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Federal lab studying wheat disease faces cut in funding
On the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus, researchers at a federal lab are studying a fungus called wheat rust and a particular strain that has the potential to make the global food crisis even worse. They're also facing a funding cut. "It would obviously dramatically affect what we can and cannot do," said Marty Carson, the lab's research leader. The Bush Administration's budget proposal would take away $300,000, about 17 percent of the lab's funding, Carson said. The lab - called the Cereal Rust Laboratory - studies an infection that attacks wheat and gets its name from the rust-colored spores that form on infected plants. Wheat rust can wipe out entire crops, but some wheat varieties are immune. Inside the cereal lab's greenhouses, researchers look for wheat varieties that can survive. "It has, historically, been a real problem that we've had to deal with," Carson said. "But the last major epidemic we had in the United States was in the 1950s." The Saint Paul lab is one of three in the world where researchers are studying the new strain of wheat rust, which has been called a looming catastrophe. It started in Africa and has spread across the Red Sea, moving toward Pakistan and India - the breadbasket of South Asia. Wind carries the rust spores across oceans. In Saint Paul, research is restricted to the winter months when the spores can't survive outside. Carson said the proposed funding cuts would take critical dollars away from the lab's research. "If we would sustain such a cut, then obviously we would have to make a decision at that point - what research would cease and what would continue," he said. Last month, Sen. Amy Klobuchar visited the lab and called the funding cut "a clear case of misplaced priorities" and said she'd fight to get the money restored. It's money Carson said is necessary when the world's wheat supply already is historically low. "Any further complication, whether it be a drought or, in this case, stem rust, could really throw markets into chaos," he said.
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