Comments on: The First Useful GM Crop? http://www.farmgeek.co.nz/?p=86 Farm tech, geek stuff, living sustainably Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:14:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: FarmGeek http://www.farmgeek.co.nz/?p=86&cpage=1#comment-870 FarmGeek Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:55:49 +0000 http://www.farmgeek.co.nz/?p=86#comment-870 IR8 was achieved through cross breeding the old fashioned way and was the "low hanging fruit" in terms of early adaptations (2-3 x yield). There's probably not too much we can do with yield per plant but increasing the survival rate of plants might be the next best thing in a changing environment. IR8 was achieved through cross breeding the old fashioned way and was the “low hanging fruit” in terms of early adaptations (2-3 x yield). There’s probably not too much we can do with yield per plant but increasing the survival rate of plants might be the next best thing in a changing environment.

]]> By: Juha http://www.farmgeek.co.nz/?p=86&cpage=1#comment-869 Juha Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:38:57 +0000 http://www.farmgeek.co.nz/?p=86#comment-869 I think rice has already been usefully genetically modified, into high-yield variants like IR8. Rice is a somewhat dodgy crop though, environmentally. Appears to produce plenty of greenhouse gases like methane, and requires huge amounts of water. Tastes lovely though, and has gone up heaps in price lately due to shortages, so I'm curious as to why it's not grown here? I think rice has already been usefully genetically modified, into high-yield variants like IR8.

Rice is a somewhat dodgy crop though, environmentally. Appears to produce plenty of greenhouse gases like methane, and requires huge amounts of water. Tastes lovely though, and has gone up heaps in price lately due to shortages, so I’m curious as to why it’s not grown here?

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