Wheat and 3rd-world coutries

determined_14

Can anyone point me to some good links about hybridized wheat and its effects on starvation in developing countries?
I'm going to do some googling myself, but I thought I'd ask the knowledgeable folks here for a push in the right direction.
I know that a certain scientist (the name escapes me) developed a hardier wheat that was able to survive in harsh climates and feed a lot of people, correct?
Someone mentioned to me that they heard that now some of those populations are sick and dying, allegedly from the wheat. I blurted out, "No, they're not dying!" But I don't really know enough of the facts to back that up. Anyone know about this topic?

kshama2001

Is this what you two are talking about? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug#Criticisms_and_his_view_of_critics

determined_14

That's the guy, but I don't see anything in there about people getting sick from his crops. My sense is that she had heard incorrectly, but I figure I better look into it so I actually know what *I'm* talking about!

kshama2001

I bet it was actually a crop other than wheat that she heard about. Tell her you'd like to learn more about this and ask her to get you a link.

PeachyCarol

Yeah... Borlaug's changes to wheat helped feed a lot of people.

It's true that stem rust (one of the changes he made to wheat was to introduce a shorter stem to help combat stem rust) is making itself known again, but that wouldn't make people sick. It would just cause the crop to fail.