Bill and Melinda Gates on GMOs: ‘Poor farmers should not be denied choice of life-saving tools’

Of all the things I did when I visited Cornell University recently, I probably had the most fun brushing up on how plants have sex.

Cornell’s work on crop improvement also involves a lot of cutting-edge genetics. You might see the words “crop improvement” and “genetics” in the same sentence and think I’m talking about GMOs. Although Melinda and I do support research in that area—we don’t think poor farmers should be denied the choice to use any tools that might benefit them—the work I saw at Cornell is different. It’s focused on how the science of genetics can improve agriculture in other ways. And the advances are really exciting.

Here’s how it works today. Suppose you want a variety of corn with a natural resistance to a certain pest. You start by planting as much corn as you can. You wait eight to 12 weeks for it to grow, and then you take pollen from some of the plants that aren’t infested and use it to pollinate others. If the offspring of those plants is pest-resistant, you’re in luck—your plant won the genetic lottery. If not, you have to start over. Because you’re limited by the growing season, the process can take seven to 10 years.

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Genetics research will cut that time in half.

Read full, original blog: CORNELL’S CORN: The Love Life of Plants