Early farmers selectively bred maize that was well-adapted to the conditions on their land, an early version of genetic engineering. The practice continues today in rural Mexico But modern agriculture is moving away from locally adapted strains and traditional farming techniques and toward active gene manipulation. The goal of both traditional development and modern genetic modification has been to create productive, valuable crops, so these two techniques are not necessarily at odds. But as more farmers converge on similar strains of (potentially genetically modified) seeds instead of developing locally adapted landraces, there are two potential risks: one is losing the cultural legacy of traditional agricultural techniques that have been passed on in families for centuries or even millennia, and another is decreasing crop resilience even as climate variability is increasing.
At massivesci.com
1
1
