Instead of playing God with our day to day crops with Genetically Modifying our foods... which deep down we must know bodes ill...
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/gmoquote.htm
http://www.cqs.com/50harm.htm
Why meddle with perfection???

What we need to do is have a close look at what we already have that will work for us!!!! see which crops will work best in which areas... and how well they can grow together etc... permaculture etc...

Here's an amusing scenario that hopefully will light a few minds.... from Noel Vietmeyer

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceed...0/v1-forwd.html


The New Crops Era
Noel Vietmeyer


"If the ruler of a distant planet sent you to Earth to assess its plant resources, you'd find that nature's storehouse is truly huge. For example, your initial global inventory would turn up:

* 3,000 tropical fruits 10,000 grasses
* 18,000 legumes (members of the family Leguminoseae)
* 1,500 edible nuts 1,500 edible mushrooms 60,000 medicinal plants
* 3,000 species with purported contraceptive powers
* 2,000 plants with pesticidal properties, and
* 30,000 tropical trees.

Given all that, you'd go back and report to your leader that earthlings are very stupid. Pointing to almost every category of plant resource, you would easily convince him that people have neglected to take advantage of what their planet offers. Were he to colonize earth, you would say, he could do a far better job of managing the place.

In demonstrating where your omnipotent ruler could make vast improvements, you might for instance note that:

* Of the 3,000 tropical fruits only four—banana, mango, pineapple and papaya—are produced in any quantity on a global scale.
* Of the 10,000 grasses only seven—wheat, rice, maize, barley, sorghum, rye and oats—are employed globally, even though earthlings consider grains from grasses to be "staffs of life," and "foundations of civilization."
* Of the 18,000 legumes, only six—peas, beans, soybeans, peanuts, alfalfa and clover—are used intensively, despite the fact that legumes tend to be remarkably rugged and nutritious plants.

And you would show that only a handful of the nuts, mushrooms, medicinal and contraceptive plants, natural pesticides, and tropical trees are even in research projects.

Turning from the dismal inventory, you would then begin listing the ills of the mismanaged planet: malnutrition, deforestation, desertification, erosion, overpopulation, imbalances of wealth, and others. Finally, with your unbiased vision you would triumphantly demonstrate how your leader could apply the thousands of neglected earth plants to solve such problems.

All that is fantasy of course, but at this time in history we need to step back and look at the earth's resources without our cultural baggage. Many solutions to worldwide problems are on hand if only we earthlings would open our minds to new resources. If another planet used as small a proportion of its natural resources as we do, we would scoff at its lack of vision. Nature offers thousands of potential resources, yet we cling desperately to a handful of plants and animals, most of which were domesticated thousands of years ago by our Stone Age forebears."









http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/default.html

The idea is to learn about all the options... work out where else in the world these crops...foods can be grown...market it... commercialize it...share it with the world ...instead of creating more GM foods!!!

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/food...es/s1167540.htm



http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/bushtucker/more.html
http://www.bushtuckershop.com/
http://www.nativetech.org/recipes/index.php
http://www.csir.co.za/plsql/ptl0002/PTL000...EASE_NO=1800028

http://www.inra.unu.edu/programme_area2.htm
http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik8.htm
http://www.maorifood.com/
http://livingheritage.org/indigenous-food.htm
http://asiarecipe.com/ingredients.html



Women of Zaheerabad take on Monsanto
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?con...;articleId=3427




http://www.fian.org/live/index.php?option=...=81&uaID=34
Brazil: Malnutrition causes the death of indigenous children in Mato Grosso do Sul
The number of starvation deaths among the indigenous Guarani- Kaiowá children in Mato Grosso do Sul keeps growing. In the two first months of this year, six persons who died of malnutrition in the indigenous reserve of Dourados were registered. Another five children died from hunger in the village of Amambai, in the municipality of Amambai.It is estimated that in total already 17 children under five years of age have died this year from under nutrition in the indigenous villages of Mato Grosso do Sul. The cause for this situation is the lack of land which results from land grabbing and destruction of the indigenous peoples` traditional land, and from the policy of restriction and the loss of freedom of movement. There has been a process of violence against these persons and against the indigenous populations´ forms of life. The forests where it is possible to hunt were destroyed by timber-merchants and the farmers´ tractors. The indigenous communities had used them to collect food like fruits, honey and raw material to construct houses and tools.


http://www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2007...ke_on_mo_1.html