" I heard it through the AgLine"

November 3, 2009

 

·        Americans suddenly digging farming lifestyle

·        Mutant gene may be key to drought resistance

·        Why is papaya getting a sex change operation?

·        Plant odor often announces fungus attack – study

·        Bayer acquires US biotech firm for $365 million

 

 

Americans suddenly digging farming lifestyle

 

(latimes.com) – Farming, which many city folk once associated primarily with children's books and distinctive if not entirely flattering tan lines, is suddenly in vogue. Never mind that most of the food we eat comes not from cozy acreages reminiscent of the setting of "Charlotte's Web" but from big corporate operations. Never mind that census data tell us that fewer than half of family-run farms show a positive net income (in other words, most farmers need day jobs). Even though farming no longer quite makes it as "a way of life," it's somehow become the next best thing (or maybe an even better thing): a lifestyle.

 

Perhaps it started with last year's reality dating show, " Farmer Wants a Wife," which spent eight weeks assaulting viewers with footage of low-rent Carrie Bradshaws chasing chickens in an attempt to win the heart of an improbably chiseled Missouri farmer. That show didn't exactly achieve "Bachelor"-level ratings, but a few weeks ago, when the Huffington Post featured a photo gallery of "hot organic farmers," the response was so overwhelming that it did yet another spread. From a pallid hipster growing organic vegetables on a Brooklyn rooftop to a strapping Californian whose specialty lettuce crops are bathed in golden sunlight, the photos suggest that running a farm -- at least the kind that appears far removed from pesticides, corporate contracts and furtive meth-cooking in abandoned barns -- is very similar to modeling for the Sundance catalog.

 

"We think organic farmers are rock stars and heroes," the site says. "And nothing is sexier than someone who likes to get dirty and supports the great food revolution."

 

Readers are encouraged to vote on their favorite farmer. The front-runner as of this writing: a sweet-looking young Vermont woman leaning over a produce-filled truck bed in very short shorts and a tank top that might reveal more of her anatomy than she perhaps intended. Forget rock star: Farmers are so hot they could date rock stars.

 

But no reality show or Internet photo gallery can compare with the most unexpected Internet craze in recent memory: FarmVille. Launched on Facebook last June by the video-game developer Zynga, the social game now has nearly 60 million users, making it the most popular game on Facebook and, according to Zynga, the fastest-growing social game of all time.

 

Internet social games are well known to be habit-forming, but a recent spate of news coverage has suggested that FarmVille is roughly as enslaving as heroin. Users report missing work, abandoning friends and setting their alarms to wake up several times during the night so they can make the moves necessary to advance in the game.

 

And what particular thrills do those moves generate? Harvesting crops, of course! And buying seed and livestock and trees and buildings with virtual coins (extra coins can be purchased with real-life credit cards). And helping neighboring farmers with chores. And getting really excited because a cow wandered onto your farm. Is your blood racing yet?

 

After creating an avatar, a player is given six plots of land and the opportunity to cultivate various food products, some of which grow in a matter of hours and will wilt if not harvested on time (thus the need to get up in the middle of the night). Roaming animals such as a pink cow that produces strawberry milk and an ugly duckling that turns into a swan can be adopted and cultivated for profit (in a loving, free-range sort of way). Ribbons are awarded for such achievements as adding neighbors to your farm, putting decorations up on your farm and fertilizing your neighbors' crops. You know, just like in real farming.

 

There is, to put it mildly, a curious dichotomy in the fact that tens of millions of people are losing sleep over virtual crop rotation while the refrain about Americans' growing waistlines and junky diet grows louder by the day.

 

Are we to infer from the FarmVille phenomenon that people are finally switching their allegiances from Swiss rolls by Little Debbie to Swiss chard by Mother Earth? Or does FarmVille simply represent a subculture of Internet-savvy hipsters who, like the agri-hotties on the Huffington Post, say less about what is actually happening than about what some people think is cool at this particular moment?

 

Michelle Obama's organic garden may generate photo-ops, and in L.A., community gardening and gleaners harvesting your fallen apricots may be all the rage, but it's hard to imagine that an organic vegetable patch in every yard will become the Obama administration's version of "a chicken in every pot." (By the way, Herbert Hoover never actually used that slogan. It was drummed up by advertisers to sell the idea of prosperity.)

 

As refreshing as it is to see farmers glamorized in the media instead of, say, strippers, it's worth asking if games like FarmVille bode well for the future of the American diet or inadvertently contribute to its demise. After all, nothing goes better with Internet games than prepackaged food that doesn't require stepping away from the computer. Meanwhile, a whole generation just might grow up believing that strawberry milk comes from pink cows. Hey, maybe agribusiness should start working on that.

 

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Mutant gene may be key to drought resistance

 

(Yahoo! News Australia) – A mutant gene, which can make a plant more able to survive drought, offers new hope for the nation's farmers and rivers, Australian scientists say.

 

The irregular gene (SAL1) was found to give an arabidopsis plant an ability to survive for much longer than usual without water.

 

Arabidopsis was the world's first plant to have its entire genome sequenced, and it is used as a model in plant-based science.

 

Canberra-based Professor Barry Pogson said the challenge now was to find the same genetic mutation in the world's dietary staples, and see whether it gave these plants similar boosted survival powers.

 

"It makes it more hardy and it survives without watering 50 per cent longer than a (ordinary arabidopsis) control plant does," said Prof Pogson, of the Australian National University.

 

"The gene is found in all plant species that we've looked at today and yes, it should have a similar function in crops like wheat and rice.

 

"CSIRO has huge seedstocks and its now a case of looking through to find one with the same ... mutation in the gene."

 

The research has received support from the federal government's Grains Research Development Corporation and CSIRO Plant Industry.

 

Prof Pogson said climate change modelling indicated Australia would become drier over the next century, ensuring "fewer and fewer good years and more bad or moderate years" for drought.

 

Identifying hardier agricultural seed stock could mean the difference between "some harvest as opposed to nothing" for farmers in those increased years of moderate drought, he said.

 

It could also ease some pressure on the nation's stressed river systems, where they were used for irrigation.

 

"In the sense that 70 per cent of Australian water is used in agriculture then ... this would be important," Prof Pogson said.

 

"It could help to reduce the need for irrigation water."

 

Prof Pogson said it would take another three years to isolate and assess agricultural plants with the SAL1 gene.

 

The mutation is naturally occurring, meaning the work can proceed without the same regulatory hurdles - and perhaps public controversy - that genetic modification of the seed stock would attract.

 

Success will also hinge on whether developing a hardier version of wheat, for example, did not lead to an overall lower yielding crop.

 

"The critical thing for farmers is not only is it drought tolerant in the bad years, does it have a yield penalty in the good years?" Prof Pogson said.

 

"So it's an exciting development that has the potential to be a breakthrough."

 

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Why is papaya getting a sex change operation?

 

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) – The complicated sex life of the papaya is about to get even more interesting, thanks to a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund basic research on the papaya sex chromosomes and will lead to the development of a papaya that produces only hermaphrodite offspring, an advance that will enhance papaya health while radically cutting papaya growers' production costs and their use of fertilizers and water.

 

"We're going to change the sex of the papaya to help the farmers," said University of Illinois plant biology professor Ray Ming, who will lead the effort with researchers from the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Texas A&M University and Miami University. A USDA scientist will also collaborate on the initiative.

 

"This is a perfect case to demonstrate how basic science can help the farmers directly," Ming said. "In our case we can apply it immediately as a byproduct of the research program."

 

Papayas already come in three sexual varieties: male, female and hermaphrodite. The hermaphrodite produces the flavorful fruit that is sold commercially. From the grower's perspective, however, hermaphrodite plants come with a severe handicap: their seeds produce some female plants (which are useless commercially) and some hermaphrodites.

 

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that it is impossible to tell the sex of a seed until it has grown up and flowered. This means that papaya farmers must plant five or more seeds together to maximize the likelihood of obtaining at least one hermaphrodite plant. Once they identify a desired plant, they cut the others down.

 

"This is labor intensive, resource intensive," Ming said. Crowding also causes the plants to "develop a poor root system and small canopy that delays fruit production," he said.

 

Ming co-led an international team that produced a first draft of the papaya genome in 2008. This draft, which sequenced more than 90 percent of the plant's genes, offered new insights into the evolution of flowering plants in general, and the unusual sexual evolution of the papaya.

 

Ming and his colleagues have identified regions of interest on the papaya's three sex chromosomes: the X, Y, and Yh. (XX produces a female plant, XY a male, and XYh a hermaphrodite. All combinations of Y and Yh fail to develop beyond the early embryonic stage after pollination.)

 

The Y and Yh chromosomes contain genes that promote the development of the male reproductive organ, the stamen, in male and hermaphrodite trees. And, the researchers hypothesize, the Y chromosome also contains a gene that disables the development of the female sexual organ, the carpel. The researchers theorize that the Yh chromosome lacks the gene that turns off development of the carpel, however, allowing both male and female organs to grow in XYh plants.

 

The researchers will focus on finding these genes and testing their hypotheses, Ming said.

 

Once they have identified the sex-determining genes of the Y chromosome, they will move the gene responsible for stamen development into the female genome and change the sex from female to hermaphrodite - without the Yh chromosome. The resulting hermaphrodite will produce only hermaphrodite seeds, Ming said, eliminating a major headache for farmers while improving the health of the papayas and the environment.

 

Further research will explore the origin and evolution of the sex chromosomes by comparing the papaya to five other related species in two genera and by conducting population genetic studies of the papaya sex chromosomes.

 

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Plant odor often announces fungus attack

 

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tomato plants under attack from the Botrytis fungus give off an aromatic substance that can be measured in greenhouses. This is the result of research performed by Roel Jansen with which he obtained his doctoral degree at Wageningen University. Working within a team of scientists from Wageningen and Germany, Jansen has opened the door to a new way of preventing and managing disease and plague problems in greenhouse horticulture.

 

The Dutch greenhouse sector is working hard to minimise the use of chemical pesticides, for instance by performing detailed crop inspections so as to reduce spraying. This type of detection work is time-consuming and expensive, however. It increases the demand for automated detection of infected plants, preferably at a very early stage of the disease or plague process.

 

One possible principle is to measure plant odours in the air. Wageningen scientists have already shown that plants under attack by insects emit aromatic substances that attract insect eaters.

 

Botrytis is an important disease in global tomato cultivation. Through a series of tests, Roel Jansen, an employee at Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture, showed that tomato plants infected by Botrytis fungus give off more methyl salicylate into the greenhouse air. Often the plants emit sufficient amounts of this hormone substance for it to be measurable in the air.

 

Jansen expects a demand for detection systems that indicate signal substances such as methyl salicylate. "If you can identify a plague in a greenhouse on time there will be even less need for pesticides,” he says. “The trend in greenhouse horticulture is for fewer but larger greenhouses. An outbreak of a disease or plague therefore forms an even greater threat as it can easily spread throughout the entire greenhouse.”

 

Jansen performed his research in close cooperation with the Agricultural Business Economics, Plant Physiology and Organic Chemistry chair groups at Wageningen University and the Jülich Forschungszentrum in Germany.

 

Provided by Wageningen University

 

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Bayer acquires US biotech firm for $365M

 

(Wire Services) – MONHEIM, Germany – Bayer CropScience announced today the completion of its purchase of Athenix Corp., a privately-held independent biotechnology company headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA. The company was purchased for USD 365 Million (about EUR 250 million). Further cash payments based upon the achievement of certain development milestones may amount up to USD 35 million (about EUR 24 million).

 

The acquisition of Athenix and its innovative technology platform significantly boosts Bayer CropScience´s ability to make available to growers worldwide novel technology and complete agricultural solutions. Athenix has an extensive herbicide tolerance and insect control trait development platform. The company has the largest collection of Bt genes in the industry – genes that are crucial for insect resistance of plants. Athenix is working on nematode resistance as well, a field where current chemical options are limited. Additionally, the company has a valuable collection of proprietary microbes that will provide a long-term source of novel and commercially important genes for future trait development.

 

Bayer CropScience is currently already pursuing a total of 56 BioScience research projects involving six crops. The acquisition bolsters this research and development (R&D)-pipeline and the trait platform of Bayer CropScience. Athenix complements the fast growing BioScience business of Bayer CropScience by significantly extending its R&D-presence in North America. Athenix employs some of the world’s leading researchers in the agricultural biotech industry and has a workforce of about 65 employees who have extensive expertise in commercial gene discovery, commercial trait generation, and product development.

 

The acquisition will allow Bayer CropScience to strengthen its attractiveness as a partner to other stakeholders in the seed business worldwide. It will generate additional trait fee income beyond the income streams from Bayer CropScience`s current trait technology due to license agreements with major agricultural companies. Bayer CropScience already expects the combined sales potential of its four most important licensing agreements, which will bear fruit in the coming years, to exceed EUR 500 million – and Athenix will add further to this revenue stream from the middle of next decade.

 

“We are investing heavily in our BioScience business to strengthen our position in the global seeds and traits market”, said Professor Friedrich Berschauer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer CropScience. “Within the last year, we have announced business expansions involving three new state-of-the-art research and development facilities in the United States and Canada. Athenix is a leading independent plant biotechnology company. The acquisition of Athenix therefore underpins this expansion, and allows Bayer CropScience to further expand its strong research and development capacity in North America, the most important seed technology market of the world.”

 

“We are pleased to become part of Bayer CropScience, a global agribusiness leader that is fundamentally driven by the spirit and practice of innovation. The combined talents and capabilities of Bayer CropScience and Athenix will serve to accelerate the market introduction of highly innovative new products for farmers worldwide that will directly address the global demand for superior agricultural productivity,” said Mike Koziel, Chief Executive Officer for Athenix.

 

About Bayer CropScience

 

 

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 6.4 billion (2008), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology. The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of more than 18,000 and is represented in more than 120 countries.

 

About Athenix

 

 

Athenix, founded in 2001, is a leading biotechnology company that develops novel products and technologies for agricultural and industrial applications. Athenix has established an outstanding intellectual property portfolio and market access ability around enhanced plants, microbes, genes, enzymes, and processes with emphasis on two major markets: 1) novel agricultural traits for growers such as insect resistance, nematode resistance, herbicide tolerance, and their use for the crop production industry; and 2) the discovery of genes and proteins for use in the sustainable chemical industry.

 

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