Rational Agriculture

One of the criticisms levelled at crop biotechnology by opponents is that it is controlled by foreign multinationals (although the golden rice example shows that any intellectual property issues are surmountable). Now, however, comes a development analogous to open-source software: a freely-available, public domain transformation technique. Researchers at CAMBIA in Australia have developed the use of bacteria other than the classic Agrobacterium to introduce genes into plant cells. Although the method is patented, open-source licences will be available for researchers in developing countries. As for the Linux operating system, results will be shared, with no-one having monopoly control of inventions, thus building up a bank of freely-available improved crop plants. The original work was published in Nature on February 10th, but the link is to a summary on the SciDev website.

Making such tools available to countries with food security problems, particularly those by-passed by the green revolution, is another positive step in lifting people out of poverty.