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The Ug99 fungus, called stem rust, could wipe out more than 80% of the world's wheat as it spreads from Africa, scientists fear. The race is on to breed resistant plants before it reaches the U.S. The spores arrived from Kenya on dried, infected leaves ensconced in layers of envelopes. Working inside a bio-secure greenhouse outfitted with motion detectors and surveillance cameras, government scientists at the Cereal Disease Laboratory in St. Paul, Minn., suspended the fungal spores in a light mineral oil and sprayed them onto thousands of healthy wheat plants. After two weeks, the stalks were covered with deadly...

Scientists are trying to develop wheat strains resistant to a fungus that has spread from Africa to Iran and is likely to show up soon in India and Pakistan. The Ug99 fungus, also known as stem rust, is likely to spread worldwide, either through wind-blown spores or carried inadvertently by people, food industry analysts said. "It's a time bomb," Jim Peterson, an expert on wheat genetics at Oregon State University in Corvallis, told the Los Angeles Times. "It moves in the air, it can move in clothing on an airplane. We know it's going to be here. It's a matter...

Much of Oklahoma's Wheat Crop Damaged Apr 17, 2009 9:42 PM By Colleen Chen, NEWS 9 for NewsOn6.com OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- Oklahoma wheat producers are beginning to see the effects from a hard freeze earlier this month. Oklahoma Wheat Commission Executive Director Mike Schulte said some fields suffered damage of up to 90 percent. While consumers likely won't see any price jumps at the grocery store in the short term, Schulte said they will likely see price changes a few months from now. Learn more about the Oklahoma Farm Report, broadcast on the Radio Oklahoma Network. Find RON Radio...

Predating Stonehenge by 6,000 years, Turkey's stunning Gobekli Tepe upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wracked by drought, Iran has turned to the United States for wheat for the first time in 27 years, marking a setback for Tehran's search for agricultural self-sufficiency. According to a recent US Department of Agriculture report, Iran has bought about 1.18 million tonnes of US hard wheat since the beginning of the 2008-2009 crop season in June. The number, which has been growing steadily all summer, already represents nearly 5.0 percent of US annual exports forecast by the USDA.

Imagine the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus, with some genes derived from bacteria that repel certain common pests? No? You obviously are not alone. Fr Sean McDonagh says that if gluten-free hosts are verboten, then you can count on genetically modified wheat being off limits as well.Genetically-modified (GM) wheat may not be be suitable under canon law to be used to make hosts for the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist, it's been claimed. Fr Sean McDonagh, a Columban priest and well-known commentator on environmental issues, questions whether the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith which oversees Catholic...

Poor Harvest Spurs Tehran's Rare Move; Limited Options August 21, 2008 Iran this summer resumed buying U.S. wheat after a 27-year hiatus, a sign of the limited options for importers seeking large quantities of high-quality grain. Since the 2008-09 marketing year began on June 1, Iran has bought more than one million tons of hard red winter wheat directly from the U.S., which is "a very large amount," said Bill Nelson, analyst for Wachovia Securities. The purchases mean at least 3% to 4% of domestic wheat exports for the marketing year will go to a country the U.S. hasn't done...

The AP is reporting that due to current grain prices, the Afghans are abandoning Opium, in favour of Wheat. See more at link.

Oldest wheat found in Çatalhöyük The oldest known wheat was grown in Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, experts have found. A series of DNA analyses conducted on ancient wheat samples have led scientists to conclude that the oldest known wheat was grown in Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement in southern Anatolia. Professor Mahinur Akkaya from the Middle East Technical University's (ODTÜ) department of chemistry says the world's oldest wheat found so far comes from Çatalhöyük, this according to a series of DNA analyses made on 8,500-year-old wheat samples. "Our discovery is of great importance as it gives us significant...

Afghan farmers hope to capitalise on soaring food costs by growing wheat instead of poppy crops, with the fall in heroin prices further fuelling the switch. The price of a tonne of wheat in Afghanistan has almost trebled this year, causing acute food shortages. A changeover of crops has begun in key agricultural regions, said Tekeste Tekie, country representative for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. He said a significant increase in wheat crops is expected from next year's harvest. "The high price of commodities has encouraged farmers to switch from poppy cultivation to wheat. In fact, we are already...

(IsraelNN.com) Arabs burned Jewish-owned wheat fields in the Samaria town of Yitzhar Friday. The regular vandalism has led residents to ponder soliciting assistance from humanitarian groups. The most recent fire was set Friday, minutes before the onset of Shabbat. A volunteer fire brigade made up of Yitzhar residents succeeded in extinguishing the fire, but were then attacked by Arabs rioting and throwing stones at them. A contingent of IDF soldiers arrived on the scene and used non-lethal riot-control methods to restore order, but residents say their complaints usually result in no response whatsoever from security forces. The fields, which were...

In the western third of the state, meanwhile, timely rains -- on top of the cushion of moisture left behind when more than 30 inches of snow fell in late 2006 -- made for ideal growing conditions. Essentially, the tables were turned last year. In the northwest crop-reporting district, for example, average yields last year amounted to 43 bushels per acre. This year, the forecast is calling for average yields of 38 bushels. That's would still be considered an excellent crop, but it's only 83 percent of last year's bin-buster. The central crop-reporting district, which includes Ellis County, is expected...

Food Shortages Growing? An email from a reader in the Midwest causes me some concern: "Last night at the daughter's horse riding lesson the price of horse feed came between my wife & the stable owner/riding instructor. One of her friends in Kansas said that his winter wheat looked great, but there was no wheat in the wheat plant heads (kernel/seed-I don't know the correct term). He reported that the grain miller that they normally use said that they are having trouble getting any wheat to prepare. Same thing from many Kansas wheat growers; plants look great, but no wheat...

David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors, said the deadly fungus, Puccinia graminis, is now spreading through some areas of the globe where "crop losses are expected to reach 100 percent.” Losses in Africa are already at 70 percent of the crop, Kotok said. "The economic losses expected from this fungus are now in the many billions and growing. Worse, there is an intensifying fear of exacerbated food shortages in poor and emerging countries of the world,” Kotok told investors in a research note. "The ramifications are serious. Food rioting continues to expand around the world. We...

With the world consuming more food than it produces and global grain stocks the lowest for 30 years, food prices are soaring from Indonesia to Indianapolis. Some experts called it the Perfect Storm and others a tsunami. The global food crisis has a common denominator with the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now estimates at $1.1 trillion: Greed. Predatory lending coupled with criminal profiteering was behind the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund now estimates at $1.1 trillion. It is the largest loss of wealth in modern U.S....

MUMBAI, April 23 (Reuters) - Indian corn futures ended higher on Wednesday on media reports that the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission was opposed to a ban on commodities futures trade, analysts said. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday opposed suggestions to ban futures trade in commodities, the Business Standard paper reported. "Some recovery was seen ...there could be some more rise..prices had fallen quite a bit in last few days," said an analyst with Motilal Oswal Commodities Broker Private Ltd. Strong export demand also supported the gains, they said. India is likely to export 2.1...

New Delhi (PTI): India on Wednesday ruled out the need to import wheat this year, as it appears poised to surpass the 15 million tons procurement target. "I am confident of procuring 16-17 million tons of wheat this year... As of now I don't see a need for import of wheat," Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar said, inaugurating the State Agriculture Ministers' conference here. In the last 10 days, the average procurement in Punjab and Haryana was 99.6 per cent of the market arrival of wheat in these states, Pawar said, adding that Food Corporation of India has so...

Mona El-Fiqi stands in line Bread queues have become a common scene The government has started applying new measures to regulate the sale of subsidised bread, including raising flour quotas in high population governorates, separating the processes of bread production and distribution, and enforcing strict penalties on the sale of subsidised flour on the black market. But bread queues continue to grow longer and people still cannot readily find this staple food. For many years, different types of bread at various prices have been available on the market. One could buy a loaf of subsidised baladi (traditional) bread at PT5,...

A new and virulent wheat fungus, previously found in East Africa and Yemen, has moved to major wheat growing areas in Iran, reports the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization. The fungus is capable of wreaking havoc to wheat production by destroying entire fields...

Sat March 15, 2008 Farmers in fear By Jim Stafford Business Writer Prices paid to Oklahoma wheat farmers for their grain have surged to historic highs, but the prospect of $12-a-bushel wheat at harvest has yielded a surprising side effect, said farm economist Kim Anderson: Fear. The July wheat contract on the Kansas City Board of Trade closed at $12.21 Friday, down 44 cents from the previous day, but still hovering near historic levels. So, what is to fear from wheat priced at three to four times what it was just five years ago? "They are scared to death because...