The Viking in the Wheat Field: A Scientist's Struggle to Preserve the World's Harvest

In 1999, a terrifying new form of stem rust--discovered in Uganda and named "Ug99"--quickly turned golden wheat fields into dark, tangled ruins. For decades plant scientists had bred wheat varieties with rust-resistant genes, but against Ug99, they were helpless. Unchecked, Ug99 could spread all over the world, including the United States. Breeders everywhere began searching seed collections for strains of wheat that were genetically resistant to Ug99. The largest collection was at the Center for Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT) in Mexico, developed by the brilliant Danish scientist Bent Skovmand. For thirty years, Skovmand amassed, multiplied, and documented thousands of wheat varieties. He served as advisor to dozens of countries, and hunted for seeds that would contain the genes to protect the harvest from plagues like Ug99 and such environmental stresses as drought, flooding, and global warming. In an era when multinational corporations and governments often jealously guarded breeding patents and information, Skovmand fought to keep his seed bank a center for free, open scientific exchange as a service to breeders and farmers everywhere. By telling the story of Skovmand and that of his colleagues, The Viking in the Wheat Field sheds welcome light on an agricultural sector--"plant genetic resources"--on which we are all crucially dependent.