Joe wrote:
Turning to marker assisted selection (MAS) I agree that it is
something that organic agriculture can embrace because the crop
genes are selected not altered.
Nevertheless,for some important QTL R.A.Fisher will prevail
leaving selection in the hands of patient breeders.
I don't know what *you* mean by QTL, but I know what Pioneer and
Monsanto mean by "QTL" and it is not about being patient (although
Fisher and Mendel nevertheless prevail). When you got high-density
maps and giant robotic assemblies for mass production PCR on
tens-of-thousands of lines, you can kick butt. You can do in a few
hours what used to take years. This is where *conventional* breeding
is at now.
Lawrence wrote:
Is that "patent" or "patient"?
Yeah, good question!
Who is R.A. Fisher.
He is practically the father of statistics and conventional breeding.
Brilliant guy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Fisher
existing organic plant breeders (often seed vendors who grow their
own or contract grow-out to larget operations) will be able to
access. This sounds like a really exciting development. Would
setting up a MAS lab by an organic heirloom seed vendor be cost
-prohibitive (that includes cost of technician training or hiring
one off-site)?
Why would a seed *vendor* want to do that? Especially an heirloom seed
vendor. Doesn't the term "heirloom" imply *no breeding*?
You know, few parties do honest-to-God breeding. Even what seem like
big regional corn seed companies with "research" departments, don't do
it because it is cheaper to buy genetics from a genetics company.
Monsanto is the big player in the genetics supply business because they
purchased Holdens.
The cost is not just laboratory and personnel, but it is infrastructure
and information. MAS is built on private conventional breeding
infrastructure. Marker-assisted selection requires a large amount of
information that is generally not publicly available.
Wytze wrote:
This is one of the rare occasions where I disagree with [Joe]. MAS
leads inevitbly to patented hybrids and is impossible in open
pollinating systems. I doubt that that is really helpful for the
development of organic agriculture.
I agree that MAS tends to produce patented or at least PVPed varieties
and hybrids. But why can't organic farmers use those? And, of course
crops like wheat, soy, Phaseolus are never open-pollinated, they just
automatically self. What is the big deal about OP?
As far as I know, the organic rules allow the use of patented
varieties. I mean, if a variety is really good, it is probably worth
buying commercial seed to get it (you can buy some such seed produced
organically). There are some darn good varieties developed by these
big companies.
Dale
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