In the category of Worst Ideas You’ve Probably Never Heard Of, some Republican politicians are once again pushing the use of mycoherbicides — fungi that kill plants — for use in their beloved drug war.

Like a fungus itself, this idea just won’t go away.  The theory as presented by the drug warriors is quite simple — take a fungus that kills poppies or coca or marijuana, spread it around Afghanistan or Colombia or Florida, and — voila! — no more drug problem.

I can’t decide whether they really are that stupid about science, or whether they’re operating from some movie villain playbook, but the idea really is as ridiculous as it sounds and they’re taking action now.
From the Miami Herald this June via the house.gov website (emphasis in all quoted material is mine):

Burton, Souder Urge Research of “Revolutionary” Anti-Drug Herbicide

Reps.  Dan Burton and Mark Souder, both Indiana Republicans, on Thursday called for research into a new herbicide they said could “revolutionize” the war on drugs. In a joint press release, Burton and Souder said scientists have recently begun to study the possibility of manipulating “mycoherbicides,” naturally occurring plant fungi that are currently used for weed control, to combat certain drug crops under specific conditions. “If proven to be successful, mycoherbicide could revolutionize our drug eradication efforts,” said Souder, who is chairman of the House Drug Policy Committee. “Mycoherbicide research needs to be investigated, and we need to begin testing it in the field. The potential benefit of these fungi is tremendous.”

That certainly makes it sound as though this is a new and exciting discovery that merits immediate research.  They call it a “new herbicide” and say that scientists have “recently begun to study” it, but there’s nothing new about it.  

Researcher Jeremy Bigwood gives us this history of the idea:

The once-secret mycoherbicide program has a long history.  The concept was first proposed during the 1970s. […]  Much of the original work was done secretly, mainly by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Department of Energy (DoE)-contracted scientists.  The clandestine work focused on multiple strains of two major species of fungi, Fusarium oxysporum for marijuana and coca, and Pleospora papaveracea for opium poppy.  US scientists also made genetically modified versions of Pleospora — souping it up with genes from Fusarium.

[snip]

During the 1980s and 1990s, the USDA took over and repeated much of the earlier clandestine research done by the CIA and DoE and took the work much further, developing various means of mass-producing spores, of storage, and media for application of the fungus.  Other countries did similar work.

The idea has been around since at least the 1970s and has been researched and studied for many years.  Most of these studies, however, were done on the “naturally occurring” fungi.  The “recent” refers to the “manipulating” of the fungi — tinkering with the genetic code to weaponize it for certain plants.

Naturally occurring fusarium oxysporum — the species being considered for marijuana and coca — is already a problem.  It kills many broad-leafed plants.  It is a menace that has damaged the tomato industry, spreading from Florida to Georgia and now cropping up in many other places.  

The fungus is so deadly to Palm trees, that California has a quarantine and fears it will decimate its date industry.  Fungi can be devastating to crops and economies.  It lives in soil and spreads through produce, seeds, and even tools.  Once introduced into an evironment, it can be impossible to get rid of it.  Let us not forget it was a fungus that caused the Potato Famine and which lives on to this day.

The proponents of mycoherbicides are also downplaying the risks to people, but people can and do get fungal infections, particularly those with compromised immune systems.  The EU is on the brink of adopting a medication designed specifically for fusarium infections — evidence that fusarium does infect humans.  Anti-fungal medication is known for being hard on the the liver and kidneys, so may be harmful to those people most likely to become infected.

While fusarium has been around for ages, the weaponizing, or genetic manipulation, is the “new” ingredient, and is the basis for the politicians’ flimsy claim that mycoherbicides are safe.  The drug warriors are characterizing this as a “natural” herbicide and safe substitute for chemical ones — as though it’s an organic alternative to spraying Roundup.

The scientific community is not buying this and environmentalists say the fungus could be worse than the chemicals.  No one can predict how the fungus will act in nature and what plants it will damage and kill.  Unlike chemicals, a living fungus in the soil cannot be contained or eradicated.

Fungi are simple organisms and, as such,  they are as prone to mutation as other simple organisms like viruses and bacteria.  Perhaps the ideas proponents’ faith in this springs from the fact that they don’t believe in evolution, but in my opinion it’s more likely a power and greed thing.

So far as we know (or are admitting), the new, weaponized fusarium has not been tested in the field.  There was, however, an incident in Peru.  Coincidentally, right when we were pining for a real world test, Peru had an outbreak of fusarium oxysporum immediately following reports by the indigenous people that our planes had flown over spraying stuff.  From the Colombia Journal:

The Peruvian outbreak also brought to light alarming facts that U.S. government researchers had previously noted and suppressed: that specific strains of Fusarium–including EN-4–attacked not only target crops, but a slew of other plants as well. The U.S. embassy in Lima monitored the situation in the Huallaga Valley carefully, and an ARS-hired Peruvian specialist concluded that, aside from coca, the Fusarium was killing tomatoes, achiote and papaya. Peasants reported that tangerines, palms, and other broadleafed plants had also succumbed to the fungus.

As a result, the Andes Nations have since banned mycoherbicides.  The idea was also proposed in Florida and rejected — the DEA is against it, respected scientists and environmentalists don’t want anything to do with it, and Bill Clinton vetoed it on the advice that it would be considered biological warfare.  

You might think the biological warfare description is extreme, but here’s how the fungus works and a little more history:

The mycoherbicide fungus acts as a living micro-chemical factory, producing toxic compounds called mycotoxins that it itself is immune to.  When the fungus encounters a target life form, such as a plant root, it secretes the mycotoxins, which dissolve the target’s cell walls.  The fungus then ingests the liquefied contents of the target cell and reproduces itself, moving into the dead cell space as an uninvited and deadly guest.  From there it produces more mycotoxins and repeats the process with adjacent cells until it has taken over a substantial area of the plant.  Since the fungus usually attacks through the roots, the plant’s stem withers and the plant dries out and dies.

[snip]

The cell-dissolving “mycotoxins” that are produced by the proposed mycoherbicides were intitially discovered after hundreds of thousands of people died due to internal hemorrhaging after eating bread made from Fusarium-contaminated overwintered grain during the mid-1940s in the Soviet Union.

The use of mycoherbicides is dangerous and using them on an unwilling populace is, in fact, biological warfare.  The risks are tremendous and the outcome is not predictable.  The effects on crops, economies, and people could  be harmful beyond measure.  Tomorrow I’ll attempt to shed some light on how certain zealots on the right hope to make this nightmare a reality.

(cross-posted from Unbossed. Part two is here.)