A homemade, high potential benefit-driven development from the public sector
Beans are an important food item, mostly in the developing world. Unfortunately, the golden mosaic virus infection is a serious constraint causing severe grain losses in Brazil and South America. The National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) approved the genetically modified golden mosaic virus-resistant beans developed by the Brazilian public Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply. This work is an example of a public-sector effort to develop useful traits, such as resistance to a devastating disease, in an “orphan crop” cultivated by poor farmers throughout Latin America. It is a milestone as it is the first fully “publicly funded homemade” recombinant biotechnology crop improvement strategy that has reached this stage in a developing country.
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Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
Today, to be patriotic, for the 4th of July I bought my wife some red, white and blue carnations. I got them at Franco’s Flowers on Leucadia Boulevard just off the I5. If you live in North County, this is definitely the place to get flowers. I’m no professional flower arranger, but I think they came out nicely.
I asked the clerk who was trimming and wrapping the flowers where they came from, and he said, “Columbia.” At least that felt more patriotic than purchasing them from Hugo Chavez’ Venezuela.
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