There was a scifi novel in the olden days that had exactly that scenario: A fast spreading disease that first took out rice, which lead to mass starvation and politicla unrest in Asia. This was countered by sending food from the US and Europe, depleting their reserves. Then, the next year, the virus (or whatever) made the jump over to all members of the oryzee family, i.e. all cereals, worldwide. No wheat, no barley, no maize - all dead except a few plants kept safe in secure labs.
Yeah that’s totally unrealistic, in a biodiversity ecosystem, the varus shouldn’t be able to propagate wildly, I mean, for that to happen you would have to have planted vast areas of monoculture crops, all with the same or similar genetic traits, without many buffer zones, and a depleted soil full of biologically inert chemical fertilisers, devoid of a healthy and resilient soil microbiome… oh… oh no…
There was a scifi novel in the olden days that had exactly that scenario: A fast spreading disease that first took out rice, which lead to mass starvation and politicla unrest in Asia. This was countered by sending food from the US and Europe, depleting their reserves. Then, the next year, the virus (or whatever) made the jump over to all members of the oryzee family, i.e. all cereals, worldwide. No wheat, no barley, no maize - all dead except a few plants kept safe in secure labs.
Isn’t this also the basic plot of Interstellar?
interstellar music
Yeah that’s totally unrealistic, in a biodiversity ecosystem, the varus shouldn’t be able to propagate wildly, I mean, for that to happen you would have to have planted vast areas of monoculture crops, all with the same or similar genetic traits, without many buffer zones, and a depleted soil full of biologically inert chemical fertilisers, devoid of a healthy and resilient soil microbiome… oh… oh no…
Keep in mind that the book is so old, I cannot even find it online. It was published in a “Classic Science Fiction” edition when I was a kid.
I believe the book you are talking about is "The Death Of Grass’.
Figured that would be Nancy Reagan’s autobiography.
Brand new idea, you say? Let me get my writing fingers on.