The Beginning

• Started with first farmers• They needed the best crops• Artificial Selection• Farmers planted the best crops to get more successful harvests• Eventually they got more crops than needed to they sold the extras• People would buy the good surplus to plant in their fields to get better

crops• Eventually people with only half decent crops were running out of

business

Agricultural Revolutions

• First/Neolithic– Domestication of plants

• Fertile Crescent - emmer, einkorn, and Barley• Africa - coffee, khat, ensete, noog, teff, finger millet, sorghum, pearl millet, kola

nut, African rice, African yams, oil palm, bananas, plantains, Asian yam, and taro• Americas - corn, bean, squash, potato, manioc, sunflower, sumpweed, and

goosefoot– Domestication of animals

• Dogs, oxen, cows, camels, cats, goats, elephants, sheep, pigs, and many other animals all over the world

The Green Revolution

• Started by Norman Borlaug, considered the father of the Green Revolution, in Mexico in 1943– Developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease resistant wheat varieties– Office of Special Studies in Mexico eventually evolved into an informal

international research institution, and became the International Maize and Wheat Improvement center

– India on verge of country-wide famine, so Borlaug introduced his new crop and how to breed the plants to perfections, and received the Padhma Vibhushan, which is the second highest civilian honor in India

– He also used his hypotheses to fight deforestation for new farmland– Also used his hypothesis in Asia and African countries to great effect

The Green Revolution

• Technologies produced had already existed, but not widely spread or used outside industrialized nations– Pesticides– Irrigation projects– Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer– Improved crop varieties

• High-yielding - more food per single unit• Semi-dwarf - lessened chance of lodging, or falling over before harvest

• Mutant genes coding for Arabidopis genes, wheat reducing height genes and rice shortening gene, were cloned.– Identified as cellular signaling component genes– Stem growth directly linked to dwarf phenotype making them more stable

The Future (Pg 614 in book)

• Food may run out!!!!• Other options?

– Find new food plants• Not very likely• it would take too long

– Improve productivity• Use genetically altered crops to feed more people

– New approaches to Cultavation• Hydroponics

The Future (cont.)

• Hydroponics– 2 ways

• Solution culture• Median culture

– Advantages• Controlled system• Stable• No pollution

– Disadvantages• Salmonella risk higher• Over watering• Drought