Amazing - the brand new 997

[yangman]

Focus also on preventing the dispersion of GM plant DNA into the natural gene pool.

The only ways, as far as I can see, to truely prevent GM plants from "infecting" other organically-natural crop is to modify them to such that their reproductive systems no longer function, or create mini-eco systems, totally seperate from others, to grow the plants in. Neither is very practical.

A significant research effort in genomics is to develop hardy plants with large yields that need little or no hebicides and fertilizers.

A fundemental law of the universe, paraphrased, is that in any closed system, you can only get out as much as you put in. This is also true for farming. Simply put, you cannot expect crop yield of acceptable nutrient value unless the soil, or what ever substance the plants are grown in, is replenished with nutrients before and during the growth cycle. Most vegetables and fruits produces today already have relatively low levels of nutrients, and no amount of generic engineering is going to change the fact that your crop is only as good as the soil you grow them in.

Although it is easy to put more emphasis on quantity, quality must also play a large role if a solution is going to be effective in the long run.