Super Organics

This month's Wired has a very interesting article, Super Organics, that explores a new trend in crop plant breeding that exploits breakthroughs in how we understand the fine details of plant genomes with old-fashioned cross-breeding techniques. This so-called smart breeding has been put forward as an alternative to genetic modification (GM), inserting genes from other species, to achieve the same results. Since big companies like Monsanto own most of the patents on GM, while simultaneously reducing naturally occuring variability (something that has been making many people very nervous about loss of genetic variability in crop plants), this new genomic approach promises to achieve better results more quickly, more cheaply, and with an actual increase in genetic variability.

Nearly every crop in the world has a corresponding gene bank consisting of the seeds of thousands of wild and domesticated relatives. Until recently, gene banks were like libraries with millions of dusty books but no card catalogs. Advances in genomics and information technology - from processing power to databases and storage - have given crop scientists the ability to not only create card catalogs detailing the myriad traits expressed in individual varieties, but the techniques to turn them on universally. ...

It often takes seed companies several years to establish a new variety. To recover their investment, they release seeds that don't usually pass on the parents' traits, forcing farmers to buy new seed every year. Smart breeding, by contrast, is faster and cheaper because much of it can be done in the lab - reducing the time and expense of growing countless varieties in the field. [Robert] Goldman's work [former head of the GM company, Calgene, now a proponent of smart breeding] is funded by university dollars, which allows him to give away the spoils. He links up with local organics growers, farmers' markets, and the expanding counter-agribusiness food movement and hands out open-pollinated seeds - ag's version of open source.

Posted by Tom on May 06, 2004