>From: Barbara Lamar <shabrika@juno.com>
>The World Food Prize, referred to informally as the "Nobel Prize
>for Food," has been awarded to Drs. Villegas and Vasal for their
>success in developing maize with both higher quality protein and
>desirable agronomic characteristics. The two scientists
>collaborated on this problem for almost three decades at the
>International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center in Mexico. Their
>painstaking scientific detective work finally achieved the
>breakthrough discovery of how significant amounts of additional
>protein could be added to low nutrition corn, thus producing
>enriched "miracle maize."
>The successful collaboration of Drs. Villegas and Vasal is hailed
>by researchers as one of the most innovative team approaches to
>conventional plant breeding ever carried out to achieve a common
>goal.
>From: gardener@seedsofchange.com
>Seeds of Change eNewsletter #13
>"In New Mexico, Hispanic farmers were initially interested in the
>higher-yielding corns provided to them by extension agents. Within
>two years, however, many of them returned to growing their native
>corn, as if the introduction of the hybrids had never happened.
>When extension agents inquired about this reversal, the farmers
>explained that their wives liked neither the taste nor the texture
>of the introduced corn, and refused to use it for making
>tortillas. One by one, the farmers returned to growing the corns
>favored by their wives. To this day over much of New Mexico, blue
>Pueblo flours and flints are grown for tortillas and cornmeal, and
>Mexican Junes for white hominy, while hybrids are preferred only
>where corn is grown for animal feed." (Enduring Seeds, by Gary
>Paul Naghan).
I think these two examples are a case in point for the Biotech
industry.
Why not produce products that preserve the best of existing
products (taste,color,texture,open pollination) but improve them by
increasing their resistance to things like drought, insects
(without pesticides), and improve the overall yield.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
Adler Planetarium www.adlerplanetarium.org
Life Extension Foundation, www.lef.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
Mars Society, www.marssociety.org
Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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