wirtatmar{at}aol.com (Wirt Atmar) wrote in
news:cgeh3l$u47$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org: 

> Tom asks:
> 
>>Has anyone heard of smart breeding? It is an
>>alt to genetic modification. 
>>
>>"Instead of looking to other organisms for genes
>>with particular traits, smart breeding searches
>>a crop's own genome for a chosen characteristic
>>- such as drought resistance, or a particular
>>color or taste. The dormant genes for many desired
>>traits have been found hiding in rare or wild
>>varities of some plants. Smart breeders employ
>>crossbreeding techniques to draw out these traits...
>>Without genetic modification's expense, patent
>>politics, or potential environmental risks, smart
>>breeding is the best of both worlds, supportors say."
>>
>>A. Masurat, The Future of Farming, Outsmarting GM
>>Utne Sep, Oct/ 2004
> 
> Yes. I believe that everyone has heard of "smart breeding." People
> have been practicing the technique for thousands of years, although no
> one calls it that. Every agricultural university has plant and animal
> breeding departments that "employ crossbreeding techniques to draw
> out.. traits." 
> 
> Perhaps the most important of those is the plant breeding department
> at my alma mater, if for no other reason than it gave us Mexican food:
> 
>      http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/NMSUCultivars_1.htm

I have nothing but praise for anything associated with Mexican food (we 
routinely add jalapenos to almost everything we cook), but I thought some 
of the credit for developing the compounds that make hot peppers hot has 
to go to natural selection by pepper plants for seed dispersal by birds 
rather than mammals - birds don't find the compounds irritating while 
mammals do.

Yours,

Bill Morse
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