Tomorrow's Table

Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food

Pamela C. Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak Beaverton 664 Ron

Interesting information, seemingly contrived stories, and a grating lack of proofreading.

The important message is that organic farming (crop rotation, no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides) and judicious use of genetic engineering can increase yield, food security, and nutrition while decreasing land use and reducing pollution.

Ronald ( BS Reed, MS Uppsala and Stanford, PhD UCB) researches the genetics of immersion tolerant rice (immersion kills weeds), while Adamchak runs the organic farm, both at UC Davis. Two children, Cliff and Audrey, parents Julie and Bill Adamchak, Trish and Robert Ronald.

• 006 15 M hectares of rice inundated by flash flash floods per year. Rice variety FR13A from Orissa can withstand 14 days of flooding, but is low yield.
• 010 Marker assisted breeding
• 014 Weeds, insects, bacteria, nematodes, and fungi reduce global crop yield by 40%
• 016 David Pimentel (Cornell): Organic Corn and Soy same yields, 30% less energy
  • chemist George C. Pimentel 1922-1989 was UCB prof from 1949
• 022 Bt Bacillus thuringiensis toxin, may stop corn borers if veg. oil solution injected in silks
• 023 methyl bromide
• 024 Sang Min older student, conventional melon grower
• 029 Swiss Army Huntsman Plus
• 032 Sir Albert Howard, Rudolf Steiner early 1900s, Rodale Farm 1947, Alan Chadwick UCSC Student Garden Project 1967
• 036 Low Input Sustainable Agriculture (LISA) program at USDA in 1988, Sustainable Agriculture Reasearch and Education (SARE) 1990
• 036 Organic Farming Research Foundation 1992 Bob Scowcroft
• 046 picture of teosinte, from corn 6000 ya
• 058 Papaya gene engineered against ringspot virus 1998
• 063 Sonoma County Measure M. Xylella fastidosa bacteria transmitted by glassy wing sharpshooter insect, kills grapevines
• 064 Rennet now GE, was calf stomach
• 072 Bt corn and cotton, less insecticide and mycotoxins in food
  • field-evolved pest resistance slow so far (Tabashnick 2003, 2008), caused by Bt spray, not GE

• 081 Seeds of Deception (Smith 2004) non-scientist political candidate, cites experiment by 19 yo student reported by mother

• 088 Mutation breeding 091 Lundgren short grain brown rice is Calrose 76, radiation bred Davis 1971, 25 kR of Cobalt-60 gamma

• 093 possible allergies, both found during testing, neither commercialized

  • GE pea bean α-amylase inhibitor Prescott 2005

  • Brazil nut protein in soy Nordlee 1996

• 094 golden rice against vitamin A deficiency (VAD) .143 inhibited by regulatory hurdles
• 095 opposition to iodized salt

• 095 Allan Mazur, True Warnings and False Alarms, PSURA427.3 .M39 2004

• 097 transgenes in GE soy completely degraded by stomach acid before reaching gut
  • far greater risk is medical overuse of antibiotics, and antibiotics in animal feed
• 098 rotenone, a "natural" pesticide used by some organic farmers, can cause liver and kidney damage

• 109 Ecological Society of America, high yields per acre will be critical Snow 2005

• 110 China 80% reduction in pesticide use in small farms planted with GE cotton
• 115 Gene flow: crops are wimps, weeds more aggressive and unlikely to crossbreed with them

• 118 hybridization of Brassica napus (canola) with wild radish made it less competitive

• 121 PCR can detect transgenic DNA in a truckload of corn, 0.9% pwermitted, pesticide drift (5% tolerated) far more prevalent
• 127 Corporate ownership, driven by high regulatory costs
• 130 PVP act 1970 "Plant Variety Protection, unauthoruirized marketing of seeds prohibited", 1994 extended protection to 20 years
• 134 828 confirmed pesticide injuries in California in 2004
• 137 Center for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture (CAMBIA), Richard Jefferson
  • 140 gene transfer technology "open source" BIOS initiative
  • 141 International Rice Research Institute IRRI

• 139 regulatory cost $50k to $50M per new variety, degregulation can lead to democratization Steven Strauss OSU 2003

• 145 UC Davis Genetic Resource Recognition Fund 1996, help by Jphn Barton, Stanford law prof
• 147 Gary Toenniessen Rockefeller Rice Biotechnology Program 1985-2000, now at UC Davis
• 147 Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA)
• 150 African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF)
• 150 International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC): 75% of African soils severely degraded, stripped of nutrients, fertilizers 2-6x more expensive than elsewhere

• Pamela Ronald, Raoul Adamchuk : organically grown and genetically engineered ; the food of the future NYAS

• Amazon review quote by Steven D. Savage., PhD
  • As Mark Twain said, "you can't reason someone out of a position they weren't reasoned into in the first place."

  • sadly, a misattribution

  • Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.

    • “A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Enter’d Into Holy Orders by a Person of Quality”, Jonathan Swift, 1721

  • I have heard it remarked, that men are not to be reasoned out of an opinion that they have not reasoned themselves into.

    • U.S. Congressman Fisher Ames, 1786

How about SAGE "Sustainable Agriculture, Genetically Enhanced"