Hold your horses. I think the title overstates the impact of those old wheat varieties. Yes, genetic diversity is high. But, the reason that today’s wheat is less diverse is only the side effect of one of the most astonishing feasts ever pulled off by a single human: Norman Borlaug. His breeding program in the 1940s was the start of the “Green Revolution“. He’s the guy who saved the billions from starvation.<p>For further reading about his story, I can highly recommend „The Wizard and the Prophet“ by Charles C. Mann [2].<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34959327" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34959327</a>
I certainly feel like we need to use computing for some better things to benefit humanity<p>1. A long term human readable storage format that will stand the test of a 1000+ years.<p>2. A database system that works easily and well to catalog things like the DNA of every living plant and animal<p>A great mandate for the library of congress or the national archives
oh of course - more GMO crops is the answer to the urgent crisis of industrial pollution. Write a heart-strings tug article and get it out now! (and call funders since the journalist is likely starving while next to a grocery store today)