Forging ahead with the Green Revolution
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Did anyone catch the USA Today article July 31 on the low funding for ag research? I did, it was delivered to the door of my overpriced hotel room while attending the national conference of the Soil and Water Consrvation Society.
While speaking truth to the lack of funding for our Land Grant system (if Land Grant doesn't ring a bell, google it or wiki it, i'll skip any explanation here), it basically gives us one problem (wheat stem rust) to justify a new Green Revolution. To many of you a 'Green Revolution' may sound like just waht we need. It sounded good to me the first time i heard it also. Basically, it was a philanthropic thrust to increase yields of basic staple crops so that we can FEED THE WORLD. Sounds good, right. It all starts well. But what it brought was actually the destruction of local and regional crops and economies in turn for homogenized mass production that may feed the world, but also poison our air, water, and soil. With the advent (and rapid ramping up) of commercially produced fertilizer and pesticides, hectares and hectares of monocultures were established around the world.
Anyhow, i digress. I returned home to my corner of the state (Farmington) to find an email announcing this article as part of a new marketing campaign from our land grant colleges.
It is marketing? Is it jounralism? The average reader may not be able to tell. And of course, if one reads about a horrible disease that will wipe out our wheat crop, then its easy for the general reader to say that we should do whatever neccesary to control it. In this case that 'whatever' would be breeding. but as a trained plant breeder, i can tell you that in most cases breeding is used to identify a favorable trait, maybe combine it with other favorable traits, and then crank out tons of seed. It may all be stem rust resistant, but it may all be susceptible to some other disease or pest. The problem in all actuality is that we plant so much wheat from only a handful of genetic backgrounds. The problem is lack of diversity.
The moral of the story, i suppose is that while it is true that more funding for research is needed, the reseach conducted by our land grant system and the corporations that fund it (and benefit from it) will likely treat emerging issues in agriculture as mere symptoms rather than reaching to the root cause of all problems, which is the destruction of cultural and biological diversity on a global scale.
So before you write your check (were you getting out the checkbook?) consider writing a check to a small independent facility rather than the agribusiness machine. We all need food, and most of us probably want that supply to extend to everyone regardless of race, creed, color, or class.
While speaking truth to the lack of funding for our Land Grant system (if Land Grant doesn't ring a bell, google it or wiki it, i'll skip any explanation here), it basically gives us one problem (wheat stem rust) to justify a new Green Revolution. To many of you a 'Green Revolution' may sound like just waht we need. It sounded good to me the first time i heard it also. Basically, it was a philanthropic thrust to increase yields of basic staple crops so that we can FEED THE WORLD. Sounds good, right. It all starts well. But what it brought was actually the destruction of local and regional crops and economies in turn for homogenized mass production that may feed the world, but also poison our air, water, and soil. With the advent (and rapid ramping up) of commercially produced fertilizer and pesticides, hectares and hectares of monocultures were established around the world.
Anyhow, i digress. I returned home to my corner of the state (Farmington) to find an email announcing this article as part of a new marketing campaign from our land grant colleges.
It is marketing? Is it jounralism? The average reader may not be able to tell. And of course, if one reads about a horrible disease that will wipe out our wheat crop, then its easy for the general reader to say that we should do whatever neccesary to control it. In this case that 'whatever' would be breeding. but as a trained plant breeder, i can tell you that in most cases breeding is used to identify a favorable trait, maybe combine it with other favorable traits, and then crank out tons of seed. It may all be stem rust resistant, but it may all be susceptible to some other disease or pest. The problem in all actuality is that we plant so much wheat from only a handful of genetic backgrounds. The problem is lack of diversity.
The moral of the story, i suppose is that while it is true that more funding for research is needed, the reseach conducted by our land grant system and the corporations that fund it (and benefit from it) will likely treat emerging issues in agriculture as mere symptoms rather than reaching to the root cause of all problems, which is the destruction of cultural and biological diversity on a global scale.
So before you write your check (were you getting out the checkbook?) consider writing a check to a small independent facility rather than the agribusiness machine. We all need food, and most of us probably want that supply to extend to everyone regardless of race, creed, color, or class.
