A RECENT editorial in a national newspaper discussed a disease hitting wheat in Uganda, something which might have implications for Yorkshire’s arable farmers.
This disease, known as Ug99, could spread easily by the carrying of spores on people’s clothing, and the rest of the world should be concerned.
Food crops may be divided into two broad categories, insect pollinated and wind pollinated.
We know bees are having a very hard time with multiple threats, varroa, pathogens and insecticides. It is the further threat to wheat which could turn this into the perfect storm for the security of all our food supplies.
Probably the number one research institute in the world on the human genome and pathogens is the Sanger in Cambridge.
Perhaps if the government was to offer them some suitable funding they might turn their supercomputers to help find a solution to this threat to our daily bread.
The University of York’s biochemistry department is also a centre of excellence.
In evolutionary terms the twin threats to insect and wind- pollinated food crops have happened faster than a lightning strike.
Chris Clayton, Hempland Drive, York.
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