St. Paul, Minn. — On The Daily Circuit Monday, we're talking
about labeling genetically modified food. Recently, we spoke
with Les Szabo, research geneticist and acting research leader
at the USDA-ARS Cereal Disease Laboratory on The University of
Minnesota St. Paul campus. At the lab, scientists study rust on
cereal plants like wheat, rye and barley. Wheat rust is very
common and it's completely manageable because most of the wheat
that's planted in the world has resistance against these kinds
of rust. There are even documented cases of rust back to the
Roman days, Szabo said. When a type of rust pops up that the
wheat's resistance can't handle, that's when you have the chance
for an epidemic, he said. The last time that happened on a large
scale was back in the '50s and '60s when Minnesotan Norman
Borlaug helped breed new wheat varieties that were resistant to
that kind of rust that was causing problems back then. Since
that time, Borlaug's wheats have done a good job of managing
rust and resisting it. Howe