Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Ford Denison lays it on the line:
I would like to see independent evidence of the superiority of transgenic corn under drought. The only published data I’ve found comes from tests by Monsanto, the company that developed it. I will be discussing this topic in greater depth in my forthcoming book: “Darwinian agriculture: where does nature’s wisdom lie?”
Can’t wait, for the data and the book.
Some call it plant breeding, but really it’s just vegetable eugenics. I get to create an all-conquering master race of ocas which will go forth and occupy vegetable gardens up and down the land. Megalomania was never so cheap, entertaining and – legal. I’m nothing but a Dalek in dungarees.
Rhizowen tells us where he’s coming from.
Of course there’s plant breeding and plant breeding, but if you really want to know how rewarding it can be, take a look at Rebsie Fairholm’s latest round-up of her pea-breeding project. The point Rebsie makes so clearly is that while there is a little bit of technique to master, a successful project is much more about good record-keeping, patience and passion. Right now she’s got a new variety that is stable for pod colour, flower colour and edible pods (and a creamy calyx colour “that gives this variety an extra beauty factor in the garden”). This year, the fourth generation, she’ll be working on height, pod type, flavour and seed colour. Even now her selections look remarkable, and I trust her on taste. Things can only get better in the coming season.
An email from Douglas Woodward of the Green Party in Canada draws our attention to a resolution on Genetic Conservation and Biodiversity, adopted at the Green Party’s convention in February 2009. The preamble to the resolution makes clear the importance of conservation for agriculture:
WHEREAS the conservation of habitat, species and genetically diverse local populations is required not only for the preservation of wild nature but for the survival of agriculture, the possiblity of the domestication of new crops, and the preservation of our food supply,
It then goes on to call for comprehensive collections of crop plant and domestic animal diversity, “especially for low-input systems of farming suited to a resource-frugal future”. This is now part of the Green Party’s policy for Canada.
Does any other political party offer anything similar?