To the standard hymn-sheet of crop failures associated with genetic erosion we can now add an example from livestock. A mutation in a single Holstein bull — Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief, who happens to father super-productive daughters — also causes spontaneous abortion. The mutation spread through the US dairy industry and caused $420 million in losses.
That’s a crazy number, but here’s an even crazier one: Despite the lethal mutation, using Chief’s sperm instead of an average bull’s still led to $30 billion dollars in increased milk production over the past 35 years.
There’s nothing like that, at least not that I can think of, for crops, but it is just one of the nuggets in a super piece from The Atlantic magazine on selective breeding.
