Corn Wars - Hackdot

Re:Corn Wars by Synaesthesia on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @05:42PM (#10082413)

We don't need protection of these to help the world food security, the research could be publicly funded (and a lot of it is already) and publicly distributed. Of course then nobody makes a profit off owning the seed but that's not really necessary. It could just benefit everyone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Corn Wars by Obi_Juan_Kenobi on Tuesday August 18, 2015 @06:46PM (#10082711)

> the research could be publicly funded (and a lot of it is already)

I can say with absolute certainty that this is not the case. Funding is available for basic science only; the very difficult work of bringing genetics to market is simply not funded. Funding for research into e.g. drought resistance is limited to understanding genetic pathways. The closest you get to useful traits is QTL analysis. Make no mistake, this is very useful, foundational research. It enables a variety of approaches to creating new crops. It does not, however, create them.

Public funds should be used in this way. We should bring back seed banks, co-ops, and fund grants that actually aim to bring marketable traits to useful inbreds. I'd love to be able to point to GM intra-poaceae drought-tolerant corn and say, "this is what transgenics are capable of!" That's not the reality, though.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Corn Wars by agavegoose on Wednesday August 19, 2015 @12:45AM (#10083722)

This is also not true. There is public funding going into creating new biotech varieties and publicly distributing them. Last year, for example, Arkansas released its first public roundup ready soybean (http://arkansasagnews.uark.edu/8273.htm). Sadly though these researchers had to wait for the patent to expire.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Corn Wars by throwawaykf05 on Wednesday August 19, 2015 @05:45AM (#10084474)

If they had to wait for the patent to expire, how is this a "new" variety?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Corn Wars by agavegoose on Sunday August 23, 2015 @04:04PM (#10106581)

The variety is "new" as it comes from the insertion of the rr1 gene into the University of Arkansas public breeding line as opposed to the lines used by Stine, etc. in the private sector.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Corn Wars by throwawaykf05 on Monday August 24, 2015 @01:47PM (#10111663)

But presumably the significant gene of interest was the "roundup" gene (for lack of a better term) that provided the glyphosate resistance, no? Wouldn't that be the gene that is covered by the patent and the one that really matters? Is the rr1 gene related somehow?

[ Parent | on HN ]