other than introducing the genes for forming the nodules for nitrogen fixing bacteria
into many food crops, I dont see any of the current bioengineering contributing
anything to sustainable agriculture. Most of which is sticking in disease
resistance. and susceptibility is due to bad agriculture practices in the first
place, like monoculture and not rotating crops.
It took the dust bowl to make American farmers wake up to their horrific assault on
our soil. They started crop rotation and contour plowing. well.. I dont know if you
have noticed or not, but I see a lot of these idiot farmers going right back to
straight up and down plowing and constant tilling of the soil causing the US to lose
horrendous amounts of top soil. It takes 100 years to make 1 inch of topsoil. we are
losing much more than that... especially in the corn belt where thick sod used to
hold the soil against the constant drying winds.
the great leap in food production will be to stop the insane practices and go back to
and develop/augment sustainable agriculture aided by high technology in the form of
satellites etc. for example, solar ovens etc and hydrogen cell technology would do a
great deal to stop deforestation and subsequent loss of soils in parts of Africa and
S. America.
the lunacy is all over the world. Africans "count" their wealth in how many cattle
they have. which is ridiculous. technology in the form of wind pumps for water gave
them enough water, but then food to feed all that "consumptive wealth" became the
limiting factor. It is better to count "wealth" in terms of sea shells .. at least
they dont use up precious resources. Agribusiness is biggest violator of sustainable
agriculture, but so are many family farmers. It was family farmers that left their
unproductive soil and the Amish that moved in and brought the land back into
productivity by sane and sustainable farming practices.
Do a search and find out about agriculture in north Africa at the time of the Moors.
the loss of arable soil to the sands of the Sahara started with the Spanish
destruction of the Moorish Empire.


(Frankhartx) wrote:
.. But if population continues to increase as it is doing
then even with the best of practices it will not be sufficient without the
ability to increase production supplied by the bioengineeered crops.


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