Heard of stem rust? You should

It's not just superbugs (bacteria) resisting antibiotics that can threated the health and welfare of humanity, it's previously defeated scourges of agriculture.  Stem rust is one of the most virulent killers of wheat - a staple of human existinence.  Wheat was bred to resist the worst stem rusts in the 1950s, an effort that won the lead researcher, Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize. 

Unfortunately, stem rust is resurgent and the re-engineeerd variety of wheat is no longer resistant.  The rust has serious implications, with a potential to reduce world wheat harvests by 10 percent.

The looming catastrophe can be avoided if the world’s wheat scientists pull together to develop a new generation of stem-rust-resistant varieties of wheat. But scientists must quickly turn their attention to replacing almost all of the commercial wheat grown in the world today.

This is similar to the threat to bananas, where the only variety shipped around the world could be ruined by a leaf fungus.

Good bye banana?

You may not realize it, but nearly every banana you've ever eaten is genetically identical.  Born and bred to be tasty, ship internationally, and to be resistant to a leaf fungus that almost completely destroyed international banana trade in the 1950s.  This banana is called the Cavendish, and it's now threatened by the same kind of fungus that did in its predecessor, the Gros Michel (which apparently was bigger and tastier).

Eat dirt, get worms, be healthy

That's the conclusion from students of "the hygiene hypothesis," currently being tested by scientists as an explanation for the increase in autoimmune disorders (e.g. allergies) in Western countries. 

One leading researcher, Dr. Joel V. Weinstock, the director of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said in an interview that the immune system at birth “is like an unprogrammed computer. It needs instruction.”
...“Children raised in an ultraclean environment,” he added, “are not being exposed to organisms that help them develop appropriate immune regulatory circuits.”

Do wash hands after using the restroom or handling dirty diapers, the scientists say, but that old mantra to "wash up before dinner"? 

Maybe not.

Two disturbing tales from the world of food

First, you've heard of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)?  It's a sweetener that, by virtue of being cheaper than sugar, has replaced it in everything from soda pop (sweetness) to bread products (for texture) to frozen foods (for preservation). Oh, and HFCS contains mercury.  Seems that despite an alternative production method that avoids mercury contamination, most HFCS producers don't bother.  Great.

Like peanut butter?  How about when you get a peanut butter product with salmonella?  Turns out the plant that kicked out contaminated spread that has sickened many and killed several had found contamination several times before, and shipped the product anyway.

The [just-completed inspection] report describes a plant that was not constructed to produce safe food. “There were open gaps observed” near air-conditioner intakes that were as large as a half-inch by two and one-half feet long, the report stated. Previous inspections of the plant by the Georgia State Agriculture Department found dirty surfaces, grease residue and dirt buildup throughout the plant. They also found rust residue that could flake into food, gaps in warehouse doors large enough for rodents to enter, and numerous other problems.

 Mmm, PBSJ sandwich...

One disease that we're losing against

And it's not AIDS.  It used to be completely curable by antibiotics, but now it's developed resistance to almost every variety.

It's tuberculosis.  And Nicholas Kristof illustrates why we need to being paying more attention to curing TB.

"There's shit in the meat"

If you haven't seen "Fast Food Nation" on video, I don't recommend it over the book by Eric Schlosser. But this op-ed manages to summarize nicely why industrial-sized agriculture isn't always compatible with health and environmental well-being.

First, if you've missed the news:

over 30 million pounds of ground beef in 18 separate recalls have been necessary this year alone

Many of the leading public officials are calling for irradiation of the nation's food supply (bombardment with gamma rays) to kill harmful bacteria:

We should require that our entire food supply be subjected to irradiation before consuming it. Once again, we see a solution posed that is designed to treat the effect while ignoring the cause. It is somewhat akin to the cigarette smoker who would rather wait to develop cancer and then undergo treatment for it rather than just quit smoking.

See, the reason we have bacteria, on the shit, on the meat, is because of how we make meat:

Cattle are ruminants, and they have evolved to eat grasses and forbs. Feeding grain to cattle makes their digestive tracts abnormally acidic. Over time, the E. coli in their systems become acclimated to this environment, thereby rendering it more resistant to the acid shock of our digestive juices. However, few E. coli from grass-fed cattle will survive because they have not become acid-resistant. Consequently, when cattle are fed a diet of grass, our natural defenses are still capable of protecting us.

How much difference does the process make?

A study by Swedish researchers in 2001 found that 100 percent of calves raised in pens had some level of E. coli contamination, while those raised in pasture showed no signs of contamination at all.

Feedlot cattle stand around in dirt and fecal material. Grass-fed cattle stand on grass.

Maybe we should stop eating things that walk around in poop all day. Or at least get them out of the poop first. Just a thought.

Update 2: Colony Collapse Disorder a parasite?

A scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, has isolated a parasite that may be responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder. In a few preliminary tests of local hives, he found that the presence of the parasite - Nosema ceranae - was strongly linked to diseased or dead bees. This is mixed news, since the parasite is known to cause colony collapse in as little as a week, but may also be controlled by an existing antibiotic.

As with most things science, however, the tests only validate the hypothesis - they don't prove the cause. Dr. DeRisi believes more study is necessary before concluding this parasite is responsible:

The results are "highly preliminary" and are from only a few hives from Le Grand in Merced County, UCSF biochemist Joe DeRisi said. "We don't want to give anybody the impression that this thing has been solved."

Other scientists have also found the parasite in bee hives, but among several other potential pathogens. One scientist felt it was going too far to label Nosema ceranae THE cause:

N. ceranae is "one of many pathogens" in the bees, said entomologist Diana Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University. "By itself, it is probably not the culprit … but it may be one of the key players."

Let's hope they find the solution soon, as more than a quarter of U.S. bee colonies have already suffered collapse.

Update on Colony Collapse Disorder

The New York Times has an update on the scientific pursuit of an explanation for Colony Collapse Disorder. There's no mention of the recent experiment in the UK linking cell phones to bee disappearances, but the story includes a graphic of the affected states as well as discussion of the possible causes.

Scientists seem to be dismissing genetically modified crops as a potential cause, but are concerned about the types of food given to bees, such as corn syrup, that may come from genetically modified corn. Other potential causes include some sort of bee pathogen (such as a virus or bacteria) or pesticides in the neonicotinoids family. The French government banned a pesticide, called imidacloprid, after scientists linked it with the so-called "mad bee disease" that struck France in the 1990s:

The chemical, while not killing the bees outright, was causing them to be disoriented and stay away from their hives, leading them to die of exposure to the cold, French researchers later found. The beekeepers labeled the syndrome “mad bee disease.”

The French government banned the pesticide in 1999 for use on sunflowers, and later for corn...

...Among the pesticides being tested in the American bee investigation, the neonicotinoids group “is the number-one suspect,” Dr. Mullin said. He hoped results of the toxicology screening will be ready within a month.

For more information on the progress in diagnosing CCD, check out the CCD Working Group and their preliminary report on the disease from January.

Don't Eat at Joe's for your health

There seem to be pretty regular stories about how an Asian diet (focused more on fish) or a Mediterranean diet (with olive oil, etc) helps to reduce the incidence of disease. You know which diet never gets mentioned? The American one, since it just seems to make people fat.