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Research led by Michigan State University and appearing on the cover of this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates that domestic tomatoes could re-learn a thing or two from their wild cousins.
Long-term cultivation has led to tomato crops losing beneficial traits common to wild tomatoes. Anthony Schilmiller, MSU research assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, was able to identify a gene that is involved in one of these beneficial traits.
The humor is appreciated but I can't laugh or make jokes. Thankfully the funding for this particular research was the national Science Foundation and it was a fantastic start.
The sad fact is so many things are being patented by the big companies who then can turn around and demand high fees for limited access all the while claiming their work is for the greater good. The value of all the "heritage" plants is what they may still contain that today's over bred farm stocks no longer have and this clearly shows why "ownership" is a bad thing. Monsanto isn't alone in this, they just happen to be the most visible to the average American.
It is not a matter of if they can but that they have already set the precedent for patenting living things. Every time the big agro-companies "improve" a variety they have made it a "new" one and will attempt to patent it to keep the ownership and therefore the income the plant or animal produces. The hope of the big companies s to develop the "best" plant with the "best" fruit or seed with the biggest demand and to have a strangle hold on it so they can sell to the highest bidders what used to be available to all.
I grow over 40 different varieties of tomatoes organically and more than half are heirloom (I really don't have a "bug" issue, just a late season tomato horn worm one and by then I'm pretty much sold out or out of season for wholesale) Now you wanna talk peppers....Aphids are my main problem early season!! Been using many OMRI approved applications of products from BioWorks and so far been a lifesaver! Ladybird beatles, even the 'stay home' variety don't seem to know how to read their instructions!
As for tomatoes the San Marzano that is all the rave with chef's is really not the tomato the average gardener wants to grow unless they want a very dry, tasteless (IMO) produce to make some sauce they can clean out their spice cabinet with! Give me a versitile roma anyday! End of growing season in IL and just had to get that outta me!
Seems to me if you had hot enough peppers then bugs wouldn't touch it. But what do I know?
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