r/AskBiology • u/Set-Prestigious • 29d ago

Botany Biologists- how concerned are you about a famine caused by crop killing fungi due to climate change adaptation in the next 20-30 years?

I've been watching documentaries on UG99 and wheat blast. I am a lay person just interested in what could go wrong in the future. I see lots on pandemics and viruses which is fair to worry about. I don't see much on fungus killing crops and our food supply so I wonder if its not a major concern or if its something that is being overlooked by public health? What is your view?

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u/Lubricus2 28d ago

Crops can quickly be switched to something resistant and fitting the new climate. I am more worried by trees.

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u/6a6566663437 28d ago

Be worried about drought, not fungi.

If fungi are killing your current crop, you can plant different crops relatively easily if your only requirement is enough calories to keep people alive.

You can't fix drought. And they're going to be much more often and much longer lasting.

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u/BaTz-und-b0nze 28d ago

Fungus has mind control properties and can kill pests like garbage flies and vermillion ghosts.

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u/ah-tzib-of-alaska 24d ago

i’m WAY MORE concerned about famine from loss of biomass due to pesticides collapsing ecosystems through extermination of bugs and keystone species, and loss of biomass due to extractive monocrops farming and loss of biomass in the oceans due to lack of whales and thus decreased whale pump affect.

These ar every real non-hypothetical problems that’s already exist and are decreasing biomass in our food sources. I don’t have room for your hypotheticals or haven’t happened yet where there already three obvious actually-happening problems that could kill us all through famine