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HUMAN
SURVIVAL
I
n 1970, a viru len t b light attacked
the American corn cro p. Mil–
lio ns of acres were devastated ,
rcsulting
in
a crop loss of fifly pcrcent or
mo re in ome s tates, and a loss of
nearly twenty percentofthe total U.S.
corn production. The "southern corn
blight," as it was callcd by mos t, came
as a s tunning demons tratí on of the
gcnetic vulnerability of many cur–
rcntly grown crops.
"We were sitting around fat.
dumb, and ha ppy," reca lls Dr. Wil–
liam Caldwell, genet icist with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"The hybrids were prod ucing well
and all of a sudden the disease hit.
We d idn ' t believe it could happen,
but ít did. "
The fact is that modcrn agricul–
ture is depending on a relatively
sma ll number of genctically uni–
form crops to supply all of man-
The
PLAIN TRUTH
June
1976
Modern 6griculture
SOWING
THE
SEEDS
OF
DISASTER?
by
Robert A. Ginskey
¡ ¡
The greatest servíce which can
be rendered any country is to
add a usefu/ plant to its culture.''
- Thomas
Jefferson
kind 's food. Yet such unifo rmity can
lead to pandemic di aster when
dro ught, pes ts, and dísease ta ke
lheir inevitable toll. And the rei n líes
onc of the mos t perp lexi ng di–
lemmas of twen licth-century agrí–
culturc.
Genetic Uniformity
Conccrn ovcr lhe quality ofman's
domcsticatcd plants is not new. The
founders of the United Sta tes recog–
nizcd the va lue of plants in fulfilling
the food and fiber needs of
a
na–
tio n 's peoplc. Thomas Je fferson's
be lief in the va lue of "a uscful
plant ," cxprcssed over two hundred
ycars ago, is equally applicablc
today.
l ndecd, when man firs t began to
cu ll ivatc wild food plants tho usa nds
o f years ago, the introduclion of a
new variety of crop often mcant the
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