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Drought adapted crops
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Posted by Staci Matlock on March 17, 2009 at 12:23pm in Food for Thought View Discussions
A recent news item for the Center for Biotechnology Research notes the food for an American family of four takes about 6,800 gallons. I was surprised at that number given how much fake food we seem to consume that I'm sure is primarily concocted in a lab somewhere. :-)
The little news item noted this: "Researchers in agricultural biotechnology companies are working to create innovative new varieties of corn, soybeans, cotton and canola that will be able to thrive with less water." Once again the focus is on the four big agri-business crops - that gain the most from federal farm subsidies - instead of other crops that provide diverse fare on the table and provide a livelihood for more family farmers. Plus the irony is in some places, like NM and Ariz, they already have land races nicely adapted over generations to dry conditions. I have a friend in Los Lunas who experimented with watering her alfalfa field only once every two weeks during a drought. It didn't yield much but her plants survived and she figured if she kept doing that the field would adapt to less watering.
The issue for ag researchers is that the world's population keeps growing, therefore so does the need for crops.
Replies to This Discussion
Permalink Reply by Walter Millsap on April 13, 2009 at 10:45pm I have to say that the bio agriculture companys are barking up the wrong tree, to think that plants can be altered to need less water. What a joke !! I have studied water and plants for years and know that plants are ONLY as healthy as the water that they are able to uptake into their roots, they can adapt to less water but the plants never grow to anything worth selling and are more prone to disease and bugs. When I use restructured water, on my plants, they grow like crazy and require much less water to produce a larger healthier plant. The technologys, to naturally effect water's dynamics, and make it more ideal, for optimum healthy growth, has been looked over for years in favor of companies who only murder good food and call it a better idea. We do water right, Naturally !!
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