Pubdate: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 Source: New Scientist (UK) Copyright: New Scientist, RBI Limited 1999 Section: Editorial, Pg. 3 Contact: http://www.newscientist.com/ A VERY UNHOLY WAR Attacking Opium And Coca Farms With Bioweapons Sounds Great. . . To Officials IMAGINE a mind-altering drug that is harvested from a plant grown in just a few small regions of the world. Efforts to curb demand are floundering and international trade has made the barons of the industry rich and powerful. Then, one day, crop dusters fly over the crops, scattering a fungus or bacterium which the plants can't resist. A new way of waging war on crack and heroin ? Well, it could be. Scientists working for the US government and the UN admit they are trying to develop biological agents to destroy coca bushes and opium poppies, and make no secret of their desire to use them in such places as Colombia or Afghanistan (see p 20). But what if the fields in this scenario were the vineyards of Bordeaux or the Napa Valley ? And what if the attackers were Islamic extremists bent on lashing out at the West's favourite recreational drug ? OK, so it's unlikely, but there is almost nothing to stop terrorists or rogue states arming themselves with biological agents that could be used against Japanese rice, Russian potatoes or Californian grapes. Plant disease agents are a lot easier to manufacture and deliver than biological weapons aimed at people. They can't attack your technicians, are adapted to travel vast distances on winds or insects, and are easy to release - upwind and you're off. What's more, most are fungi that produce conveniently hardy spores that can persist in soil for years. The agents now being developed to attack opium, coca and marijuana plants have been in the pipeline a long time. But that's mainly because the researchers are looking for strains that infect only the drug crops. Terrorists and dictators wouldn't have to be so fussy. A cheap and dirty anti-crop agent could be produced far more easily than an anthrax bomb. The notion isn't new. Before it disavowed biological weapons in 1972, the US had developed a wheat rust bomb to drop on the Ukraine, while in Uzbekistan, Russian scientists were developing something similar to drop on Kansas. Now, concern about this type of bioweapon is growing again among senior security chiefs. And while cold-war style paranoia may be part of it, there are some real causes for concern. The most obvious is the huge strain that will be placed on food supplies as the world's population expands, making crops a more seductive target. Another factor is that, thanks to an upsurge in new plant diseases through increases in global agricultural trade and monocultures, there are now more strains of crop pathogens for weapons makers to choose from - and more vulnerability in the fields they might target. Sceptics may doubt whether anti-crop agents could act quickly enough to be powerful instruments of war. But the lesson from BSE and the Belgian dioxin fiasco is that you may not need to cause mass starvation to wreak economic or political havoc. In many nations, grain prices alone make a big difference to urban peace. And it may take only a hint of contamination with fungal toxins to close down a nation's food exports. Against this background, the enthusiasm of the US and UN for using a "Fusarium" fungus to infect drug crops seems reckless bordering on the crazy. Advocates claim that such agents are ecologically safe provided they exist naturally in the targeted regions. And most probably do, but not in the quantity that spraying would bring. The sheer scale of the infection could increase the risk of the fungi mutating into strains capable of attacking non-drug plants, causing who knows what damage to farms or ecosystems. The UN claims the fungi are merely "pest control agents" which will be released only in countries whose governments consent. It also points out that various disease spores are used to control thistles and water weeds in the US and no one calls it biological warfare. Try telling this to the four million peasants who depend on coca or poppy crops, or to the drug barons, or to the neighbouring country into whose fields the spores may drift. Deliberately infecting crops, even drug crops, starts us down a slippery slope. It tells the world that using disease to achieve an end is legitimate - and fairly easy. Whatever the UN might say, these fungi certainly look like biological weapons, which are supposed to be prohibited by an international treaty. Developing them may well be easy. Putting the genie of biological weapons back into the bottle may not be. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake