For thousands of years,

farmers have surveyed their fields and eyed the sky, hoping for good weather and a bumper crop. And when they found particular plants that fared well even in bad weather, were especially prolific, or resisted disease that destroyed neighboring crops, they naturally tried to capture those desirable traits by crossbreeding them into other plants. But it has always been a game of hit or miss. Unable to look inside the plants and know exactly what was producing their favorable characteristics, one could only mix and match plants and hope for the best.

This article was originally published with the title Back to the Future of Cereals.

Comments