Stronger Plants, Stronger Science, and Stronger Communication
Written by Steve Savage We Americans love sweet corn – our uniquely national vegetable. We consume ~9 lbs of sweet corn per person per year (see how that compares to other vegetables in the graph above). The farmers that grow this crop for us do so on a much more local basis than for…
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Written by Matt DiLeo “Many administrators, private and public, have decided that the future of plant breeding lies in genomics, relying on claims that molecular genetics has revolutionized the time frame for product development. ‘Seldom has it been pointed out that it is going to take as long to breed a molecular engineering gene into…
Written by Steve Savage The graph above shows the relative production of these major US row crops comparing the years 1993-1995 (just prior to the introduction of biotechnology enhanced crops) and 2008-10 (the most recent available data which covers a a span which comes 12-15 years after biotech. Soybean production has expanded 47% in this…
Written by Matt DiLeo It’s 3 am local time and I’m wide awake, fixated on the challenge of brand differentiation in ketchup… I recently spoke with one of the ketchup tomato breeders I know. Among other topics, he lamented the consumer’s irrational fixation on price. He pointed out that most of us won’t hesitate to…
Written by Matt DiLeo I recently had the opportunity to visit the fabled heart of the USDA-ARS empire: Beltsville. I heard all about the tornado that knocked down all the campus trees, smashed in the greenhouses and threw doors down hallways a few years ago, visited their food sensory lab (a controlled environment where fruit samples…
Written by Matt DiLeo “With over 80% of the corn grown in the US genetically modified, and biotechnology companies phasing out non-GMO corn seed varieties, American farmers have fewer choices for finding non-GMO seeds to grow. As a result of this narrowing of farmer choice, a new initiative was launched in 2009 by Practical Farmers…
Written by Matt DiLeo This is why farmers like hybrid seed. The parents on the left and right are inbred lines that have been self-pollinated for many, many years.* The two rows of much bigger plants in the middle are simply their hybrid offspring – they grow faster, produce higher yields and are tougher in…