This post is not a round up of sad news, as you might expect. Rather, it is a summary of various articles that lead me to believe there is no hope for the future (similar to Slap Upside the Head's occasional Pile O' Slaps). The topic for this round-up is food and agriculture from Wired! (Note: While these articles date back a few months, they were all on the first page of Wired articles tagged with agriculture.

In a development with potentially profound implications for agriculture, just three genetic mutations could change the way most crop plants reproduce....In a study published Monday in Public Library of Science Biology, French biologists found that this form of reproduction is linked to a gene mutation that stops sex cell division after the first parent cell split. When they added this and two other meiosis-regulating mutations to A. thaliana, the plant produced genetically matched pollen and ova through mitosis rather than meiosis. [Brandon Keim. June 09, 2009. Link]

Once again, the farming and agribusiness community is interested in monocropping. Not only monocropping, but should this work, cloning. If this breakthrough makes it, we will be able to take our relationship with seed corporations to the next level! "Yes, Mansanto, we are ready to upgrade from seasonal subscriptions with terminator seeds to a lifetime membership! Dear people of the world: science is good and can help us understand food better, but it is becoming increasingly evident that human economy and food do not play well with each other. Agricultural science is drafting the essence of our survival into the irrational and uncontrollable world of business. Stop it. Please.

Public health experts worry that another potentially lethal pig-borne disease could establish itself among farmworkers in the United States. Unlike the new swine flu virus, Streptococcus suis doesn't pass from person to person. But it's also more virulent, killing about one in 10 people in whom infection progresses to full-blown disease. [Brandon Keim. May 06, 2009. Link.]

Thank you, Brandon, for reporting that science has discovered that more evidence against industrial farming. This is rather bittersweet, as I am not very fond of the large scale farms that make wonderful incubators for these kinds of viruses, but I have heard just about all I can stand when it comes to "swine flus" See this post for a rant. Moving on...

Nature is gone. It was gone before you were born, before your parents were born, before the pilgrims arrived, before the pyramids were built. You are living on a used planet...So what now? First of all, we've got to stop trying to save the planet. For better or for worse, nature has long been what we have made it, and what we will make it.And it’s time for a “postnatural” environmentalism. Postnaturalism is not about recycling your garbage, it is about making something good out of grandpa’s garbage and leaving the very best garbage for your grandchildren. Postnaturalism means loving and embracing our human nature, the nature we have created to feed ourselves, the nature we live in. What good is environmentalism if it makes you depressed about the future? [Op-ed by Erle Ellis. May 06, 2009 . Link.]

Oh, please! You are arguing that we should stop trying to prevent human interaction with the planet because our ancestors have already made irreconcilable changes. Hey, the planet is already trashed so let's party! Perhaps I am just an drugged up hippie when I think that humans are not the only ones around and that the least we can do is not mess things up, try to discover how everything works, and screw up the aesthetics of our super complex biosphere. Also, assuming the ice age is coming pretty soon, I would rather be planning how to survive than doing arts and crafts with my trash.

Farmers in America grow two things, mostly: animal feed and corn for ethanol.In fact, Michigan State University agriculture researcher Bryan Bals noted the feed requirements for animals are an order of magnitude larger than Americans’ food requirements. That insight has led an MSU team to propose getting more out of the same amount of American farmland by increasing the amount of animal feed that farmers can harvest from an acre, thereby creating more land for biofuel crops. [Alexis Madrigal. May 06, 2009. Link.]

I have more problems with these topics than I can fit in a short rant commentary. I am not one for University grudges, but I have to say something. Bryan Bals, I am not sure what your insight was, but I am frightened that it didn't somehow include the dangers and inefficiencies of monocropping (soil nutrient depletion and chemical reliance to name two), the realization that biofuels are not the answer(little pdf with info), or that feedcrops are bad news bears (Watch King Corn or read In Defense of Food).

Now I know Wired is not a terribly great news source, but I had previously thought it more reliable and accurate than the sensationalists. I am sure there are things they do well, but my bitterness doesn't care about those right now. Instead, I am going to turn my attention to SEED, a magazine I had formerly cast off as hyper-progressive and unreadable. The turning point came when I stumbled upon an article about using and IBM supercomputer to recreate an underdeveloped neocortical column. (I have just taken about 10 minutes to look for this news on Wired and it was nowhere to be found...) Essentially, they are programming neurons that interact with each other using digital electrochemical signals. (...Look, Wired...no, it isn't just that SEED has superior design and layout, including the fact that they use 2 fonts intelligently compared to the five on your homepage. No, that's not what I meant...) Assuming my fruitless 15 minute search reflects the low impact of this story, I wonder why this did not make bigger news. Is it because it is a small project with little immediate impact? Is it because it is hard to categorize involving an incredible combination of research technology, programming, neuroscience, and general biology? Wait a minute, isn't that the kind of thing the world is heading toward? It seems like everything I am reading recently is advocating small groups, big ideas, and synergistic knowledge. (...I am at a different place in my life and I think it would be best if we both moved on. Wired, we are breaking up.) Whatever the case, it is evident to me that the world is heading in a different direction, and I want to be aware of what is happening.

So it looks like this post evolved from "bad news and my discontents" to my break up with Wired. Isn't it funny how these things hit you when you least expect it?

Links
Seed [Home]
Slap Upside the Head [Home]
Wired [Home]
LOL [XKCD]

A little extra: While writing this, I noticed a few things. I really wish I could have written this with LaTeX and imported it. Also, Blogger randomly inserted needless code into my post. I am not sure what it means, but I will be wary in the future. SEED also has superior vertical line spacing than Wired.