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market-farming - Re: Glow in the dark spuds

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Bob Batson <rcb AT kc.rr.com>
  • To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Glow in the dark spuds
  • Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 12:00:01 -0600


At 12:02 AM -0500 12/19/00, Jeff <jeff AT emarketfarm.com> wrote:

re: "Glow in the Dark Spuds called 'Agriculture of the Future'"

Dear Friends,

I've been following this list-serve for quite sometime and have come
to appreciate the "grassroots" comments posted here by farmers nationwide.
As an agricultural journalist and direct-marketing small farmer, I
thought the following story (which just came across the AP wires) would
be of interest to this group. The full story is posted below.

[snip]

New Super-Spud Glows Green to Ask for Water

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have pioneered a genetically modified
``super potato'' which glows when it needs water, the head of the
project said on Monday.

Researchers at Edinburgh University injected potato plants with a
fluorescence gene borrowed from the luminous jellyfish aequorea
victoria, which causes their leaves to glow green when dehydrated.

``This is an agriculture of the future,'' Professor Anthony Trewavas
told Reuters. ``We were trying to design a way of monitoring the
resources within a field and decided it was the plant itself which has
that information.''

The potatoes are not intended to be eaten but would act as
''sentinels,'' planted beside the commercial crop to alert a farmer that
the rest of his field needed watering.

[snip]

Another article about these potatoes can be found at http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-52740,00.html
and makes no mention that these are intended to be "sentinel" plants. Is Reuters right or not?

--

Bob Batson L 39 12 14 N 94 33 16 W
rcb AT kc.rr.com Kansas City
TCS - Mystic Fire Priest USDA Zone 5

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Under the most controlled conditions, the experimental apparatus
will do exactly as it pleases.




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