There was a scifi novel in the olden days that had exactly that scenario: A fast spreading disease that first took out rice, which lead to mass starvation and politicla unrest in Asia. This was countered by sending food from the US and Europe, depleting their reserves. Then, the next year, the virus (or whatever) made the jump over to all members of the oryzee family, i.e. all cereals, worldwide. No wheat, no barley, no maize - all dead except a few plants kept safe in secure labs.
A disease that makes crops inedible would be so much worse than any pandemic
Submitted 11 months ago by possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Agent641@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yeah that’s totally unrealistic, in a biodiversity ecosystem, the varus shouldn’t be able to propagate wildly, I mean, for that to happen you would have to have planted vast areas of monoculture crops, all with the same or similar genetic traits, without many buffer zones, and a depleted soil full of biologically inert chemical fertilisers, devoid of a healthy and resilient soil microbiome… oh… oh no…
Maggoty@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Fun fact, this is happening with Bananas. The only way they can contain it is by annihilating entire fields.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Keep in mind that the book is so old, I cannot even find it online. It was published in a “Classic Science Fiction” edition when I was a kid.
Bonehead@kbin.social 11 months ago
Isn't this also the basic plot of Interstellar?
BURN@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It is. The corn is all dying and is so monogenetic that it is all susceptible to the same diseases.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 months ago
No idea. Never seen it.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
interstellar music
Treczoks@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That I’ve listened to, it is a great organ piece.
Anticorp@lemmy.world 10 months ago
In the movie Interstellar there’s a blight that is destroying all of the crops across the world.
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I mean, just look at the potato famine, that was on par with any pandemic.
Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
If you’re talking about the Irish one, yeah.
The disease that made food inedible: British imperialism.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
popekingjoe@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Hey! Where’s Perry?
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 11 months ago
Stitch0815@feddit.de 11 months ago
I meanbstuff like that exists, ergot for example really sucks. But you can kill and burn infected plants and animals. Can
t really do that with humans. So its overall much easier to controllBlueEther@no.lastname.nz 11 months ago
Ergot was what i was going to reply with
there is asso things like potato blight that in part caused the Great Famine
EtzBetz@feddit.de 11 months ago
I really don’t remember well anymore right now, but there was some infection 2 years back or so, where if you had it, you couldn’t process some kind of meat/any meat anymore.
ShawiniganHandshake@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Lone star tick bites can cause a condition called alpha-gal syndrome that makes you allergic to red meat.
EtzBetz@feddit.de 11 months ago
Yeah I think that was it. Thank you :)
tourist@lemmy.world 11 months ago
heard diesel is like a few thousand calories, so we could maybe switch to that
I will not think about this further, I feel light headed
The_v@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Not to scare you but it happens every year, constantly. There is always another new disease or an new mutation to an older disease that is attacking crops.
It’s only by constant research, phytosanitary processes and breeding efforts that our food supply is as secure as it is.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 10 months ago
And then there are bananas.