What do vinyl records have to do with gmos

What do vinyl records have to do with GMOs?

New technologies are coming into the market more and more rapidly, and change and unpredictability have become the only certainties with the overwhelming technological revolution we experienced in the early 21st century.

Many warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI), chaotic drone traffic and the spread of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) - or all of these added risks, interacting with human individuals or not, forming cyborgs.

Advances in genomics and its possibilities, together with robotics and AI, can represent the solution to major problems of humanity, such as hunger, disease cure, cost and price reduction, exponential increase in solution efficiency of problems such as traffic in cities and public safety.

However, it is also predicted to increase unemployment and reduce paid hours - a large part of the world's population with low schooling will be left out of this revolution.

New habitable planets have been discovered with increasing frequency, and I am convinced - personally - that the human species will create in some of them new ecosystems, which will include robots, nanomachines and GMOs. It is no fantasy to predict that in a few years the UN will be discussing protocols for the restoration (whether whole or not!) of ancient species already extinct.

It is no longer fantasy to think of an icy planet inhabited by original mammoths and genetically engineered whales, robot-operated, where new plants and microorganisms such as genetically modified plankton will ensure the baseline productivity of previously planned food chains.

If this will work, eventually mankind will find out.

But if we want this to happen to the Earth it is an immediate discussion.

I think all the technologies mentioned are great achievements of humanity.

But letting market demand, marketing, and information dissemination of large corporations or the academic world define how quickly these technologies develop and reach the market is a serious mistake.

Nothing against the advances of science, but I have several restrictions as to the speed of the liberation of technologies that go far beyond the natural processes.

I have personal restrictions on the resource divisions for research, development and innovation.

More resources should be invested in biodiversity studies, in the knowledge of traditional peoples, in economic prospection of biodiversity, in the formation of germplasm banks in vivo, in domestication, pre-breeding and classical breeding.

And this basic knowledge and technology must be disseminated to the world public in a fast, planned and democratic way.

It's a personal choice. And I take this position for being convinced that today we can make a better planet only with the immediate popularization of technologies analogous to natural processes.

We have many billions of inhabitants on Earth, many millions of hectares degraded or in semi-arid conditions and hundreds of thousands of academic researchers in the fields of agronomy and biology.

Many are studying genomics and plant production, a reasonable number are cataloging existing species in megadiversity and studying the remaining natural ecosystems. However, few work with biodiversity prospecting and classic breeding lines of medium and long term. I believe that less and less agronomists will choose this path, genetic engineering is very seductive and it is necessary in undergraduate to choose the professional paths that seem more promising.

I find drones and robots in agriculture as well as certain genomic technologies excellent changes - I do not want to be dichotomous by contrasting new technologies with traditional knowledge.

But I can imagine the Earth with millions of small and medium organic farms, regenerating the soil, creating new 'terra preta de Ă­ndio' in regions of poor soils, spreading renewable energies and access to information for absolutely all humans, anywhere in the planet.

We will be a relevant force on a planetary scale only with the sum of personal initiatives and companies and NGOs committed to organic processes - be it classical genetic improvement, horticulture, agriculture or processing / industrialization of what is produced.

And the application of market results and branding and marketing strategies must be top priorities - we are opposed to large, ultra-professional and resourceful corporations, and we can not just wait for government regulations or the spread of long-term academic results.

The study of biodiversity, its conservation and use from bioprospecting, the intensification and dissemination of domestication, pre-breeding and classical genetic improvement activities for organic agriculture only depends on the investments of governments and the workforce of enthusiasts and scholars to recover soils and water resources, increase natural biodiversity and cultivated agrobiodiversity and, above all, economically connect the population with low schooling with the humans who live this accelerated technological revolution.

We are going to sell surprising, high-value organic products to feed the children of Monsanto-Bayer executives.

As Neil Young said: - Steve Jobs sold iPods, but he listened to vinyl records at home ...

Pedro Nahoum Botanist and CEO of BOTANICA POP LTDA

botanicapop@gmail.com