresh pineapple was a high risk investment. They were fairly expensive and much of the time they were so acidic that you would burn the roof of your mouth. The Pineapple Research Institute in Hawaii developed a much sweeter, lower acid hybrid called 73-114, but for years it could never be commercialized because it couldn’t be successfully shipped to the US from either Central America or Hawaii. Finally, the fruit company, Del Monte and the post-harvest technology company FMC figured out a a way for it to make it to US markets. They found a particular food-safe wax that changed the gas exchange (CO2, water, oxygen…) such that the fruit could stay alive during shipping. Del Monte launched this as “Del Monte Gold” in 1997. Since then many companies have introduced “Golden Pineapples” and pineapple consumption has been rising ever since.
The chart above shows the historical average yields for wheat and corn in the US. Note that until the 1930s the relative yields of the crops were similar and were not changing. After that time yields of both crops began to rise steadily, but corn yields have grown at a much faster pace. What explains this difference?
There are several interacting factors behind this, and they work together to create the “orphan” status of wheat as a crop. Corn is a hybrid crop which enhances its yield and the ease of increasing its yield through breeding. Wheat is harder to hybridize so it isn’t practical except for extremely high yielding wheat areas like Northern Europe. Instead, US wheat is largely a “saved seed crop” meaning that the grower can simply save back some of the grain and replant it rather than needing to buy new hybrid seed each year. That system is workable, particularly if the grower periodically buys some “certified seed” to have a purer stand and to take advantage of breeding improvements. The down-side of a “saved seed crop” is that there is not a very big private seed industry to invest in the crop. Most of the breeding is done by University and USDA breeder supported by tax dollars and there is a small private industry as well. As I said in the previous post, these breeders have done a remarkable job with the resources they have, but in an increasingly ag-unaware society, that support is never generous.
I’m doing a series of posts about why wheat has been an orphan crop. Today I want to talk about UG99 Stem Rust.
In 1999 a new strain of Stem Rust, a severe wheat disease, emerged in Uganda. It was named UG99, and since then it has spread to other wheat growing areas in Africa and Asia but is expected to spread further. It is a serious threat to the global human food supply because it causes severe yield losses.
There have been many great articles, blog postings and websites about this important plant disease, so today I will talk about how I think this situation will play out.
I’ll wager that the worst potential from this disease will NOT actually occur. This is not a casual wager - the health or even survival of millions of poor people around the world is at stake. Some of my wheat breeder friends might not like me to say this (because they legitimately need more funding), but my bet is is still that the breeders will prevail against all odds (and get little credit for it).
I base that qualified optimism on having seen what a remarkable group of scientists called “plant breeders” have been able to achieve in the past. I’m even more encouraged knowing that they have access to some new tools based on biotechnology.
I read an article today about a major shortfall in the Kenyan wheat harvest that will drive the need for major imports to meet food needs. There were three major factors behind this disappointing harvest. Tight credit and high energy prices kept some growers from even planting. The rains were not well timed to achieve good yields. Also a new strain of a very serious wheat disease, UG99 Stem Rust, further reduced yields.
This news has nudged me to write a series of posts about wheat because as a crop, it has a lot more problems than one bad harvest in Kenya. The Kenya example just stands as an example of the vulnerability of this extremely important world food crop-a crop that is really an “orphan” in today’s agricultural scene.
In part one of this blog I acknowledged that I enjoy local food as a special treat in my diet but described three reasons that the true “locovore” concept was impractical: Limited Food Diversity, Quality Issues, and Water Issues. I’ll continue.
I love eating locally produced foods when I have the chance. I enjoyed having access to fully tree-ripe stone fruit when I lived in Davis, CA. Today I get to enjoy the ultra-local herbs, vegetables and fruit from my garden part of the year, and I make 10-20 gallons of wine from my little vineyard. I feel that I am fortunate, not noble. In January our county (San Diego) is one of the few places producing strawberries and I certainly enjoy those, but it doesn’t mean I don’t buy them later in the year when they come from further North. Local food can definitely be a treat, but to think that it is a noble thing to be a “locovore” is a bit silly and often quite pretentious. There are plenty of non-local foods that you should eat with no sense of guilt. In this and my next blog I’ll talk about why.
Since July 2003, sustainablog has been providing information on environmental and economic sustainability, green and sustainable business, and environmental politics. The blog regularly features environmental leaders, experts in alternative energy and green technology, and real people trying to lighten their environmental footprints.
Sean Daily, 
