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OilFinder2
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Posts: 997
Location: Seattle
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 Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:17 am Post subject: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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--> LINK <--
| Quote: | Super wheat to act as drought buster
Thursday, 01/05/2008
A new "super wheat" is currently in quarantine as scientists prepare to test it in Australia.
The perennial, which has been engineered in Northern America, is water-efficient and only needs to be planted every few years.
Dr Philip Larkin, from the CSIRO, says there's no reason why it can't work in Australia.
"The answer to the question will depend on what we discover with this material," he said.
"We're envisaging, and a preliminary theoretical study has suggested, that it will be most valuable to mixed farms, probably in eastern, southern, Western Australia, and probably used as both a graze and grain crop." |
Article from a few years ago on the same thing - or at least something similar:
--> 'Super wheat' beats the weeds <--
Chinese have ambitions to plant 33.5 million hectares of this stuff by 2020.
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Abundance - what a concept! |
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OilFinder2
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Mar 26, 2008
Posts: 997
Location: Seattle
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:22 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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Chinese wheat production started to rise again just around the same time they starting planting some of this a few years ago. Eeeenterrrestinnnggg . . . .
source
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Hagakure_Leofman
Heavy Crude
Joined: Jan 02, 2008
Posts: 402
Location: out dispatching ronan...
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:24 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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Can't wait for the super bugs that develop to eat the super wheat!
Oh, wait........
that's us  |
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pstarr
Expert
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: 7081
Location: Behind the Redwood Curtain
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:26 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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"probably used"
"preliminary theoretical study"
"will depend on"
"We're envisaging"
"there's no reason why it can't work"
"prepare to test it"
"making good progress"
"If technical problems can be solved"
"currently in quarantine"
I wouldn't plant my yard in this stuff 
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Hagakure_Leofman
Heavy Crude
Joined: Jan 02, 2008
Posts: 402
Location: out dispatching ronan...
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:29 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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NIMBY!  |
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pstarr
Expert
Joined: Sep 27, 2004
Posts: 7081
Location: Behind the Redwood Curtain
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 12:39 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| Hagakure_Leofman wrote: | | NIMBY! |
Not in my back yard.
I remember a strawberry/flounders clone that would resist freezing you could eat on Fridays. I remember tomatoes that would ship hard and ripen on the kitchen counter. I remember beta-carotene rice that would contain all your vitamins. I remember Mama.
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mos6507
Fission
Joined: Aug 03, 2007
Posts: 2989
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 1:42 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| Genetically modified plants may be a necessary evil these days. What they have to do is find a way to intentionally create multiple variations of these crops to avoid monoculture. |
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Fiddlerdave
Heavy Crude
Joined: Mar 18, 2007
Posts: 267
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 2:58 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| mos6507 wrote: | | Genetically modified plants may be a necessary evil these days. What they have to do is find a way to intentionally create multiple variations of these crops to avoid monoculture. |
And find a way to repair the ecosystem disasters that hastily concocted, poorly thought out genetic mods create in the world. A globe covered in every square inch by "super wheat" for a 20 years until it dies off from "super-rust" leaving a biological desert of hungry cockroaches. We are saved!!!
Last edited by Fiddlerdave on Sun May 04, 2008 3:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Fiddlerdave
Heavy Crude
Joined: Mar 18, 2007
Posts: 267
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 2:59 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| dupe |
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Hagakure_Leofman
Heavy Crude
Joined: Jan 02, 2008
Posts: 402
Location: out dispatching ronan...
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 3:44 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| mos6507 wrote: | | Genetically modified plants may be a necessary evil these days. What they have to do is find a way to intentionally create multiple variations of these crops to avoid monoculture. |
Really?
Aren't genetically modified crops products that companies created in order to 'own' the intellectual property of common natural things like wheat. That way, every time a farmer sows his paddock, he has to pay them a royalty (seed purchase). I've read about cases where the neighbor of a farmer using GM crops being forced to pay royalties because the seed blew over the fence.
These science experiments, or so called 'super-crops™' are really just 99% marketing and 1% pigs ass - literally. Just like some pretty girls are so called 'supermodels' and others just models. We live in a super world! How many people even use the word 'super' when they express approval. !
Oh yeah, don't forget to add SUPER to your 'Superduper Drought Buster Seed™' when you sow it down as well. You'll want it to grow in that so called soil you're putting it in.
Terms and Conditions Apply.
We own your ass™. |
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mos6507
Fission
Joined: Aug 03, 2007
Posts: 2989
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 4:53 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| Fiddlerdave wrote: |
And find a way to repair the ecosystem disasters that hastily concocted, poorly thought out genetic mods create in the world. A globe covered in every square inch by "super wheat" for a 20 years until it dies off from "super-rust" leaving a biological desert of hungry cockroaches. We are saved!!! |
Nature is not static. All of life on earth is a process of natural selection, as UG99 demonstrates. We're all part of this experiment whether we like it or not. Humans have altered the ecosystem in a myriad of ways long before we understood genes. GMO provides a tool for humans to force evolution along, just as selective breeding did long before. So if we really get to the point of understanding genetics I see no reason why we couldn't continue to spit out new flavors of wheat to sidestep whatever wheat rust evolves against us, just as antiviral programs are constantly updated. Could we screw up? Sure. But there are many ways we could screw up WITHOUT GMO. I'd rather we have GMO in our quiver than to fight with one hand tied behind our backs.
I mean, if we understand genes enough maybe one day we can modify human DNA so that we can just sit out in the sun for food like Swamp Thing and we can let all arable land revert back to its natural state. On some idealistic level it would be nice if we could all be happy noble savages huntering and gathering, but I think we've really pushed the envelope of the planet too far for us to deliberately hold back on all the tools science has to offer. |
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Hagakure_Leofman
Heavy Crude
Joined: Jan 02, 2008
Posts: 402
Location: out dispatching ronan...
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 5:24 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| mos6507 wrote: | | On some idealistic level it would be nice if we could all be happy noble savages huntering and gathering, but I think we've really pushed the envelope of the planet too far for us to deliberately hold back on all the tools science has to offer. |
Are GM plants really a gift from science? Think of the pharmaceutical industry. It almost exclusively invests in multi-use products. These are drugs that require (provide) consistent use (revenue). They aren't interested in cures. In the same way, GM crops ventures are profit based enterprises. When GM crop companies think about their product, they are imagining a gold mine akin to the Haber–Bosch process for fertilizer. They are after a patent, and it's subsequent rewards. They aren't interested in the environment, soil health or better farming practices. It is extreme short sightedness.
The entire mechanical food production industry is headed for a brick wall. Do we really need another approach that is based on monoculture fertilizer/herbicide/pesticide petroleum farming?
| mos6507 wrote: | | I'd rather we have GMO in our quiver than to fight with one hand tied behind our backs. |
Fight? What are we fighting? |
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dorlomin
Intermediate Crude
Joined: Aug 05, 2007
Posts: 974
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 5:38 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| OilFinder2 wrote: | Chinese wheat production started to rise again just around the same time they starting planting some of this a few years ago. Eeeenterrrestinnnggg . . . .
source |
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Homesteader
Light Sweet Crude
Joined: Apr 12, 2007
Posts: 1162
Location: Central NC
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 7:43 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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Some people read the writing on the wall and believe the solution is to build a bigger wall.
To quote BigTex on the gun thread:
There is a samurai saying: "weapons are instruments of ill omen." |
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cube
Fusion
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Joined: Mar 12, 2005
Posts: 3319
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 7:50 am Post subject: Re: Super wheat to act as drought buster |
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| mos6507 wrote: | | Genetically modified plants may be a necessary evil these days. What they have to do is find a way to intentionally create multiple variations of these crops to avoid monoculture. |
I am not opposed to genetically modified foods.
However it is my observation that everything in life is a win - lose scenario. There is no such thing as win - win. Suppose there was a genetically engineered "super" tiger with massive muscles that made it 2 times strong than any other. Such an animal sounds invincible right? Wrong! Muscles consume lots of energy, so this genetic freak would have to eats twice as much food just to stay alive. See what I mean? This super tiger's strength also gives it a weakness, therefore there is NO such thing as a "super" anything.
I am absolutely certain that the drought resistant properties of this wheat also gives it a weakness. Maybe it's "supper" dependent on fossil fuel based chemicals? no pun intended.  |
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