2. 3
1
4
14
1
What do you know about farming?
1. I am a farmer
2. I grew up and/or have lived in a farming community
3. I am a city person, but members of my family farm
4. I have no experience of farming
5. Whatโs a farm?
3. 5%
5%
9%
27%
55%
When did people start to farm?
1. People have always farmed
2. Around 10,000 years ago
3. Around 5,000 years ago
4. Around 2,000 years ago
5. Around 500 years ago
7. When? Why? How?
9000BC Wheat/barley, Fertile Crescent
8000BC Potatoes, South America
7500BC Goats/sheep, Middle East
7000BC Rye, Europe
6000BC Chickens, South Asia
3500BC Horse, West Asia
3000BC Cotton, South America
2700BC Corn, North America
12. Change: mutation & crossing
โข Natural mutations and crosses
โข Selection for desirable traits
โข Deliberate crossing/hybridisation
13. Deliberate plant breeding
โข Realisation that attributes of plants could be
deliberately influenced
โข Launched plant breeding as necessity
(disease) and โpastimeโ
โข Gradual realisation that there must be
principles underlying this process
โข Constant searches to find new plant material
for cross-breeding
14. Breakthrough of โgeneticsโ
โข Could observe some underlying principlesโฆ
โข Led to gradual understanding and discovery of
genetics and inheritance. More of this in next
session
โข But allowed breeding, and breeding process,
to become much more focussed and
productive
15. Where are we today
โข All our crops are โmodifiedโ in some way
โข Plant breeding and selection have been basic
way of life for farmers for millennia
โข Techniques have developed over time
โข Current technological options just part of this
continuum
โข Risks from traditional breeding?
16. Agricultural systems
โข Crop rotation
โข Sustainable agriculture
โข Sustainable intensification
โข Organic
But these are all potentially complementary
techniques, not alternatives
20. Modern-day crops/foods
โข Are often not indigenous
โข Have (in the main) been significantly altered
by humans over 1000s of years
โข And are therefore โgenetically modifiedโ
(but are NOT GMOโs)