I will never understand why people allow irrational fear to rule their lives, especially when their fears are shown to be misplaced time and time again. Genetically modified (GM/GMO) foods are often the target of these irrational fears. Here is a brilliant breakthrough that provides a great example of how we can intelligently modify a food to grow more effectively in a harsh environment. Rice roots grow shallow and spread out horizontally in the soil. This is not conducive to good growth in drought conditions. However a rice plant in the Philippines has a root system that grows vertically allowing its roots to get much deeper into the soil to find water that cannot be found by other rice plants. Normal rice growth shows a 40% loss of production in moderate drought conditions and a full loss in harsh drought conditions. After splicing the new gene into a paddy rice plant common in Asia the resulting plant showed NO yield loss in moderate drought conditions and only a 30% loss of production/yield in harsh drought conditions. Not only does this allow for the continued production of food in droughts, it saves the farmer the cost and effort of building irrigation systems in dryer regions.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:13:41 +0000
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