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FAMINE
(Continued f rom page 4)
amounted to 15 percent of the
world supply). The fact that the
blight did not start in the heart of
the corn belt saved the crop from
disaster, since virtually the entire
corn crop was vulnerable.
Nearly all the corn grown in the
United States is based on three
genetic varieties, or races, Dr. Good–
man emphasizes. Yet there are 250
known varieties in the world.
Americans once again, in 1984,
saw the vulnerability of major crops
with the outbreak of citrus canker in
the Florida orange groves.
Genetic diversity, explains an–
other NCSU professor, Dr. Gene
Namkoong, is nature's barrier
against crop epidemics. But be–
cause crops of uniform size, shape,
color and texture are more efficient
to process in modern agribusiness,
more uniform crops are being pro–
duced worldwide. In addition,
crops producing higher yields are
in much demand.
The result is greater genetic uni–
formity- and greater susceptibility
to pests, crop diseases, and adverse
weather condit ions. Adds Dr. Good–
man, as reported in
The Journal
of
North Carolina State University:
"At one time, crop rotation
formed geographical barriers to
crop epidemics, but in modern agr i–
business, single crops are grown in
dense fields stretching across entire
states. There's nothing to stop dis–
ease from spreading."
Plant geneticists, according to
Professor Narnkoong, are "running
to stay in the same place," in order
to develop new disease-resistant
varieties of major crops. To keep a
step ahead of the pest and disease
threats, researchers must have
access to so-called primitive vari–
eties, usually located in Third
World nations.
These local cultivars are neces–
sary to maintain the inventaries of
national "seed banks" such as the
one maintained by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture in Fort
Collins, Colorado. Americans
might be shocked to learn that not
one major food or fiber plant pres–
ently grown in the United States is
native to its soil!
The major crisis now confronting
30
geneticists is the steady disappear–
ance of native varieties in the world.
Reports the November 1982 issue
of
Environment
magazine in an arti–
cle written by Walt Reichert:
" This germ plasm pool is dwin–
dling in the United States and
abroad. In America, the economics
of modern agriculture have forced
out the subsistence farmer who
once relied upon breeds of plants
and animals that were local in ori–
gin and adaptation. These have
been replaced by the widespread
Germination tests are periodicaUy
made on seeds representing 100,000
varieties of plants at tbe National
Seed
Storage Laboratory in Fort
Collins, Colorado.
monocultures of the big-business
agriculturalist.
"At the same time, export of the
American-financed 'green revolu–
tion,' with its phenomenally pro–
ductive rice, wheat and corn
hybrids, has decreased the use of
local species by farmers around the
world--driving to extinction thou–
sands of tbe parent stock of modern
agricul ture."
It is not necessary merely to main–
tain native varieties in seed banks
but to have continued access to them
in the wild. In their native habitats,
the wild varieties constantly adjust
to the threats placed upon them, in a
state of dynamic relationship to the
natural environment.
For this reason, plant researchers
are especially wary of political dis–
ruptions in the largely Third World
nations that are the source of so
much of their native stocks.
Ironically, Ethiopia has long been
a major source of genetic diversity
for many temperate zone crops. For
exarnple, an Ethiopian strain pro–
tects California barley from the
devastating yellow dwarf disease.
Not long ago tbe Etbiopian gov–
ernment stopped the export of germ
plasm in any form or variety.
Experts predict that Third
World countries, who often com–
plain of having to pay stitf prices
for new varieties developed in the
West based upon their old germ
stocks, will be demanding more
control over their genetic re–
sources, much as Arab states have
done since 1974 over oil.
Nearly everywhere, the shrink–
ing gene pool is causing concern.
Not only grains, but vegetables
such as green beans and canning
peas now rest on a very narrow
~
genetic base. According to Dr.
~
Erna Bennett, formerly of the Food
~
and Agriculture Organization in
~
Rome, all major crops in Europe
!Z
depend upon five to 1
O
varieties.
~
Dr. Bennett told the
The Plain
o
Truth
in 1973 that unless genetic
; deterioration is arrested, humanity
a
faces the prospect of "continent–
~
wide famines" in the not-too-dis-
tant future!
Scientists believe tbey have a
solution to the shrinking gene pool
crisis: gene splicing, or "recombi–
nant DNA." This involves the
splicing of disease-resistant strains
from one variety onto another, pos–
sibly even across species barriers.
But experts predict it will be
many years before major practical
impacts will be experienced in agri–
culture. In the meantime, more
valuable genetic resources will van–
ish. The fact is, gene splicing is
another attempt to treat the
effect,
not the cause, of the worldwide
breakdown in natural , traditional
methods in agriculture.
Worldwide plant epidemics are
coming. As Professor Namkoong
predicted: "Once you lose your
genetic base, you can't recapture it.
Major famines are inevitable, even
with zero population growth, with–
in 50 years."
What is so evident today in East
Africa is destined to become a
worldwide phenomenon before the
"end of the age" of human mis–
rule.
o
The
PL.AIN TRUTH