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Ag secretary: 'We have never been less secure' about wheatKANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)--The world has "never been less secure" about the near-term future of wheat as crop failures and disease combine to threaten food supplies, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer told food aid groups April 16. Schafer told the International Food Aid Conference meeting that crop failures have left global wheat stocks at their lowest point in 30 years and U.S. wheat stocks are at 60-year lows. Climate changes that have spawned unrelenting drought, floods and late freezes have all had an impact. This has left the world at particular risk for a highly virulent wheat disease called African stem rust that is quickly spreading to places such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Yemen, India, Pakistan and Iran. "We have never been less secure about the near term future of wheat," Schafer said. "With over 75 percent of U.S. wheat acres planted to varieties that are highly susceptible to this disease, the threat here at home is real and it is urgent." The disease, which is carried by wind spores, would be devastating to global food supplies if it affects the U.S. wheat crops, now valued at $16 billion. The United States has shipped wheat breeding lines to east Africa, where scientists are working to find a rust-resistant strain and new protective measures. "This is an international science partnership at its best in the face of crisis that threatens most of the world's food," Schafer told about 700 people from 25 countries. The food aid groups have been discussing soaring commodity and fuel prices that have slashed the amount of food they can buy to feed the world's most impoverished regions. Changing climate patterns that have spawned crop failures and growing competition from biofuels have come together to create what experts here are calling "a perfect storm" that has spawned a world hunger crisis. Schafer said he has not decided whether to allow the early release without penalty of acres enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to take acres out of production. A decision for the 2009 crop year would not be made until August or September, he said. The conference comes amid negotiations over the federal farm bill, which expired on April 18. Schafer said the Bush administration would support extending the deadline by a week or two only if real progress was being made. Otherwise, the administration would prefer an extension of a year so that farmers could better plan their crop year, Schafer said. The administration is also pushing a proposal to designate 25 percent of the food aid from the United States for cash purchases in other countries, rather than shipping only U.S.-grown commodities. Gaddi Vasquez, U.S. ambassador to U.N. agencies in Rome, Congress to back the proposal. "The ultimate objective," Vasquez said, "is to help countries battling hunger to feed their own people." 4/28/08 Date: 4/22/08
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