Plant Breeders Release First 'Open Source Seeds'

Re:Plant Breeders Release First 'Open Source Seeds' by troymc on Thursday April 17, 2014 @12:28PM (#7604576)

In response to 1: If all the genetics in a crop are nearly identical, that may make the crop uniforms and predictable, but it also makes the crop uniformly susceptible to drought, disease or crop predators (e.g. insects). That's great if you're in the business of selling chemicals to kill specific diseases or predators, but not so great if you have to buy them. A genetically diverse crop will have have some plants that can withstand whatever.

The crop yield may be lower, but the cost of inputs (e.g. chemicals) will also be lower. If the goal is to maximize farmer profit, then there may be a more optimal solution that uses greater genetic diversity.

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Re:Plant Breeders Release First 'Open Source Seeds' by viggity on Thursday April 17, 2014 @01:46PM (#7605084)

Well, you're still going to have many varieties (genetic profiles). The big seed companies will sell 5-10 varieties per region. Regions depend on growing season length, soil conditions, climate. Iowa has 7 regions, IIRC. If I had to guess in the whole country there are ~100+ regions. That means thousands of hybrids across the different seed companies across the country. So even if a pest knocked out one variety (which doesn't really happen), it isn't like the whole system is going to come crumbling down. They spend billions researching it and there are lots of rules regarding "refuge" to ensure that insects and diseases don't build up a tolerance to treatments.

Usually when you hear about people worry about "the mono-culture" they are advocating that we plant more of a different types of plants (canola, sunflower, sorghum, wheat), not different varieties of corn/beans.

Also, that they are all identical is bit of a misnomer. They are, but they are exceptionally strong, vigorous plants (google "hybrid vigor" or "heterosis").

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