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Authored by: mtew on Sunday, February 17 2013 @ 07:14 PM EST |
As I understand it, they have two 'pure bred' lines that reproduce themselves
exactly, but are not particularly good for consumption. But when you take the
pollen from the 'male' line and use it to fertilize the 'female' line, the
resulting seeds are commercially spectacular. --- MTEW [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: artp on Monday, February 18 2013 @ 06:18 PM EST |
Hybrids are crosses between different varieties of plants.
Field crops can be one- two- or three-generation breeds. The
parents do not look like the offspring. Self-pollinated
crops that are one generation past the optimum are not as
desirable.
The benefit for the seed company is that they no longer have
to provide the best seed in order to sell their products.
They have a monopoly in that variety. Foundation seed stock
is closely guarded.
While Norman Borlaug is a hero in Iowa and most of the
world, I don't think that their benefits have been
thoroughly measured. There are some gaps which would show
weaknesses. For instance, the nutritional ratings for crops
in the USDA Yearbooks have been dropping steadily for at
least 50 years. TAANSTAFL. Higher yields are measured with
scales, not laboratory instruments.
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Userfriendly on WGA server outage:
When you're chained to an oar you don't think you should go down when the galley
sinks ?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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