Now I've Seen Everything

I was watching cable just now and came across Glenn Beck accusing Monsanto of being part of some kind of paranoid socialist conspiracy. This company, apparently, has teamed up with the tyrannical FDA to help Obama gain control of and destroy the American food system. 

for some reason... 

ooooooh!   [read in spooky ghost voice]

I bet Monsanto's PR dept misses when they just sold flooring.

The Nutrition-Industrial Complex

"cheez-its are not nearly as good as generic cheez-its," 
I posted on Facebook. 


Dennis suggested I had bought low-sodium ones - though I was sure it was due to the presence of "real cheese" in the generic. 

Which Clementines Taste Good?

Citrus season is here! Hooray!!!


I bought my first box of "clementines" and am already disappointed. and I've decided to do something about it...

The FAO made me do it!

I "attended" an email conference a year ago sponsored by the FAO:

Learning from the past: Successes and failures with agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries over the last 20 years.

I really enjoyed it. The vast majority of "presentations" were given by scientists working in the developing world and the topics ranged through sustainability, biotech and appropriate technology.

They've published the official summary of it now and asked the attendees to distribute it, so here you go.

(pdf)

Climate Change and the Importance of Maintenance Breeding

Variety IR8 is the original "Miracle rice" of the 1960s. This carefully-crafted variety has a stunted, semi-dwarf phenotype, which increases it's harvest index (the proportion of grain biomass to total biomass), and allows it to resist lodging (falling over into the mud), even when heavily fertilized. As with wheat, the creation of dwarf varieties of rice played a major role in the enormous yield gains of the Green Revolution.


But now it's in trouble!

They took our jobs!

Mexican citizens may or may not be underbidding (and forcing down wages of) American jobs in the construction and service industries but they are definitely not taking U.S. farm worker jobs, as anyone in the agricultural sector can tell you.

How Great Fruits are Made

The AP's published a nice description of the stone fruit breeding operations of the eminent Floyd Zaiger of the California Central Valley. He's a great example of what hard working, creative and visionary plant breeders can accomplish over a long lifetime dedicated to their favorite plant - and he's impacted your life more than you know!