This chapter suggests that there is a contradiction between the need for diet diversity and crop uniformity, which is the main feature of industrial agriculture, and that there is also a contradiction between crop uniformity and the need to adapt crops to both short- and long-term climate change...

This chapter considers in detail the question of whether transgenic food production affects world food prices. Sections examine: the long-term trends in international prices; the effects of increased Asian demand on food prices; the relationship between US ethanol production and maize prices; the...

This chapter interrogates the assumptions that outsiders make in understanding local farmers' knowledge and practices, and their methodological implications. It investigates what farmers in the Oaxaca region of Mexico expect and achieve with maize seed selection, their perceptions of the risks that ...

Although maize is a staple food crop that contributes a large percentage of calories to human diets in a few countries, its major use worldwide is for animal feed. One approach to improve the metabolizable energy of maize for feed applications involves increasing kernel oil content, because oil has ...

Ranked on the basis of harvested mass, the top five cereals in the world are maize (corn), rice, wheat, barley and sorghum. However, the commercial application of biotechnology over these five species is heavily skewed. Only in maize are there genetically engineered varieties currently marketed to...

This chapter describes relevant technologies and their development in maize transformation for both random and targeted transgene integration. It focuses on the recombinant DNA techniques and transformation methods used by the commercial maize biotech sector. Although there has been considerable...

This chapter details the significant global adoption of genetically engineered maize and surveys current traits and future trends. The first generation of commercial biotech maize products were single-gene, insect-resistant traits for Lepidopteran pests, primarily European corn borers, Ostrinia...

In the early 1980s, the ability to transform and regenerate plants opened the way for developing biotechnological strategies to control virus infections. This chapter focuses on how knowledge of RNA silencing has been applied successfully to confer virus resistance in principal crops, i.e....

Asparagine (Asn) is an amino acid which serves as a carrier and storage form of nitrogen. In this chapter, the history, chemical properties and general role of Asn will be examined, followed by an account of the history of asparagine synthetase (AsnS) research in humans, microbes and plants. The...