News & Views

The Sixth International Ecocity Conference (Ecocity6) in Bangalore, India

December 3 - 6, 2006. This is a landmark gathering of sustainablists from all over the world. Previously, the conference has been held in Berkeley, Australia, Senegal, Brazil, and China. The conference brings together some of the finest minds to discuss the intersections between urban development, governance, the environment, technologies, education, NGOs, and industry. Attendees are farmers/gardeners, ecologists, regional planners, community organizers, bioengineers, and "anyone wanting to learn more about the healthy city of the future: the Ecocity." Symposia will include Urban Settlement and Ecological Environments, Cultural and Social Environment, Urban Climate and Climate Change, and Efficient and Sustainable Urban Utilities Management. The goal of Ecocity Builders, one of the sponsors of the conference, is to cultivate a healthy biodiversity in the heart of cities and to bring agriculture back to the streets of the urban world.

For more information, check the conference web site http://www.tciconferences.com/ecocity2006/ecocity2006.htm

Advances in the Cutting-edge Techniques of Genomics

A new type of biotechnology has been quietly developing in the past decade that will most likely replace controversial "transgene" GMO technology in the world of plant breeding. The cutting-edge techniques of genomics, in particular marker-assisted selection, use both new advances in screening for desirable genes within the genome of one crop and its known relatives as well as Landraces to speed the process of classical plant breeding. Marker-assisted selection allows researchers to rapidly acquire information and identify useful existing genes within a crop group, while avoiding the environmental risks and political controversy associated with genetically modified crops that may contain, for example, transgenes from a fish or bacteria. This is an evolving field within plant breeding that gardeners and farmers should become familiar with, as we are likely to hear much more about it in the future, and because it has the potential to integrate with agro-ecological approaches to food production.

For a self-guided tour of this topic, start with: "Beyond Genetically Modified Crops," by Jeremy Rifkin in The Non-GMO Report, Volume 6, Issue 8, August 2006.
See also "Seed Firms Bolster Crops Using Traits of Distant Relatives" by Scott Kilman in The Wall Street Journal, October 31, 2006.

An organic farmer in the Senate!

John Tester, the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Montana, narrowly beat his opponent, incumbent Conrad Burns in Tuesday's midterm elections. Tester is an organic farmer who grows wheat, barley, lentils, peas, millet, buckwheat, alfalfa, and hay on his High Plains prairie farm, which has been in his family for three generations. A former custom butcher and member of the Big Sandy Soil Conservation Service, Tester is easily recognized by his famous buzz cut and a left-hand missing three fingers. According to the New York Times, "he is probably the only major candidate for Senate who took time off in the heat of a campaign to harvest his crop."

As a company, Seeds of Change espouses no particular color of politics, but we are all for a politician who understands the seasons of farm life and the importance of organic production.

The New York Times, Thursday, November 9, 2006 or visit http://www.testerforsenate.com/about