Today was the first day of the North Central Regional Corn Breeding Research meeting. This is abbreviated NCCC-167. I don’t know where the R went or where the third C came from and don’t know what 167 stands for, so finding out will be my mission for tomorrow. I hope to post details of the talks, but know I won’t even begin to have time to share everything. The most important idea I take

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Sir Gordon Conway spoke on Monday night at Iowa State. He is a champion for integrated farming, when most people are blinded to at least half of the options. This was a sober account of the problems we face and the solutions that are needed. The silver lining, though, is that solutions are out there. If we focus our efforts, we can feed the hungry, protect the environment, respond to new and old challenges.

The talk was videotaped, and the link will likely be posted by the ISU Lectures Program here. I purchased The Doubly Green Revolution, and had it signed! I’m looking forward to reading it and sharing my thoughts. You can read parts of the book on Google Books.

There were so many topics that my notes from the talk don’t flow very well, so please bear with me. My comments are italicized, the rest is approximately what Sir Gordon had to say. I’ve added a few links, if you would like more information.

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On Monday, October 13, the Norman Borlaug Lecture will be presented at Iowa State by Sir Gordon Conway, with the title: The Global Agricultural Crisis of the 21st Century. This will be my second year in the accompanying poster competition, displaying my work on teosinte and tripsicum. Sir Conway’s bio from the World Food Prize website is simply stunning:

Sir Gordon Conway, United Kingdom Chief Scientific Advisor, UK Department for International Development

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I’ve been sitting on my notes from several talks (BIGMAP especially), due to time constraints, but the one yesterday and today is extremely relevant:  Breeding Lignocellulosic Crops for the Bioeconomy, the 2008 Plant Breeding Lecture Series, is presented by the Iowa State University Ramond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding and the Plant Sciences Institute.

There hasn’t ben much talk of genetic engineering (these are plant breeders after all) but the insights into lignocellulosic

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