RE: [CH] Seed Report

Mary & Riley (uGuys@ChileGarden.com)
Sat, 22 Jul 2000 17:14:26 -0700

The need for a store of genetically diverse seed is well know, and there is
a problem.  However, genetic engineering may help.  In fact one may be able
to do it at home soon.  :)

But this seems biased, possibly there's some hidden agenda here?

For instance:

> survival. For one reason, whenever one of the inevitable plant
> plagues sweeps across huge swaths of land, even across whole
> countries, biodiversity is the way we find those varieties that
> are resistant. We're not going to find them if they lie aging in the
> jars and freezers of corporate labs. Ask the Irish about the
> Irish potato famine and the millions who died from that plant fungal
> plague. A rich, biodiverse genetic heritage almost ensures
> that protected pockets of resistant plants will stand like oases in
> virtual deserts of destruction. From these we have historically
> bred new seed stock.

Presumably during the Irish Famine there was much _more_ of a "rich,
biodiverse genetic heritage" then, at least according to this article.
Don't recall that it helped the Irish much?  "Hey! O'Reilly, do have some of
that famine resistant potato stock #STI 1283?  I need some quick!"

It's a fallacious example.

Don't take this stuff as science, it is not.

But again, there is definitely a need to preserve and make publicly
available plant germplasm.

Riley