For most of human history, our ancestors relied entirely on hunting
animals and gathering seeds, fruits, nuts, tubers and other plant parts
from the wild for food. It was only about 10,000 years ago that humans
in many parts of the world began raising livestock and growing food
through deliberate planting. These advances provided more reliable
sources of food and allowed for larger, more permanent settlements.
Native Americans alone domesticated nine of the most important food
crops in the world, including corn, more properly called maize (Zea
mays), which now provides about 21 percent of human nutrition across the
globe.
But despite its abundance and importance, the biological origin of maize
has been a long-running mystery. The bright yellow, mouth-watering
treat we know so well does not grow in the wild anywhere on the planet,
so its ancestry was not at all obvious. Recently, however, the combined
detective work of botanists, geneticists and archeologists has been able
to identify the wild ancestor of maize, to pinpoint where the plant
originated, and to determine when early people were cultivating it and
using it in their diets.
,,,
Dr. Beadle’s results showed that maize and teosinte were without any
doubt remarkably and closely related. But to pinpoint the geographic
origins of maize, more definitive forensic techniques were needed. This was DNA typing, exactly the same technology used by the courts to determine paternity.
Tracking the Ancestry of Corn Back 9,000 Years - The New York Times
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agriculture. Show all posts
Monday, October 12, 2015
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
India minister backs 'yogic' farming to 'empower seeds' - BBC News
The Indian agriculture minister has
said his government is supporting "yogic" farming to "empower seeds with
the help of positive thinking".
More than 50% of India's population depends on agriculture for a living.
But farming in India has been going through a crisis in recent years with thousands of farmers killing themselves in despair over poor harvests.
The minister's comments follow earlier controversial statements - in July, he was criticised for his bizarre comments that farmer suicides were a result of "failed love affairs" and "impotency"
At a function attended by farmers and agriculture scientists in Delhi at the weekend, he once again stunned the audience by saying that "farmers should give vibrations of peace, love and divinity to seeds" to encourage growth and make them resistant to pests.
India minister backs 'yogic' farming to 'empower seeds' - BBC News
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Is it Time to Just Say No to Eating Beef? | Alternet
To that end, WWF this year helped launch the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef , an association of businesses and environmental groups
that has begun to “facilitate a global dialogue on beef production that is environmentally sound, socially responsible, and economically viable.” The roundtable plans to identify the best practices for raising beef, and spread them widely using the leverage of retailers like Wal-Mart and brands like McDonald’s to do so. Someday your burger may come with fries, a Coke, and a “green” seal of approval.
[,,,]
Nevertheless, green groups that readily fight coal plants or suburban sprawl have for the most part shown little desire to do battle with meat. The Meatless Monday campaign was started not by environmentalists but by the school of public health at Johns Hopkins. The Mayo Clinic has more to say about meat than The Nature Conservancy, although TNC’s chief executive, Mark Tercek, is a vegetarian. Another vegetarian, Danielle Nierenberg, who directs the Nourishing the Planet program at the Worldwatch Institute, explains: “Most environmental groups don’t want to tell people what to eat or what not to eat. It’s a personal issue that’s tied to your culture, to your history, to what your mom fed you when you were five years old.”
[,,,]
Amy Larkin, who has led successful corporate engagements with Coca-Cola, Unilever, and the Consumer Goods Forum as the solutions director at Greenpeace USA, says green groups that take corporate donations will have a hard time pushing for the transformational changes that business needs to make. “If you want to make serious, dramatic change, you have to be brutally honest,” she says. “Who wants to tell the truth to the hand that feeds you? At some point, you have to be free to say ‘not good enough’ and walk away from the table. That’s hard under any circumstance, but harder if a company is giving you money”
[,,,]
Others say that’s exactly the wrong approach. Fewer cattle should be in feedlots, they say, and land now devoted to growing corn and soy should be allowed to revert to pasture. The Natural Resources Defense Council, which accepts no corporate money, lists on its website 10 reasons why meat lovers should opt for beef that have been fed all their lives on pasture . Courtney White of the nonprofit Quivira Coalition writes about carbon ranching , a way of raising cattle that enriches soil, sequesters CO2 and produces what he calls “climate-friendly beef.”
Is it Time to Just Say No to Eating Beef? | Alternet
that has begun to “facilitate a global dialogue on beef production that is environmentally sound, socially responsible, and economically viable.” The roundtable plans to identify the best practices for raising beef, and spread them widely using the leverage of retailers like Wal-Mart and brands like McDonald’s to do so. Someday your burger may come with fries, a Coke, and a “green” seal of approval.
[,,,]
Nevertheless, green groups that readily fight coal plants or suburban sprawl have for the most part shown little desire to do battle with meat. The Meatless Monday campaign was started not by environmentalists but by the school of public health at Johns Hopkins. The Mayo Clinic has more to say about meat than The Nature Conservancy, although TNC’s chief executive, Mark Tercek, is a vegetarian. Another vegetarian, Danielle Nierenberg, who directs the Nourishing the Planet program at the Worldwatch Institute, explains: “Most environmental groups don’t want to tell people what to eat or what not to eat. It’s a personal issue that’s tied to your culture, to your history, to what your mom fed you when you were five years old.”
[,,,]
Amy Larkin, who has led successful corporate engagements with Coca-Cola, Unilever, and the Consumer Goods Forum as the solutions director at Greenpeace USA, says green groups that take corporate donations will have a hard time pushing for the transformational changes that business needs to make. “If you want to make serious, dramatic change, you have to be brutally honest,” she says. “Who wants to tell the truth to the hand that feeds you? At some point, you have to be free to say ‘not good enough’ and walk away from the table. That’s hard under any circumstance, but harder if a company is giving you money”
[,,,]
Others say that’s exactly the wrong approach. Fewer cattle should be in feedlots, they say, and land now devoted to growing corn and soy should be allowed to revert to pasture. The Natural Resources Defense Council, which accepts no corporate money, lists on its website 10 reasons why meat lovers should opt for beef that have been fed all their lives on pasture . Courtney White of the nonprofit Quivira Coalition writes about carbon ranching , a way of raising cattle that enriches soil, sequesters CO2 and produces what he calls “climate-friendly beef.”
Is it Time to Just Say No to Eating Beef? | Alternet
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)