Scientists have successfully mapped African cassava genome africasciencenews.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from africasciencenews.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Today, molecular genetic methods can be used to breed sustainable crops - such as multinutrient rice. Researchers are calling for the risk of new plant varieties to be assessed not on the basis of the breeding method, but on the basis of their characteristics.
Should Switzerland make use of new plant breeding techniques to make agriculture more sustainable? Pictured: a test field with different wheat varieties. (Image: Andreas Hund)
When it comes to food, many people yearn for nature in its most pristine state. The thinking is that natural products are somehow better and healthier. Organic food is marketed through an idealised vision of agriculture in which quasi-natural methods are used to produce natural food, and tools such as genetic engineering are frowned upon as a form of artificial meddling. Yet this romanticised view of nature is deceptive. Very little of what we eat today is produced in ways that could be considered entirely natural. “For the past 12,000 years, we’ve