Rational Agriculture

One of the (many) criticisms made of agricultural biotechnology (at least as it pertains to GM crops) is that it is a technology under the control of the private sector. This is largely a result of the withdrawal from crop breeding by many governments in the developed world a few decades ago: private industry moved in to fill the vacuum and surely can't be blamed for that.

However, a consequence of this is that projects for developing world crops are often not high on the agenda. This is a pity: countries which have real food security problems should at least have the option of using potentially useful technologies. A step in the right direction may well be the Public Research and Recognition initiative, which is holding its first forum at the beginning of March in the USA. Chaired by Professor Phil Dale of the UK John Innes Centre, this has attracted the support of many other researchers from a wide range of countries. More information at the link.