In article
,
Bill Rose wrote:

Being a student always leaves you feeling stupid and, here I am again.
I'm getting too old for this, maybe. For other newbies out there let me
just say that if you are planning on saving corn to plant next year, it
had better be open pollinated corn and not hybrid corn. With open
pollinated corn you can hand pollinate the corn (no snickering out
there, you know who you are) and then bag it (sort of the opposite of
what people do) and have corn with the same genome for the next year.
With hybrid corn there is no chance. Self pollination only leads to
divergent genomes, mixed populations of corn. This is what I am reading
in a book called "The Omnivores Dilemma". Besides the above, in spite of
$10,000,000,000 annually in commodity supports for corn growers, most of
them are just barely getting by, while the low price of American corn is
killing Mexican agriculture!!?? Adios Mexico, good morning Juan.

Additionally, Americans consume more corn, in all its' manifestations
than Mexicans. There are corn by-products in a quarter of the products
sold in the average supermarket, not to mention the construction
materials in the building. How do they know that? That's another
fascinating exposition.

The book may end-up sucking but it sure starts out like a house afire.

Got mine from the library.

That's my book report for the night.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)

The price of corn in the US is way up because of ethanol production.
The USDA predicts that more corn will be planted this year than has
been planted since before WWII. (The exact year eludes me. I'd have
to look it up.)

The price of corn is up in Mexico, too, making it hard for poor
folks to afford masa to make tortillas.


The first book Michael Pollen wrote is pretty interesting, too:

"The Botany of Desire."

I'm not quite awake yet. Please excuse the stilted language...

Jan

--
Bedouin proverb: If you have no troubles, buy a goat.