Plant Genetics Will Save Us-- or Not!

 

The garden catalogs are arriving. With each catalog is the mandatory "new" or "improved" varieties of seeds, plants, and ornamentals for our gardens. I would be happy if some of the hype were as true for the home gardener as these promises have been for agribusiness.

You only need to check corn yield statistics over the last 50 years to marvel at the wonder of plant genetics. Similar stories from statistics are our there for most of the major grain crops of the world, along with potatoes and alfalfa. The trend lines versus the actual statistics are probably the effect of severe extremes in the weather patterns in any given year.

But gardening, like politics and economics, tends to be local.