Commentaries
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 The New Red Menace UG99 and HubrisJust when we humans think we've become the masters of creation, along comes a volcanic eruption, or an oil spill, or . . . a little red fungus. Listen Now | Download
Given Borlaug’s contribution to human well-being, it’s ironic that it was one of his students who discovered the greatest threat to Borlaug’s legacy. That threat, discovered by William Magiore in For thousands of years stem rust, which attacks wheat, would periodically wreak havoc on humanity. It would leave famine and chaos in its wake. It was such a threat that the Romans worshipped a god named “Robigus,” whose power was the ability to prevent stem rust. Stem Rust was finally brought under control by what Borlaug called a “mind-warpingly tedious” process of trial and error: He and others bred wheat that was resistant to the blight and, thus, mitigated the threat posed by this ancient scourge. Mitigated, not eliminated. Since its discovery, UG99, to which 90 percent of our wheat crop has no resistance, has spread eastward: it has been detected in At the very least, food prices would soar and the poor, who already live on a knife’s edge, would face malnutrition and even famine. As bad as that is, it’s not the nightmare scenario: that real nightmare would be if UG99 headed west as well as east. Surpluses in the That’s why food scientists are scrambling to stay ahead of fungus and prevent a catastrophe. Christians ought to support and pray for their efforts. It’s hard to imagine a greater priority than preventing a global food crisis. We in the West might be able to absorb higher food prices—our neighbors and brethren in the global south can’t. Global instability would soon follow. This crisis should also serve as lesson about human hubris. We like to think that we have mastered nature and somehow emancipated ourselves from the limits imposed by our physical environment. We speak of “making the world smaller” because we invented the airplane and built the internet. Like Nebuchadnezzar, we see our world as proof of our power and majesty. Then, along comes a minor volcanic eruption in God help us, indeed. Further Reading and Information
Virulent New Strains of Ug99 Stem Rust, a Deadly Wheat Pathogen Mutant Fungus Ug99 Threatens Global Wheat TIMELINE: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill The Desert Shall Rejoice: The Legacy of Norman Borlaug Volcanoes and Hubris: A Little Dust Goes a Long Way |
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Last September, I told you about the passing of Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug. As the father of the “Green Revolution” in agriculture, Borlaug was credited with saving hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion, lives. His work with food crops, and the work of those inspired by him, is why “food today is cheap and widely available, and why famines have become relatively rare events.”