16-Year-Old Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair 2014 With World-Changing Crop Yield Breakthrough

a reply to: SonOfTheLawOfOne

But why cure the disease when you can get rich fighting the symptoms...

What a fantastic line!
Thanks for your comment

a reply to: SonOfTheLawOfOne

Russia’s small-scale organic agriculture model may hold the key to feeding the world

October 1, 2012 Imagine living in a country where having the freedom to cultivate your own land, tax-free and without government interference, is not only common but also encouraged for the purpose of promoting individual sovereignty and strong, healthy communities. Now imagine that in this same country, nearly all of your neighbors also cultivate their own land as part of a vast network of decentralized, self-sustaining, independent “eco-villages” that produce more than enough food to feed the entire country. You might be thinking this sounds like some kind of utopian interpretation of historical America, but the country actually being described here is modern-day Russia.

source

Another reason the corps (corporations) hate Russia?

Feel good story, get 'em a movie deal.

originally posted by: SonOfTheLawOfOne
I've said this before...
There is a saying about farmers.
Good farmers grow food.
Great farmers grow dirt.

Maybe the best one I ever knew was a big fan of worm casings.

It's true that yield is just the beginning of sustainability issues in the 21st century, but thankfully the 1970s thinking, with all that ugly pseudo-scientific re-hash of Malthus, is a fading trend. And this particular application does seem quite nice. If it works so well for what they've tried so far, using the same approach in general, i.e. playing matchmaker for more bacteria and more crops, should come up with some more good results.

You're right that yield is just the beginning of 21st century sustainability issues, but this sort of thing could have broader positive impact. Off the top of my head it seems like it might also help decrease fertilizer use and/or waste and the large scale problem of too much nitrogen in runoff, from less fertilizer for more uptake.

The combo of a yield bump and/or lower fertilizer expense could maybe even help decrease erosion. If it takes some financial pressure off of a farmer, that farmer might be less likely to do something selfish/short sighted that results in increased erosion, like overly aggressive tilling.

Although for readers here in general, it's worth saying that while that particular example would probably be something done more by small scale, independent, family owned, etc farmers, that small operations are in general much better overall about not wasting resources and their broader environmental impact than the industrial scale operations, and both sorts of operations are improving over time.

And of course, highlighting financial pressure as a motivator for bad practices points a debate back in the direction of prices and financial policy in general and thus the very old issue of big banks and big farms vs the proverbial little guy. To that debate, I would argue that the mutually antagonistic approach, i.e. the "vs" framing of the approach to ag policy, is unwise in general, and especially bad for the broader effect on the environment. When one side wins by the other losing, what really ends up suffering the losses incurred is often the environment, as firms large or small change practices to fight for their bottom line.

Here is the thing! People have created this already but most of the time it does not make the news because they just use it on their own farm. My grandfather is an inventor however most of the things he invents has already been invented or thought of. Example.Nikolai Tesla, There are hundreds of people out there who have created a technology is beyond our knowledge but only use it for personal use. There is a guy who created an engine that can be ran on any type of fuel. Now that is fuel efficient! There was a guy in Canada who created a power source the size of a shoe box that can power a whole sub division but the feds shut him down. Now he runs his own lawn care business lol! There was engineer who created Electro Magnetic Propulsion but got shut down as well. The Feds took everything away... At the end of the day due to their age I give them props for coming up with the idea and presenting it. You see it was part of a science fair for a huge sponsor like Google. Why doesn't someone find a bright young engineer bring their Electromagnetic Propulsion setup too them and buy them in on their technology so that they can show the world change. Big sponsor like Google will allow the world to know that there is better technology than these cheap expensive hybrid vehicles etc... We need to eliminate the Gas price. This is why the government doesn't care about Solar Power it is because it is free energy.