permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] UC Davis back to breeding, plant ecology
Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 14:47:37 -1000
From: Hector Valenzuela <hector@HAWAII.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

RE: Universities turn attention back to classical breeding and ecological 
management (research comes back to earth)

Either because of consumer backlash, environmental/health concerns, or because they have hit a dead-end in their 
research (or a combination of all of these), I have observed from my vantage point that many land grant universities are 
taking a turn to downscale the big promises about crop biotechnology, turn agricultural research back to classical 
breeding, and to research alternative, sustainable methods of agriculture. In both trade journals and refereed 
scientific publications one can see wider coverage and research on organic farming and sustainable agriculture. A focus 
issue on crop biotechnology on the UC magazine California Agriculture described that the GM industry was turning away 
from developing GM varieties of horticultural crops because of "market reluctance to accept biotech products, 
particularly in the absence of clear benefit to consumers." (Clark et al., Calif. Agriculture, April 2004, pg. 89).

On the basic research front a new field is now called Chemical Ecology. For organic farmers this has been an old concept 
(trying to use chemical cues to attract beneficial insects or to repel or confuse pests, or using allelochemicals to 
keep weeds away). But now the field of Chemical Ecology (understanding chemical interactions between different species, 
organisms) is becoming a hot area of research for many biochemists, ecologists and crop physiologists.

The Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, a bellweather and preeminent scientific journal in the US recently 
published an issue on Chemical Ecology. The introduction to this issue indicates that: "Certainly, chemical ecology is 
one of the most fertile research fields of contemporary science". Concerning the breadth of this field the introduction 
indicates that "Because all living organisms emit, detect, and respond to chemical cues, the number and kinds of 
interactions are essentially limitless." Plant Physiology, another preeminent journal, also had a focus issue on 
plant-insect biochemical interactions on its March issue. The entire field of biology itself seems to also be moving 
more towards a systems biology approach, and away from its previous reductionist approach.

This focus on chemical ecology is certainly good news for sustainable farmers and agroecologists who seek to improve the 
biological control of pests and internal nutrient cycles on the farm.

On another related front, the University of California at Davis recently announced two redirections as part of its 
programmatic activities: The Dept. of Plant Sciences (a major gmo department) shifted one of its academic programs 
towards Plant Ecology because of a big shift over the past 10 years in undergraduate interest and faculty research on 
Ecological Restoration. The Dept. also announced a renewed shift towards Classical Breeding. They rationalized this 
shift as follows: "We made the mistake of not replacing plant breeders," says Allen Van Deynze, professional researcher 
at UC Davis, "All the biotechnological advances don't mean much if you don't have people to develop varieties."” (UC 
Davis, The Leaflet Newsletter, Spring 2008, pg. 14).

While these are good news, the crop biotechnology movement is still huge within Academia, and the funding from 
government and corporations to develop GM varieties continues unabated. Because of the obstacles at home and in the EU, 
some GM research has now moved to third-world countries. Some researchers and industry also intend to use the knowledge 
described above on chemical ecology to develop new types of GM organisms.

Hector Valenzuela
University of Hawaii at Manoa