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Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

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Re: Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

#121

Post by kubb »

thriftwy wrote: post #101
kubb wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think that the EU was doing rocket strikes in Syria? I understand that Russians need to have a story to claim that their aggression on their neighbors is justified. But how contrived the story is is baffling.

EU was doing civil war in Syria, by astroturfing, endorsing, arming and financing "democratic opposition". It's not even the case of me doing the thinking.

I’m sure you’re not doing the thinking. You’re copying the line of the Russian regime uncritically.

That cynical authoritarian regime which continues to have a country with a declining population, one of the largest wealth inequalities in the world, no human rights, assassinates political opposition whenever it feels like it and has an economy completely based on exploitation of natural resources.

The proud and brave Russians have somehow decided that this regime is what they will fight for because its their best bet for advancing humanity.

Meanwhile the EU bears the humanitarian cost of the Syrian civil war, because they’re interested in protecting human lives.

But in Russia the human lives don’t have value. All that Russia cares about and understands is having a sphere of influence and power projection. Because Soviet Union was great once, and that felt good.

Re: Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

#122

Post by thriftwy »

kubb wrote: post #121
thriftwy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU was doing civil war in Syria, by astroturfing, endorsing, arming and financing "democratic opposition". It's not even the case of me doing the thinking.

I’m sure you’re not doing the thinking. You’re copying the line of the Russian regime uncritically. That cynical authoritarian regime which continues to have a country with a declining population, one of the largest wealth inequalities in the world, no human rights, assassinates political opposition whenever it feels like it and has an economy completely based on exploitation of natural resources. The proud and brave…

There are plenty bad regimes on the planet. Iraq is going to jail homosexuals for 12 years now. KSA didn't allow women to drive. Most of your answer applies to KSA 100%.

It was you who turned Syria from autocracy into autocracy destroyed by a civil war. This was your crime. Why did you do that?

You're like that sad disadvantaged teenager who planned to mug an annoying neighbour but ended up murdering him when he resisted, and suddenly became a felon for life. Whereas Russia didn't do anything wrong in this specific case.

Re: Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

#123

Post by anonbanker »

surfingdino wrote: post #66

I thought Svalbard was a safe place to keep the world's seeds before I checked who were the neighbours https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barentsburg

Do you think irrational xenophobia is on the rise? And if so, what you would suggest to counter it?

Re: Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

#124

Post by brandonsherrick »

anonbanker wrote: post #123
surfingdino wrote: post #66

I thought Svalbard was a safe place to keep the world's seeds before I checked who were the neighbours https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barentsburg

Do you think irrational xenophobia is on the rise? And if so, what you would suggest to counter it?

That was so amazing.

Re: Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

#125

Post by dang »

thriftwy wrote: post #89

> Russian shells hit the Plant Genetic Resources Bank in Kharkiv. Founded in 01908, the gene bank preserved the seeds of 160,000 varieties of crops and plant seeds Founded by Russian Empire, propped forward by the USSR. Both of these entities see so much undeserved slander from Ukrainian state and the whole world, so that neither deserve to inherit it. Have your own Mickey Mouse Decolonial seed bank, use that one. Sa…

Come on, please don't take HN threads into flamewar, and especially not nationalistic flamewar. We've had to warn you about this more than once before. Eventually we have to ban such accounts and we've cut you a ton of slack already. I don't want to ban you, so please don't do this!

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

#126

Post by aeternum »

wolverine876 wrote: post #65
aeternum wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My idea can't be wrong, it's the world that must change. That about summarizes these types of articles. Solutions that do not require the world to change its behavior should be favored. Perhaps we could launch seed containers into low orbits such that they automatically and safely return to earth centuries in the future just in case.

The way the world is today, that's the result of earlier people who changed it. Almost everything we have, from religion to politics to technology to morality to language to culture, etc. etc., all comes from people who intentionally changed things. Compare us to our ancestors 10,000 years ago, nomads emerging from the Paleolithic with only stone tools, no writing, etc. Reactionary perspectives - the hot trend of the…

The world has mostly been changed by those who went off and built something themselves or with a small group.

Let's not forget that the world's largest famine was only 60 some years ago and was due to someone persuading a country that food yield should be a lower priority. GMOs and factory farming are the tech that moved humanity forward, the tech that people dreamed, worked and sacrificed for. People no longer starve because some locusts ate all their crops or there wasn't enough rainfall, and that's a pretty big deal.

There's zero nuance in this article, it is heavily biased and has no consideration for the negative externalities such as the lower and less predictable yields, the increased difficulty in farming and processing all the different grains, the cost and risk that the farmers are taking on by planting them.

We almost caused a famine in Sri Lanka recently by pressuring the government into banning chemical fertilizers, causing an economic crash (not the only reason but a significant one). I'm all for progress, but how about we be careful with all the "dreams" that have a decent chance of causing mass starvation.

Re: Gene banks aren’t enough to save the world’s food

#127

Post by Suppafly »

Nevermark wrote: post #46
Suppafly wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making a distinction without a difference there.

Seeds are much more than single cells. Embryos are much more than single cells. The comparison is apt, and highlights a relevant difference.

Sure, but you don't need to bootstrap the whole system to be able to clone a plant and reproduce it. We already can clone plants using single cells, the next step would be to synthesize the cell from raw ingredients.
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