Tomatoes that will change the economy
Normally we associate tomatoes with sauces, ketchup, pizza, ragout and so on, the applicable uses of tomato in gastronomy are almost infinite. Others however are beginning to see other applicable uses for tomatoes such as Bioplastics, or biodegradable plastics. The road to a sustainable agriculture is beginning to engage chemistry at as new agricultural practices are...
Hybrid seeds v GMO’s
Hybrid seeds, GMO (genetically-modified)seeds. most people have the idea that they are the same thing and the terms are often used interchangeably. Both GMO’s and Hybrid varieties refer to varieties that are developed artificially by cross breeding, however there are some significant differences. Hybrid varieties are developed from same species. Hybridisation consists in cross breeding...
Managing Tuta Absoluta
One of the main challenges for tomato growers in recent years has been the difficulty in controlling Tuta Absoluta. A tiny tomato leafmine (Lepidoptera : Gelechiidae), Tuta Absoluta is causing devastating effects for growers in the mediterrenean region. The pest originated from South America where it has been around since the 60’s and was first...
Economy and biodiversity
One of the greatest miss-understandings that we come to accept is that capitalism and biodiversity cannot co-exist, that economy growth cannot happen without giving up our biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of all living organisms (plant animals and microorganisms) and their relationship with the ecosystems. The term applies for all the variety of genes (DNA),...