Summit on Seeds and Breeds for 21st Century Agriculture

For several years I had the honor of The World Bank, in part because of a substantial being a member of the Board of Trustees and absolute and relative decline in its agricultural serving as the chair of Board’s program/research lending portfolio, has recently announced a new committee for the largest of the CGIAR Centers focus on education and training. [...] The breeds of the understanding the “big picture” in the agri/food various species that we know today were and system – rapidly evolving and constantly dynamic continue to be the results of social and biological – becomes critical for all of those involved in the factors. [...] The speed with which humans can However, underlying all of the economic now change the genetic makeup of farm animals opportunities were the changes taking place in the in this country and around the world has rapidly production of beef in this country as it continued increased – especially in the past few decades. [...] broaden the genetic base, but one can argue that the industrialized system based on mass The process of “breeding up,” which led to the production and standardization of the product has major alteration of the Continental Breeds in the led to increased homogenization of the genetic US, was quite obvious and public. [...] Performance data diversification of the genetic base, but the collected from Missouri producers over a couple structure of the food system built on the of decades showed a major jump in the weaning industrialized model continually leads to and yearling weight of calves, reflecting the standardization and loss of genetic diversity.