A very real Midwest terror: Ug99

There’s a reason why Kansas is called the bread basket of America. It’s the top-wheat producing state — nearly double the total of runner-up North Dakota — in the top-producing wheat country in the world. The Kansas Wheat Commission estimates that the annual wheat crop “pumps some $2.5 billion into the Kansas economy.”

But scientists fear that if the fungus called Ug99 ever reaches the Midwest, it would wipe out 80 percent — or all of — the crop, ending not only Kansas agriculture as we know it but causing famine worldwide.

Known also as stem rust because of red spots it leaves on plants before killing them, Ug99 travels easily.