Farming in Utopia

What farming is today, what it should be, and what people think it should be are very different things. Pro-organic, pro-biointensive mini- and maxi-activists have a distinct idea of what they think farming should be, but don’t quite understand all of the ramifications. For the most part, I heartily agree with them, but I do understand (at least some of) the ramifications for our society and our food supply. The industrial revolution brought people

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Patents prevent development of GMOs

Once a transgene is designed and created, getting it into plant cells is surprisingly simple. There are two main ways to transform plants: the gene gun and Agrobacterium tumifaciens. The gene gun literally shoots tiny gold particles coated in DNA into cells. Agrobacterium is a natural soil bacteria that incorporates some of its genes into a plant’s genome so the plant will become a helpful host to the bacteria. For more information on both

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Mini-chromosomes

Where a transgene incorporates into a plant’s chromosomes can not be controlled. So, scientists have to transform many plants, and hope that at least one individual didn’t have the transgene interrupt a native gene. One solution to this problem is called a mini-chromosome. This technique uses the natural centromere sequence of an organism to build an entirely new chromosome that would be passed on to successive generations. The mini-chromosome can then be filled with

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World Food Prize Day

Today was the World Food Prize Symposium, where policy makers from around the world meet to discuss world food problems. The prize was started by Norman Borlaug. His took the idea of hybrids from corn production in Iowa (where he grew up), applied them to rice, and effectively ended hunger in Asia. The main topic today was recreating his “Green Revolution” of the 60s in an “Evergreen Revolution” today, with the goal of

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