Agricultural Research: The Summer in Retrospect

It was a long, hot summer. As this is written in late December the last of the cotton is being harvested on area farms and this year is almost in the books. We had more rain this year and the historic drought has abated somewhat.

This might be a good time to look back, not so much on the past season but on what agricultural research means. We focus our attention on things like new insect resistant crops, pest management, increased yields with better crop genetics and lower inputs and less water etc. There is a vast industry involved in these things and I am but a small part. If one looks at the yield per acre of all of our crops it quickly becomes apparent that we, the collective agricultural researchers in both industry and academia, have made enormous progress, especially in the last 80 years. Here are some historical corn yields from Iowa. This is something to be proud of but the progress must continue if we are to keep pace with increasing world population.

What we do in agricultural research today is important today, but in reality it will not last. We are like workers setting the lower stones in a pyramid that will take thousands of years to build; we set our stones as a foundation for those who come after us. They, in turn, will set their stones for those that follow, and so it will be for as long as people grow crops on earth. There will be triumphs and there will be challenges, but the one constant is that nothing in nature lasts and we must always continue to move forward. So at the end of a hard year it is good to know that I have made some little contributions to knowledge and have set one or two stones in the pyramid.

The photos below are from this season. The first is of my corn being augured from the combine to the truck that will take it to the elevator. The second is of USDA-ARS researchers harvesting cotton plots.

On The Edge of D-Day

 June 4th, 1944, and the ships and landing craft are loaded. It has been almost five years since the start of the war and the once invincible Nazis have finally been driven back by the Soviets and the campaigns in Africa and Italy. But the Germans are strong in France and ready to repel any invasion. This war has a long way to go and the third front, France, is almost here.

Bad weather would postpone the invasion for a day, but the gliders and paratroopers were on their way to their destinations on the night of June 5th. And on that night, the greatest naval armada ever assembled began its transit to the beaches of Normandy.

June 6th is, of course, the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, what we now call D-Day. But on that day the outcome was far from certain and there was going to be a terrible price to be paid for the liberation of Europe. It might be fitting to take a few minutes to reflect on the sacrifices of  the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who, seventy years ago, faced the greatest challenge of their time. These were our parents, and it is fitting that we reflect on them in the aircraft or ships or boats in darkness as they crossed the English Channel for the final assault on Hitler's empire. Their parents, our grandparents, waited by the radio for news of the invasion and wondered whether Western Union would be bringing them a telegram to say that their son or daughter had died bravely in defense of the country. Seventy years is not that long ago. Here is General Eisenhower's address to the troops, sent out on the eve of the battle.  Regardless of your political views, Ronald Reagan gave a poignant address on the 40th anniversary of D-Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTLVIp1AjAg .

Rain, finally (5.26.14)

I don't remember the last time we had a significant amount of rainfall. A look at the drought map of Texas will show that we are in what is called "exceptional drought", the most extreme category. Exceptional indeed! On Friday we had 1.89 inches of rain, the most in any single month since 2010, and then an additional 4 inches fell on Saturday through Monday. Tonight there is flooding in south Lubbock and cars are floating in the parking lots of some businesses.

It is interesting that there is not much complaining about this; we all know that this is the fourth year of a record drought, one that is even worse than the historic drought of the mid-1950s and even the Dust Bowl days. These rains have done done wonders in terms of spirits and optimism, and they have had the very practical benefit of coming just in time to allow the dryland cotton crop to be planted before the insurance cut-off date, past which the crop would be uninsurable. So in spite of flooding and hail damage, West Texans are grateful for the rains; the most we have had in many years. The drought is not over, not by a mile, but at least we can plant the crops, the playa lakes are recharged and some of the small towns around here that are about to run out of water have extra time to wait for more rain.

Here are a couple of photos from my research farm.

Planting time again

It has started; pre-plant irrigation, experimental design, field marking and seed sorting. And so I begin another season of corn insect research. There is a certain kind of energy in this, perhaps as a reply to winter, but certainly in anticipation of learning more about corn insects in the coming year. Each year the work gets harder, probably because I am now 55 years old and still do my own field work. Other professors have crews of (young) laborers to do the field work, but I don't follow that path. I have found that being in the field and doing the work every day allows me to observe things that might be missed if I had stayed in the office. There is something that is right about working twelve hours in the heat and having the satisfaction of knowing that things were done throughly and well. Of course the downside is aching muscles, exhaustion and occasional back problems, but hey, I still have a few good years left, I hope.

The photo below shows the seed corn that will be in four experiments this year. I work with transgenic (GMO) corn and make no apologies to the Lunatic Fringe for that. This corn resists pest damage and lowers both insecticide use and losses to insects and has lower mycotoxin levels than conventional corn. Transgenics are the future, and this is how we are going to feed the increasing billions of people on earth in the coming years. (I have written about this in an older post here.) And yes, Monsanto and Pioneer are supporting my research; they are my allies in the goal to help grow more food for more people.

So it is on with the season. There will be many long, hot days ahead and I hope there are some important discoveries to be made.

New cameras, new possibilities

I have been taking pictures since 1965 and have had many cameras along the way. I still have the beat up old Minolta 101 that I used in high school, and perhaps 75 yards of the black and white film negatives that it produced. When the digital camera revolution arrived and I jumped in with a 1.3 megapixel Olympus. Today we have 24 megapixels or better and there seems to be an arms race among DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera manufacturers like Nikon and Canon; they are adding more and better pixels. But there is a new technology that is gaining ground; mirrorless digital cameras. These have the advantage of not needing a mirror in them, which allows for a smaller and lighter camera with all of the image quality of the bigger and heavier DSLRs.

In the last year I have been experimenting with these new cameras and all of mine are made by Fuji. Wow! They are light and easy to carry and do many things that would have been thought to be miracles 40 years ago, but the bottom line is that the image quality is excellent. Back in the day (1974), my camera had two adjustments; shutter speed and aperture. Today one can alter any aspect of the four major contributors to the image; shutter speed, aperture, sensitivity to light and size and type of file created (.jpg or RAW). (The Photoshop wizards in the world like RAW files because they can make so many changes to them, but I have never learned to use Photoshop and don't really care.)

I am not ready to give up my big cameras, but I find this new world of mirrorless to be intriguing; it is the future. I took my Fujis to my local camera store and loaned them to the owner for a week. He liked them so much that he became a Fuji dealer. There is something to this mirrorless camera revolution. In the end, cameras are just tools and most of them can produce good images if the photographer does his or her part. But mirrorless cameras do it with much less size, weight and cost.

Here is a shot of my Intern building an insect trap. The shop was very dark, the light was flat and I had to push the Fuji pretty hard. I don't think my big cameras could have done any better.

Telephone Books: Time to Go

This photo was taken at the Post Office; telephone books delivered and immediately discarded by the recipients. I understand that some people still need telephone books, but why must we all get them? Why can't people who want a telephone book subscribe to one? The answers are obvious; the telephone book company sets its advertising rates according to the number of books distributed, whether or not people actually use them or leave them at the Post Office or throw them in the trash. One has to wonder whether the businesses that advertise in the telephone book have asked the sticky question of how many people actually use one. Businesses, and their fear of being unrepresented, are the only thing keeping telephone books afloat; note that the photo shows the yellow pages toward the front of the book and the personal listings toward the back. This is a reversal from years past.

Most people now use cell phones or computers to get information on local businesses. For me it is a quick question posed to Siri on an iPhone, or I can look up the business website. Each of these discarded books weighs on the order of 1.5 pounds and it would be interesting to know how many tons of paper are being wasted each year, even for my little town. Now extrapolate that for a nation of 315 million people, most of whom live in much larger cities with much heavier telephone books.

For many of us the value of a telephone book is less than the paper it is printed on. Telephone books are on their way out, and pretending they are more popular than they are won't extend their life for much longer. So perhaps it is time to push for a change in practice; those people who want a telephone book should be allowed to subscribe to one, but the rest of us should be spared this waste of resources.

Insulting the Electorate

Is it any wonder that we have no respect for politicians?

Election primary season is upon us here in West Texas, and the radio airwaves are filled with advertisements for Republican politicians. (Democrats are an endangered species, hence no advertisements.) Rather than a respectful discussion of issues, we are being subjected to a shameful display of lies and deceit wherein one politician is attempting to distort the record(s) or past actions of his opponent(s) in the hope that the voters will consider him (the liar) to be more conservative on the issues. One example is that our sitting Congressman has a radio advertisement that says his opponent has, for the last 16 years, contributed money to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (both of whom are, of course, stepchildren of Satan). This advertisement forced the opponent to create his own radio rebuttal wherein he explained that, as an eye surgeon, he contributed to his professional organization which in turn provided support for various political parties including the Democrats. The topics for which the misrepresentation is most vociferous are taxes, illegal immigration, Obama Care, Barack Obama and the Democrats.

The reality seems to be that any lie is fine so long as it helps win the primary. There is a whole industry that has been built up to create and perpetuate the lies, from the advertising agencies to the media outlets that profit from running the commercials. Yesterday I heard one rather ignorant host on one of the radio stations saying that these Republican candidates agree on 95% of the issues, so they need to draw sharp distinctions with their opponents on the 5% where they disagree, and the radio advertisements are acceptable because they do that. But they don't; they are lies and distortions that directly profit the station for which the commentator works. So I guess that is what makes it acceptable.

Truth is hard to find when candidates will twist their own records into what they think you want to hear and have no reservation about misrepresenting their opponents. So what is the truth? The only truth that I can see in any of this is that the politicians who would distort the record of their opponent(s) are showing their disrespect for the people of this state. Put the truth on the table, put your records on the table and let us decide. Lying to us is not only insulting, it shows us what you really think of us.

The Stereopticon Perspective

Let yourself go back in time to when land line telephones were uncommon and expensive, winter clothing was made of wool and cars were a luxury for many people. Airline travel was exclusively the domain of the very wealthy and most Americans had never traveled out of the state of their birth. Many households had only recently been electrified and connectivity meant fountain pen, paper and the U.S. Mail and the news of the world arrived by newspaper and/or vacuum tube radio in the living room. What most Americans knew of other nations of the world was what someone else told them through the media of the day.

One technology that peaked in this era was the Stereopticon. These devices first appeared in the 1860s and lasted until radio became common in most homes and people could go to movie theaters and watch newsreels of current events. The stereopticon was the way people saw images of the world around them and I have my Grandmother's stereopticon and five volumes of hundreds of image cards that show what the world was like from before WWI to the late 1930s. Each image card contains two photos, the horizontal axis of which is slightly offset so that, when viewed through two lenses, a stereo (or depth) effect is produced. The image is rendered as 3-dimensional, much like a modern 3-D movie. Photos are shown below.

For the U.S.A. there are images of African Americans picking cotton in Mississippi, early mechanized farm equipment, the new Empire State Building in New York and the most modern factories, trains and airplanes; modernization and progress seem to be the theme. The cards from Germany show the classic Oktoberfest scenes and famous churches, but also a rising Nazi Germany; Swastika-clad Zeppelins and monoplanes. The rest of Europe is represented as mostly the places American tourists would visit if they ever got to Europe. The world outside of the U.S. and Europe is mostly depicted as peasants working the fields or factories, and these are interspaced with classic buildings from the country in question. (See photo 3 below.) Japan is represented by cards that show women picking tea leaves, a group of farmers planting rice, and the most technology shown in any photo is of a stall full of Japanese sandal-style shoes. The subtle message was that the U.S.A. and Europe were better; more advanced and more civilized. But of course we were, and it was nice to see it affirmed.

This was the way it was, or at least the way the American consumer at the time was led to think it was. The thing that strikes me about the photos for the stereopticon is how easy it would be to believe that the "other" people in the world were as shown; I don't believe they were, but I believe the company that sold the photo cards gave U.S. citizens the view of other nations that their customers expected to see.

I can understand how when WWII broke out it was easy for us to be convinced to think of our adversaries as "Huns and Japs"; we had really only been exposed to media that presented things as the audience wished them to be ("we are better") or as the media source wished to present them ("all of them are our enemies"). What harm could that do?

One example of harm is one of our great national disgraces; the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry in WWII. We allowed our fellow citizens to be denied their rights as citizens, taken from their homes, stripped of all property and moved across the country to be put in detention camps. How could this happen, and with so little objection? Were these people, to most Americans, neighbors and fellow citizens or the people depicted on stereopticon cards and labeled as dangerous by the newspapers and radio? The answer would seem to be obvious. I am not in any way attempting to excuse the treatment of our fellow citizens by the U.S. Government (us), for it will always be a source of great national shame, but I think I see how it could happen; one-way filtered perspectives make it easy to believe only what we are shown. (Take a few minutes to read about the 442nd Infantry Regiment in WWII. It was composed of U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry, many of whom had family in the internment camps. The law that started the internments was signed 72 years ago tomorrow, Feb. 19, 1942 - not that long ago.)

But we are beyond that now, right? Be careful if you only listen to media outlets that tell you what you want to hear, or that only tell you what they want you to know. To some extent we are just looking at modern versions of the stereopticon cards.

 The stereopticon illuminating a slide of a U.S. Mail biplane.

Typical stereopticon card from the U.S.A.

Stereopticon card from Russia. The caption reads, "Interesting Peasant Types in the Street of a Rural Village in Russia". 

Old Military Rifles

I have a few old rifles that were involved in 20^th Century history. These come from the Soviet Union, USA, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, but my favorites are the Swedish Mausers. My oldest Swede was made in 1899 and is still an accurate rifle that I shoot occasionally, but, more importantly, it represents a way of thinking that protected a nation throughout WWI and WWII.

The Mauser rifle was developed in Germany near the end of the 1800s and the Swedes licensed the right to produce their own version. Sweden had the best steel in the world and produced these rifles through 1944. The rifles are bolt action, which means that to load each round of ammunition the operator was required to pull the bolt back, extract a spent shell casing, and then push the bolt forward to put a new round in the chamber. By today’s standards of automatic and semi-automatic rifles this is obsolete, but by the standards of the day these were the finest and most accurate rifles on the planet. 

Deterrence matters in preserving peace. Before WWII the Nazis made a deal to buy Swedish iron ore. Sweden was neutral when the war broke out and, because the iron ore was critical to the German war effort, they could have been invaded as their neighbor Norway had been.  As a neutral nation, Sweden continued to sell iron ore to Germany but, as part of the deal, Germany had to deliver to Sweden some of their finest military rifle scopes, the Ajack. Sweden was and is a nation of shooters, and their citizens at the time had to undergo compulsory military training that included the use of rifles. All citizen soldiers took their rifles home with them so as to be ready for quick mobilization. Shortly after the outbreak of war, when the German need for iron ore was increasing, the Nazis realized that they had sent the best rifle scopes in the world to an armed and prepared nation of accomplished shooters with the finest rifles in the world; the invasion of Sweden never happened. The Swedes and their magnificent rifles and trained populace prevented an invasion; there is something to be said for an armed citizenry.

In my collection I have reminders of bad ideas; Nazi rifles (German Mausers) that were captured on the Russian front from the hands of the aggressors, and Soviet rifles that were captured by Finland in the Winter War, improved and then turned on the Soviet invaders. There are reminders of success and victory as well; Soviet rifles that were never captured and may have been in Berlin on VE Day, and U.S. rifles that were carried by our troops in the European theater and the Pacific. These old rifles are not worth very much and the U.S. Government classifies them as “Curios and Relics”, but to me old military rifles are more than about shooting; they are tangible reminders from recent history of lessons that should not be forgotten.

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As an addendum, here is a bit more about Swedish Mausers. Each was built one piece at a time and all parts were custom fitted with every other part. Most parts of the rifle are numbered, and when all the numbers match it indicates that the rifle is totally original as it came from the armory. Over time from 1898 through the Second World War, cartridges advanced to higher bullet velocities. The Swedes had thousands of rifles with old and expensive-to-replace rear sights for elevation that were not adequate for the new ammunition. The solution to this problem was not new rifles, it was the addition of a metal tag to the stock of the rifle that informed the infantryman how to interpret the elevation on the old sight to match the new ammunition. It was a simpler time, but these bolt action rifles remained the best ever made, and still are today. The last Swedish Mauser was retired from Swedish military service in 1995.

The rifle pictured above was made in 1903. The brass disk in the photo above indicates that this was rifle number 867 of the 71st area of the 20th Infantry Regiment, Landstormen (experienced troops used for area defense). The rectangular metal plate indicates the elevation adjustment for new ammunition issued after this rifle was made. 

You can read more about the Swedish Mausers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Mauser .

The camera does not make the photographer

I attended an excellent insect photography workshop a couple of years ago and the attendees included everything from poor students to wealthy retired people. It was interesting to note that several of the older people had the finest expensive camera equipment and thought themselves above using anything less than the best. The other school of thought was exemplified by the graduate students who had point and shoot cameras for the most part, and lots of imagination. The workshop reminded me that the camera does not make the photographer. If you don't believe me then check out The Bug Geek's photos taken with a point and shoot camera. Her blog is here. 

I have some fairly expensive camera equipment, mostly because there are times when I need it on the job. However, I know full well that the equipment does not make the photo, the photographer does. (Or in my case sometimes I get lucky and get a good photo.) I have a Canon 5D MkIII at work and you might think I used it to take this photo of sorghum at sunrise. No, this is an iPhone shot straight off the camera.

I rest my case; certainly not about being a good photographer, but about getting lucky occasionally. And about the camera not making the photographer. 

Local vs. online shopping

We have a real camera store in Lubbock, the only real camera store between Dallas, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is not a Big Box store with inexperienced, rotating 20-somethings trying to sell cameras, computers and refrigerators to customers, it is a real store staffed by people who are expert photographers and who are devoted to photography and customer service; they want their customers to take great photos. I visit the store frequently and listen to the staff help walk-in people with camera problems, make honest recommendations on new equipment, and provide photographic advice. This is what is quaintly known these days as "full service" and it costs money to have experts on staff six days a week. 

The store sells cameras, lenses and accessories for suggested retail price. The inventory is easily worth $250,000 just so that customers can buy what they need when they enter the store. My local store is in competition with online retailers and Big Box stores who, with lower prices and often no real inventory, offer no support or expertise and just sell cameras and lenses (and good luck if you have a problem with them). Why the price difference? The first factor is volume; it is cheaper to sell to thousands than it is to sell to tens. The second is service; local experts willing to help. The third is sales tax which is 8.25% here. 

I do buy clothes online from retailers like LL Bean and Orvis because it is impossible to get quality cotton field clothes locally. However, I make every effort to buy local items from local merchants; if I can get it locally I buy it locally. The people in our small local stores provide excellent service at fair prices, and that is something I value. During my time at the local camera store I have seen people walk in and take an hour or more of the staff time to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of particular cameras, and then demand a discount equivalent to the price on some online store that provides no service and has no sales tax. You can imagine what I think about this behavior. (And how will my local store pay the man or woman who spent the hour answering your questions and providing you unbiased, honest advice?)  The fact of the matter is that local is quality, local is service, and local is good for all of us. Buy local when you can, it matters. 

Who owns this country?

The government shutdown is still in full swing and National Parks and National Monuments are closed. The news media are reporting that WWII veterans were not allowed to visit the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. until Congress intervened. In fact our West Texas Senator, Randy Neugebauer, was in the news for disagreeing with a Park Service employee who refused to let the veterans visit the memorial. Good for him; the WWII veterans earned the right to visit the memorial that honors their service to the nation. Period.

However, this episode and the shutdown of parks and monuments has made me wonder who owns them and, by extension, who owns this country. I would suggest that many of the open spaces that have been shut down should be open to all citizens, even if the rest of the government is shut down. In theory these open spaces belong to us. Recall the recent Public Broadcasting Service television ad that showed many wild places in national parks and said, "This belongs to you". Well, maybe not anymore? (I am strictly writing of the parks and forests and monuments; the lands and treasures in our nation that we hold in common as citizens, and I am not making any inference about buildings, services and agencies.) I think, at least for this writer, there is a difference between my country and my government; the latter does not own the former. The shutdown has forced me to reckon with this issue and I think it is wrong to close access to the land and the monuments; they are owned by the people of the nation and not the government. The government's role is one of a caretaker to hold them in trust across generations, but we, the citizens, own the National Parks, Forests and Monuments. And I hope we still own this country. 

Non-partisan thoughts on the government shutdown (October 2013)

Will Rogers (http://www.cmgww.com/historic/rogers/index.html) is my favorite American Philosopher. He was born in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and grew up as a working cowboy. By the time of his death in 1935 he was the most famous humorist in the country. His humor was actually built on keen observations of contemporary American life. Almost all of his statements about politicians are completely relevant today. So for your enjoyment and reflection in this time of Federal Government gridlock and shutdown, I bring you the words of Will Rogers. These non-partisan comments from Will would seem to apply no matter which side you are on.

From Will Rogers:

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.

If Stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?

If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics.

The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other. 

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

We are the Sons of Martha (July 2013)

Rudyard Kipling published a poem in 1907 that has been wisely adopted by engineers and others who toil with things of the earth. When was the last time you thought about the people who built the roads and bridges on which you drive every day? Or the men and women who worked to put the gasoline in the car you used to drive on those roads? Or the men and women who built the office building in which you work, or who generate the electricity that powers the lights and the air conditioning? It would also seem that this poem applies to many of us in agriculture who work long hours in the heat and the dust. The work done by farmers, ranchers and others often goes unnoticed by people who lack nothing when they visit the grocery store. These, the grocery store people, would seem to be the sons of Mary, and it is easy to forget the sons of Martha who made it possible. We, the sons of Martha, are destined to be forgotten when it comes time to recall promises made.  

This poem is based on the biblical story presented in Luke 10:38-42. The story is essentially that Jesus visited the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha, and Mary sat and listened to Jesus' teachings while Martha worked to make sure he was comfortable while their guest. Eventually Martha asked that Mary help with the work and Jesus remonstrated her by saying that Mary had chosen "what was better". Of course I am sure this is true. However, if we were all to do what was better then it would seem we would eventually not have what was necessary; someone must attend to the needs. I think Kipling was trying to tell us about these people who are easy to forget in a nation that has plenty. 

The Sons of Martha is posted here: http://www.online-literature.com/donne/920/ . 

The Sons Of Martha
Rudyard Kipling, 1907

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart. And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest. 

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main. 

They say to mountains ``Be ye removed.'' They say to the lesser floods ``Be dry.''
Under their rods are the rocks reproved---they are not afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit---then is the bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware. 

They finger Death at their gloves' end where they piece and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,
And hale him forth like a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall. 

To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden---under the earthline their altars are---
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city's drouth. 

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not preach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when they damn-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's ways may be long in the land. 

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat;
Lo, it is black already with the blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need. 

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed---they know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the feet---they hear the Word---they see how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and---the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!

On technology and lazy thinking (April 2013)

Things have changed since I started using computers. In the old days (1970s) we would punch data cards, run them through a card reader and then walk across campus to get our dot matrix printout on that wide paper with the holes punched in the sides. (Younger people reading this have no idea what I am talking about.) Today everything is instant; instant information and instant answers. However, instant does not mean better, and it certainly does not mean good, accurate, reasoned or fair. Last week a local TV station had an "investigative report" on the supposed allergenic danger posed by transgenic (genetically modified) crops. I was shocked to listen to the ignorance and misinformation presented as fact. Almost nothing in the report was accurate and the young reporter did not know enough about the subject to even question the credibility of her "sources", which included a web-captured misleading and factually false video from an anti-GM group.

It seems that this world of "instant" has led to a lot of lazy thinking. I don't know whether schools have stopped teaching critical thinking but my experience with recent college students leads me to believe that they have. On average, college students can't think and can't write. Of course there are exceptions, and these students are an increasingly valuable commodity. As to the media, perhaps the professionals out there think they can get away with garbage reporting because their audience won't know the difference between good work and shoddy work. Or perhaps the media professionals don't know the difference themselves. Either way the acknowledgement of these possibilities make me profoundly worried for the future of the nation.

Why we need transgenic crops (April 2013)

My job is to provide pest control options for everyone, be they organic, conventional or transgenic growers. A recent exchange of opinions on one of the social media sites made it clear to me that there is a lot of misunderstanding about transgenic crops. I have worked with them for 23 years and, as an agricultural entomologist and agronomist, my perspective comes from the trenches.

First of all, we will soon have 9 billion people in the world and will have to feed them on less land and with less water. Although it is counter-intuitive, population growth goes down when food supplies are adequate and stable, and population growth goes up when the reverse is true. (This is documented fact but we know it anyway: think of population growth in Europe vs. India or China before the One Child policy.) Organic agriculture has lower yields and higher risk of crop failure than either conventional (chemical) agriculture or transgenic crop agriculture. There is no way organic agriculture can feed the world. However, I’m glad we live in a wealthy nation where we have the option of buying more expensive organic food but, then again, we spend only about 9.8 percent of our incomes on food.

Now think about many of the poorer nations in the world where people spend 30 - 40 percent of their incomes on food (http://wsm.wsu.edu/researcher/WSMaug11_billions.pdf). If food production declines or supply can't meet increasing demand then world food prices will go up. We in the wealthy nations will not stop buying the more expensive food on the world market. We will pay more and the people in the poor countries will have less and it will cost them more. We need to grow more food on less land, else the poorer nations in the world will suffer disproportionate deprivation. (We saw this a few years ago when lower U.S. corn production and the ethanol mandate in the U.S. created a world shortage of corn. Corn went from $2.50/bushel to $8.50 and we barely noticed in the U.S. Our farmers then shifted production to corn by reducing the acres planted to wheat and soybeans; less of these commodities were produced and their prices skyrocketed on the world market. Developing nations could no longer afford to buy wheat, soybeans or corn.)

Given this, there are really no other options than to use transgenic technology – or vastly increase the use of crop protectant chemicals that are expensive and often dangerous to apply without the proper technology and protective equipment. We have transgenic crops that grow more yield on less water and fertilizer, produce more yield due to less insect damage and loss to disease, and some contain far more nutrients than conventional crops.

Transgenic crops are expensive to develop and seed companies must invest large amounts of money in research, testing, seed production and in meeting regulatory requirements. No one is forced to buy transgenic seed; farmers do it because these crops increase their yields and/or save money through reduced input costs. Yes, many farmers, because of the cost, hold their noses when they buy seed, but they understand that transgenics reduce the risk of farming and often result in higher net farm income even after paying the higher price for transgenic seed than for conventional seed.

Do I wish we could feed the world without using chemicals or transgenics? Yes. Can we? No, not even close. I work with transgenic crops because I believe they are the only way to feed the world in the future. Transgenic crops are relatively new and we have never done this before. There will be stumbles, like insects becoming resistant to some of the technology or like herbicide tolerant weeds. Part of my job is to help determine where things went wrong and help avoid making other mistakes in the future. Seed companies want to avoid these mistakes because they would reduce the value of their technology, and also because they know that transgenic crops are the best hope of feeding an increasing world population. I will also say that I know many people that work for seed companies and they are people just like us. Their motivation is not world market dominance or monopoly, it is creating crops that can feed people. I’m not going to get in to Mitt Romney’s statement that corporations are people, but I am going to say that there are many fine and well meaning people working for Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta and Pioneer. The truth is that the world needs them and their technology.

Pumping Air (August 2013)

It is late June on the Southern High Plains of Texas and we are in the third year of a major drought. There are three irrigation wells that supply the water needed on the Experiment Station and they are dropping off at a precipitous rate. The north well, the one with the highest capacity, is already pumping air at times. I do research on corn, a crop that is considered to be "high water use" as compared to cotton and sorghum, and it is looking more and more like I won't have the water needed to complete my research for this year. We are at the southern tip of the Ogallala Aquifer and irrigation and urban use are depleting this resource at an alarming rate. 


All of this has me thinking back to the Dust Bowl, a time when farmers expanded crop production on marginal land and prayed that the necessary rain would come, which of course it did not. Things are different now, to some degree, thanks to irrigation systems like center pivots and subsurface drip. But things are the same as well; we are all ultimately dependent on rainfall and farmers are always praying for rain (without hail). The Ogallala is declining and won't be able to provide our irrigation water for much longer. Of course we are working on research into drought tolerant crops and production systems that maximize water use efficiency, but in the end it is all about the water we pump from the ground, for a time, and the rain that falls from the sky. I listen to the national news and hear about debates in Washington and rulings by the Supreme Court. Of course these things matter on a larger scale, but we who live by nature's rules are totally dependent on what happens on a very small scale.