Category: Featured

Mary whets our appetite for a full report on the Glass Orchard:

I’m back from a lovely morning over there. Preliminary report: O.M.G. I expected to be impressed. I didn’t expect to be gobsmacked. < … Snip … > Stunning. Seriously.

Robert asks the tough questions:

If there is demand for a diverse set of resistant and tasty varieties, and “there’s a lot available” why don’t breeders and seed companies supply? No demand? Too expensive? All in cahoots with Big Chemicals?

I think we need some in-depth research to tell us how large the “demand for diversity” pimple is on the rump of “big breeding”.

Anastasia has a dream:

I’d like to see some transgenic plants that simply resist fungal infection, but that’s not organic – even though it would reduce or eliminate the need for chemical sprays.

Back40 sets Robert straight on the use of copper as an “organic” fungicide:

Copper is no more “inorganic” or “unnatural” than nitrate. Yes, they are both minerals but that’s what plants eat and what microorganisms make. However, it is well to remember that it’s the dose that makes the poison. So long as they are not present in high concentrations they are food rather than poison.

Actually, copper is probably the least of organic’s dirty secrets.

Onkel Bob is the latest to comment on that recent post on agri-intellectualism:

Pollan is a journalist, not a scientist nor an agronomist. He observes and reports. Sometimes he gets things wrong, but it is an error of interpretation and analysis, not a deliberate action on his part. Pollan tends to embellish and polish with the intention of making the product more readable. Alas, such practices tend to lose the accuracy science strives to achieve.

But…read the rest.