Bill Gates finances research project to improve corn yields
Billionaire computer magnate Bill Gates is to fund a €8m research project into whether cereal crops can be genetically engineered with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The aim is to create cereal crops that can access nitrogen from the air using symbiotic bacteria, reducing the need for expensive chemical fertiliser.
Microsoft founder Gates and wife Melinda are backing the project through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in an attempt to help small subsistence farmers around the world.
The focus of the investigation will be maize, which is the most important staple crop for small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
However, if successful, the technology will be applicable to all cereal crops including wheat, barley and rice.
The John Innes Centre in Norwich, England, is to lead the five-year research program.
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“It's horrible, just horrible”.
“Don't look darling”.
It might be worth pointing out that the hand is holding a legume root with nodules rich in nitrogen-fixing bacteria [but I guess we all knew that, really].
Considering the options and the overseas research associations available, England is a strange place to do this research.
John Innes is as poorly defended against the anti-GM 'extremists' as was Rothamsted, where scientists and their GM research programmes suffered greatly at their hands.
Bill Gates is a jerk, anti capitalist (he would be nobody without his dad's big goverment worker for DARPA) and is a known eugenicists, just like his father who also was a member of “planned parenthood” and fanboy of margaret singer and sicko darwin (Geof's hero).
I am also in favour of helping it along a bit .... you know, plant and animal breeding like Mendel did with his peas.
It's nice to know that Mendel's humble legume can be used to bring food to the third world by 'help it along a bit'.
David Attenborough and many other eminent scientists have all confirmed that the planet will not e able to support a population of 10 billion by the end of this century and that wars will probably break out over supply of food and water (rather than oil) if population growth continues to accelerate without limits.
Why would he waste his money. It's just not going to happen.
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