The REAL fungus threat isn't a zombie apocalypse but 'global starvation: ... trends now
The smash television zombie show The Last of Us was too close for comfort for food scientist Sarah Gurr.
While the apocalyptic HBO drama focussed on fungal infections turning mankind into crazed zombies, the more pressing threat is how they ravage what we eat, she says.
The University of Exeter expert warns of a 'devastating' impact on wheat, rice, corn, soy beans, potatoes and other crops that keep the planet's 8 billion people alive.
Dangerous fungi are spreading north as the planet heats up, and the fungicides farmers use against them are getting less effective as they adapt to resist man's chemicals, she says.
'The imminent threat here is not about zombies, but about global starvation,' said Gurr, in a reference to the hit series.
This chart shows how the concentration of fungicide needed to fight a wheat fungus has rocketed up in recent years
Fungi turned men into mushroom-monsters in TV drama The Last of Us. In the real world, their biggest danger is to the food we need to survive
'While the storyline is science fiction, we are warning that we could see a global health catastrophe caused by the rapid global spread of fungal infections as they develop increasing resistance in a warming world.'
Her study, published in the journal Nature, comes as fans of The Last of Us await the second season of a show that tells the story of the tough survivors of a global pandemic in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Fungal pathogens are already a big threat to farming, causing billions of dollars in losses each year. As temperatures rise, these pathogens can reproduce and spread faster, leading to an increased severity and frequency of crop damage.
'The imminent threat here is not about zombies, but about global starvation,' says food scientist Sarah Gurr
Other experts have expressed alarm about fungi destroying more crops. Still, many Malthusian-type projections about mass starvation have proven baseless.
In her study, Gurr says farmers are starting at a bad point.
Growers already lose between 10 and 23 percent of their crops to fungal infection each year, despite dousing them in antifungals.
Another 10-20 percent is lost
