Per the 3 Dec 2004 issue of "Science" magazine (vol 306, pp. 1672-1673),
the soybean rust fungus has been found growing in the Southeastern
US.  The fungus is devastating to soybeans, and may start reducing
the soybean yield in the US as early as next year. (Until this year,
the US was the only soybean producing region that was rust-free. The
USDA has been researching rust for years, so no one was caught unaware.)

For details, refer to the aticle full text.

Tom Billings