Food for thought #bad11

Food is taken for granted by way too many people in our society. People neither know nor apparently care what their food is or where it comes from, a symptom of plenty. For the human race in general let the Phactor tell you what food is: endosperm. Probably not a word you are familiar with, but there you have it. The vast majority of human calories for the entire human population consist of endoperm, a starchy tissue that forms inside of seeds as the result of a 2nd fertilization. In particular endosperm forms the bulk of cereal grains, those one-seeded fruits of the grass family so central to human nutrition for these past 10,000 years. In the form of rice, wheat, and maize grains, endosperm feeds people. That's what stands between us and starvation, and the single biggest challenge over the next few decages will be to figure out how to grow enough endosperm to feed 8 billion people, without destroying the Earth and its biodiversity along with it. People who blightly predict such a population can be accomodated do not include the environmental cost into their accounting. The predictions of increased food production do not take into account any problems from climate change. Frankly as a botanist, it scares me. Getting enough food will allow people, and governments, to make all kinds of rationalizations for doing lots of things because who can argue for conservation, or neighborly relations, when people are hungry? And most likely the problems will surface first and most acutely in Africa. Back 40 years ago when a student, population was a serious topic, but it disappeared from discussion for a number of reasons mostly because it invariably raised discusion of birth control and family planning, a political non-starter of an issue. So it is most interesting for population and food to once again be a topic of public discussion, about time, but no different than before, just more cronic, and just as difficult to deal with. And this is what all comes to mind when someone asks this blogger to think about food. Too bad the Phactor cannot be more optimistic, but we live in an age when policy makers find it convenient to ignore simple scientific truths and difficult to enact long-term policies. One thing to be certain about, botanists will try to increase our food supplies, and they will indeed do so, but the real worry comes from the lack of leadership and political infastructure around the globe.

Serious Stuff from Plant Scientists

Some time back quite a number of plant scientists around the world were asked about what they thought were the most important questions facing plant science. The responses were distilled down to one hundred important questions facing plant science research. As you might guess some of these questions are pretty heavy duty. Here's a sample. Q2. Which crops must be grown and which sacrificed to feed the billions? Here's a snippet of the answer: "we may be forced to choose between production of staple food crops to feed the world population and the production of luxury crops, such as tea, coffee, cocoa ..." Aaaaaaah! Who could face that without coffee? And this would be in addition to improving crop productivity and using more previously forested land for food production. This isn't a future you're going to want to see, but our children's children may well see it. At times it's hard not to be pessimistic. Some of you may want to comment about some of the other questions or the answers as we presently see them. HT to Botanical Garden and Conservation International.

Aphids driving us buggy

Here in Lincolnland we live in the midst of the maize and soybean desert, so some side affects can be expected. Presently gazillions of aphids have descended upon us and their swarms shimmer annoyingly in the evening rays of sun as autumn advances. Swarms of aphids are so thick you can hardly breath, and please, do not ask a bicyclist to smile. Spider webs are filled with little tidbits, and the swordtails in my fountain pond are feasting upon thousands of aphids. These are not just any aphids, but soybean aphids, and this winged stage is seeking a tree upon which to mate and lay eggs for over wintering. But they are not just seeking any tree, but a buckthorn (Rhamnus), not exactly a common tree. One of my colleagues tracked down a buckthorn yesterday and its leaves were a mass of aphids, so there is precious little room at the inn for all those gazillions still looking. This massive population built up during favorable summer weather (cool, wet) will crash. But here's the amazing thing about such insects. The offspring of those few aphids (in comparison to the whole population) will disperse next spring seeking soybeans, and if favorable conditions prevail, their ability to reproduce could again produce such massive populations. If soybean aphids pose an agricultural problem, then perhaps buckthorn eradication will be proposed to break their life cycle, just as currants and gooseberries were eradicated to break the life cycle of white pine blister rust. In the meantime, these aphids are attracted to yellow and light green, so dress accordingly.