Instead, we now have universities full of plant breeders who only have one tool genetic engineering and who are prepared to conduct only those projects that use the genetic engineering approach. There are many limitations as to what can be approached with genetic engineering, however. Much of what is most important to home gardeners and farmers is not very amenable to the genetic engineering approach. And almost all of what matters in breeding plants for organic or sustainable agriculture is best and most easily approached using standard plant breeding methods . In their blind leap onto the genetic-engineering bandwagon, the universities and multinational seed companies have virtually abandoned nearly all of the most important problems.
Crop varieties incorporate the values of their creators.
When you grow varieties bred by others, you propagate their values along with their varieties. Today s professional plant breeders university and corporate are breeding plants to facilitate and serve the modern megafarm agribusiness pattern. These varieties produce well in huge monocultures grown with massive doses of herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Bred into the varieties are the values of their creators that more is always better, that monocultures are best, and that pollution, biodiversity, and sustainability don t matter. It is time for new patterns new patterns for agriculture, and new patterns for plant breeding.