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

• 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"