The Latest in Breeding: Transgenics
Crop improvement is certainly nothing new. Our ancestors were practicing it as early as the Neolithic period. They selected plants with the most desirable traits for reproduction. After many generations, this ongoing process provided us with many of the crops we have today. Then, in the mid-19th century, Gregor Mendel proposed his basic laws of heredity that explained how this selection for particular traits might work. Genetic applications advanced quickly after scientists recognized Mendel’s work early in this century. By the time of the depression in the 1930s, plant breeding programs were in full operation.
On the island of Molokai, one of the lesser known in the Hawaiian chain, scientists are conducting some of the most advanced experiments in plant breeding. Amidst arid grasslands and patches of red dirt, a corn field thrives. It looks like other fields, but according to its owner, the Hawaii Research Corporation, it is a super crop that is naturally, or not so naturally, resistant to some of corn’s worst pests.
