Ug99, a virulent fungal disease, could create a major food security crisis by attacking the world's second largest crop, wheat. After the disease was discovered in Uganda in 1999, its spores took to the wind, hit fields in Kenya and Ethiopia, jumped the Red Sea to Yemen and turned up this year in Iran.
Saint Mary's University-Winona Hosts Food Insecurity Forum
Published October 6, 2011
Event date:
November 17, 2011 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm
The acute suffering in East Africa is justifiably garnering headlines, but well beyond this crisis is an enduring challenge: how to deliver enough food to a growing world population amid diminishing crop yields and climate vagaries that threaten future growing seasons with drought and disease. This forum will deliver a digest of the latest reporting on food security issues and efforts to tackle this challenge on the science and policy frontiers.
Panelists:
Fred de Sam Lazaro, director of the Under-Told Stories Project and PBS NewsHour correspondent
Sharon Schmickle, foreign affairs and science correspondent for MinnPost.com
David Lynch, Social Science Chair, Saint Mary's University
William G. Moseley, Professor of Geography at Macalester College
Moderated by Jon Sawyer, Executive Director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Saint Mary's University
St. Mary's Hall
Lecture Hall Room 332
700 Terrace Heights
Winona, MN 55987-1399
This panel is part of a collaborative reporting project on population issues by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, PBS NewsHour and National Geographic.
Project
As scientists make progress against Ug99, a fungus that threatens wheat crops worldwide, new methods to produce and distribute disease-resistant seeds must also be developed.
Ug99, a fungal disease known as wheat rust, could destroy 80 percent of all known wheat varieties. Scientists in Kenya's Rift Valley are joining a global fight against it.
Gateways
Grantee
Fred de Sam Lazaro is director of the Project for Under-Told Stories at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, a program that combines international journalism and teaching. He has served with The...
Grantee
Through mid-2007, Sharon was a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, most recently as a foreign correspondent. She currently writes for the innovative news site MinnPost.com. In 2003,...
Pulitzer Center staff
Contact Jon: jsawyer[AT]pulitzercenter.org
Jon Sawyer is director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit organization that funds independent reporting with the intent of raising...