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The dignity of the seedAs we plant the crops of springtime, with mental images of their characteristics and bounty, it occurs to me that one of the greatest truths of agriculture is that "like begets like" and genetics provide one of the few certainties of life. I was a freshman in high school when I learned about the work of Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk (1822-1884) who was the first person credited with documenting succeeding generations of plants. He published works on heredity and hybridization of garden peas that were so simple and elegant that my high school mind snapped them up and has held them ever since. Mendelian genetics show that a seed holds all the genetic traits of the next generation of the plant. These express themselves at certain stages of growth but they are all in the seed exactly as it comes from the parent line. The amazing thing to me is that the plants, when crossed with others, will exhibit stronger characteristics than either parent, but if that seed is saved and replanted, the hybrid will begin to segregate back to its original form. Nature, as an evolutionary process or as the result of intelligent design (I'm not arguing creation here), is able to keep species of plants on track even if there is accidental or manmade cross-pollination. This is a beautiful concept and makes the seed seem like even more of a miracle than just growth emerging from a dry and inanimate hull. This week I'm attempting to sprout seeds that came from a pumpkin that weighed 1,200 pounds when it was produced by Ralph Trumm in 2005. I know this because he put a picture on the label showing him, his wife and young daughter behind a flattened orange monster known as a Dill's Atlantic Pumpkin. The cross to get this pumpkin, according to Ralph's careful record keeping, came from the 1,370 pound Rose and the 1097.5 pound Beachy. When I plant this seedling in the garden, it has all the genetic instructions to become a vine that grows with large leaves and sets fruit that can take up great quantities of nutrients and water, in a very short time, to yield a pumpkin of immense size, growing as much as 50 pounds per day. I do not have any hope of producing a pumpkin of even half the size that Ralph grew because I don't have the fertility or the patience he and other giant pumpkin growers put into their cultivation. But it's not the pumpkin's fault that it won't exceed the size of its parents; it's mine. In the natural world there are mutations that occur in plants that are transmitted in the seed. This is usually for naught but, under the right circumstances, the mutation is more competitive than others of its lineage and it gains advantage. Today we can select for traits by breeding plants and propagating their offspring or we can utilize the tools of biotechnology to deliberately disrupt or replace a portion of the genome to gain a specific characteristic. Have we jeopardized the integrity of the seed in so doing or have we just speeded up the process documented by Gregor Mendel? It is a subject of great debate among those with full stomachs and secure lives. Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Laureate for his work to improve yields in wheat and rice, says a farmer will always plant a better seed but the politicians will try to prevent it because of the threat to the status quo. Borlaug is an advocate of using biotechnology as a tool to produce better harvests for a hungry world. We take much for granted and we fear many outcomes that never happen; so every year begins with anticipation, has moments of dread, but then concludes with results primarily related to the blessings of nature and intelligent work by man and woman. The sun, the seed, the soil, the rain and the wind all interact to allow and advance growth. Drought, blight and insects are formidable foes but the seed prevails because, even in years of great stress, it reproduces in some quantity and returns to the land to await another season to come forth and grow again. Some species are so smart that they don't all germinate the coming year but stay in reserve to emerge several years later. Could we ask for any greater natural logic or God's miracle than this? Editor's Note: This is Ken Root's 34th year as an agricultural reporter. He grew up on a small farm in central Oklahoma and started his career as a vocational agriculture teacher. He worked in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri as a broadcaster and was the original host of AgriTalk. He has also been the executive director of the National AgriChemical Retailers Association in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Farm Broadcasters in Kansas City. Ken is now the lead farm broadcaster at WHO and WMT Radio based in Des Moines, Iowa. He has been a columnist for HPJ and Midwest Ag Journal for seven years. 5/12/08 Date: 5/8/08
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