Who keeps the world’s
food supply disease free?
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www.sxc.hu |
Spare a thought this Christmas for how plant diseases
caused by pathogenic fungi, bacteria and viruses could affect your celebrations. Why? Because the 12000 tonnes
or so of potatoes eaten have to be protected against the
devastating potato
blight, likewise Brussels sprouts from ringspot,
light leaf spot and white blister, carrots from
cavity spot. Even the stuffing is under threat with blight of chestnut trees.
Less obvious accompaniments include the wine (grape mildew), beer (barley
mildew), coffee (coffee rust), and if there is any
room left after the meal, the chocolates are from cocoa bushes that survived or
were protected from the well-named witches’ broom or
black and frosty pod diseases. These "basics" are all taken for granted but are only there
by controlling a whole range of diseases. Also our homes really wouldn’t be
complete at Christmas without the ‘trimmings’ of 7.5 million conifer trees,
potentially susceptible to Dothistroma needle blight; this would cause
needles to drop even before you collected the tree! These comments apply of
course to any meal, celebratory or not and is applicable worldwide. Many
cultures are heavily dependent on rice for example, which succumbs to
Magnaporthe rice blast, arguably of equivalent importance in those producing
countries to potato blight. Our research makes sure that only high quality
produce, free from diseases, makes it into your home and onto your plate.
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| 700 members of the BSPP from 50
countries around the world help lead the fight to control thousands of diseases,
many of which have the capacity to devastate crops wherever they are grown. But
the subject is much older than 25 years and diseases have frequently changed the
course of history. The potato famine of 1845 resulted in the death of over 1
million people in Ireland, and America would certainly not have such an
extensive Irish–American community without the mass exodus from Ireland during
this period. Also Britain would probably not be a nation of tea drinkers if
coffee rust had not wiped out the coffee bushes of Ceylon in 1869 leading to
replacement by tea. More recently our landscape has been radically changed by
Dutch elm disease and new diseases threaten oaks, alder and some conifers.
However, most damage is still caused in developing countries where plant
pathologists can help achieve the Millennium Development Goal to
eradicate extreme hunger through improved food security. Major
epidemics are still threatening the livelihoods and food supply of many
communities with swollen shoot of cocoa in West Africa,
cassava mosaic virus and
coffee wilt in East Africa and banana bacterial wilt in Central Africa; all have
major impacts on national economies and in turn the livelihoods of those in most
need. |
www.sxc.hu |
So plant pathologists
not only protect your Christmas lunch but more importantly help the developing
world to survive, by providing nutrition and to thrive through providing income.
In developed countries pathologists strive to control disease with more
environmentally friendly and sustainable methods, such as preventing accidental
introductions, finding and using natural genes for resistance and employing
benign microorganisms against those that cause disease. So…..plant pathology is not just for Christmas!
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