Reply #47: There is something so different about this from big Ag bio-engineering [View All]

[HamdenRice]

Some of the scientists who have had the greatest impact on agriculture have worked in ways that are completely different from big Ag's approach. Gregor Mendel, George Washington Carver and Norman E. Borlaug basically had the patience to observe plants over many seasons, to breed them to save good seeds -- and that's completely different from the current approach of "manufacturing" new varieties by manipulating and inserting genes.

A big part of the green revolution also was saving indigenous, or "land race," seeds from cultures all over the world, and storing them for all humanity. That led to the International Rice Research Institute, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Institute and others and the slow process of cross breeding that created the hybrids we now rely on.