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U.S. Scientists Work to Find Protection Against Soybean Rust
U.S. scientists at Fort Detrick, Md., are working to find new ways to combat the crop disease soybean rust, which is feared to have the ability to cause billions of dollars worth of damage if used in an act of agricultural terrorism, the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 20). “It’s our highest-level threat for the immediate future," said Douglas Luster, research chief at the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit at Fort Detrick. “If it spread across hundreds of acres, it would be difficult to eradicate,” he said. As part of a $500,000 a year project, 10 Agriculture Department scientists work with colleagues around the world, who collect soybean rust spores and test new plants developed in the United States. Over the past year-and-a-half, more than 13,000 types of soybeans have been tested in an effort to find a rust-resistant strain, but no “super-resistant” types have yet been found, the Post reported (Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post, Nov 16).
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