Warfare: Food Supply/Access

[JJackson]

More on rice shortages
Thais hold key to rice shortages
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7222043.stm

selil I think the term you were looking for is mono-culture and in the perpetual war between pathogens and our food crops the pathogens will always adapt faster (this is an inevitable result of the differences in their evolutionary genetic strategy). Loss of bio-diversity is a major long term problem and concern regarding pandemics not misplaced. The widespread use of infertile hybrids and genetic modification of food species giving improved yields will aggravate the problem as they promote a further curtailing in genetic diversity (only in the food crop not in the pathogen).

[selil]

More on rice shortages
Thais hold key to rice shortages
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7222043.stm

selil I think the term you were looking for is mono-culture and in the perpetual war between pathogens and our food crops the pathogens will always adapt faster (this is an inevitable result of the differences in their evolutionary genetic strategy). Loss of bio-diversity is a major long term problem and concern regarding pandemics not misplaced. The widespread use of infertile hybrids and genetic modification of food species giving improved yields will aggravate the problem as they promote a further curtailing in genetic diversity (only in the food crop not in the pathogen).

Thank JJackson... I believe mono-culture is exactly what they called it. The briefing I got on the topic and a subsequent video I was shown about Canada wheat really brought home the risks. I'd seen a few years back some stuff about pork and the risks of infection, but the feed crops really make me worry.

[JJackson]

The pig is very topical, in a pandemic context, at the moment. The HP AI A/H5N1 (AKA Bird Flu) needs to accumulate a few genetic changes in its RNA sequence to adapt to man. We do not really know what most of these are but one that we do know is a modification to the H (in H5N1). An area on the Hemagglutinin called the RBS binds to a sugar on the host cell surface before it can enter the cell. There is a small configurational difference between the versions of the sugar the virus binds in birds and humans, this makes it difficult for avian flus to infect people. The bad news – for us and the pigs - is that pigs have both isomers and can catch both human and bird flus. They can then act as mixing vessel recombining and reassorting the genetic material to create new flu strains.