Alternative Paths to Food Security - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 220

The vision of Venter and Cohen (2004) and others focuses on the genome ( G ). But
already we see that epigenetics, which explicates how genetic potentials get expressed ,
is becoming more promising for both scientific insight and for practical application.
Both genetic engineering and the agronomic sciences will do well to move beyond
the genetic-deterministic paradigm of the preceding century, in which the DNA of
the double helix is regarded as a blueprint for manufacturing organisms, to com-
prehend in broader and deeper detail the dynamics of ecological systems. The lat-
ter include the complexities of highly diverse and contingent expression of genetic
potentials, with microorganisms functioning as intimate, essential parts of plant and
animal organisms. Moving research and development efforts in this direction will
have political and political-economic dimensions, not just scientific ones, just as
all scientific transitions proceed with institutional constraints and the influences of
power and privilege, along with the need for cognitive reformulations and doctrinal
restatements.
Notes
1. Comparisons of NPTs with inbred high-yielding varieties found that while NPTs had
good “sink” capacity—i.e., more spikelets (flowers) per plant that could receive carbohy-
drates and convert these into grains—their “source” capacity is insufficient, meaning they
do not have enough roots to support the production of sufficient carbohydrates for com-
plete grain-filling (Makarim and Suhartatik 2006). The computer modeling that guided
NPT development apparently overlooked the fact that rice plants with fewer tillers will
also have fewer roots, since tillers and roots originate concurrently from the same meri-
stematic plant tissues. An understanding of agroecology and plant physiology would have
made this limitation for the NPT more obvious from the start.
2. While Laulanié was not a professional agronomist, he was not without scientific train-
ing. Before entering a Jesuit seminary, he completed a degree in agriculture at an eminent
French college of agriculture; and before going to Madagascar, he had been a lecturer at
the Ecole Supérieure d'Agriculture in Angers, France. Following the precedent of Gregor
Mendel, who established the intellectual foundations for the modern science of genetics,
Laulanié developed systematic knowledge through careful and discerning observations,
checking them out and validating them through several decades of his own monitoring
and experimentation.
3. A recent study in Europe has estimated the economic costs of inorganic/reactive nitro-
gen pollution there at between 70 and 320 billion euros, considerably greater than the
marginal value of N fertilizer applications (Sutton et al. 2011). In China, the relative costs
of use/overuse of N fertilizers may be even greater, since groundwater supplies there are
being heavily polluted (Gong et al. 2011).
References
Abraham, B., H. Araya, T. Berhe, S. Edwards, B. Gujja, R.B. Khadka, Y.S. Koma, D. Sen, E. Styger,
N. Uphoff, and A. Verma. 2013. “The System of Crop Intensification (SCI_): Agroecological