Really interesting article in the July 2011 issue of National Geographic. The topic deals with the importance of genetic diversity of our food crops and the various efforts to save seeds for our future generations. You can read the article here. It is a very easy, informative read.
They had a couple of really cool graphics, one of which you can view here. It illustrates how man has selected vegetables over time (by comparing an old seed catalog from 1903 to those same varieties that are availavble today). As an example, there were 341 varieties of squash in the 1903 catalog and now only 41 can be found in the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (formely known as the National Seed Storage Laboratory). The article goes on to explain that the loss of this genetic diversity can be a issue when we face some future problems.
There are some pretty cool pictures in the article. I know there are alot of different potoates out there but to see many of them in one photograph was eye candy. You can see individual photos of these potatoes here but you lose the collage effect. Best to go to your local library and check out the magazine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment