#there’s also the whole commercialisation thing bc the state of farming is pretty fucking bleak on all fronts

[exopelagic]

I’m kinda glad I spent so much time looking at crop science this term bc turns out it’s unbearable and I couldn’t actually do this like I was considering. Progress!!

#it’s like FINE I can deal with it but long term??? I would fucking diw #crop people are so like. angry too. this is about you Sinclair #idk what it could be abt this topic specifically like. I’m guessing bc it’s high stakes largely expensive science with limited resources. #and goddamn nobody agrees on what you should be doing #there’s also the whole commercialisation thing bc the state of farming is pretty fucking bleak on all fronts #but especially on crop improvement. you patent your thing immediately and hope a seed company buys it up and funds the expensive trials #bc otherwise there’s no way in hell your thing’s even getting made let alone actually being Used in any practical way #this is a group of people who are trying rlly hard to help people in a real tangible way in the face of smth genuinely terrifying #(crop yields haven’t significantly accelerated in decades and soon they won’t be able to keep up) #but the process to Doing Anything Abt It involves not only the typical hell of academia but the combined challenges of #stubborn farmers. uninformed public. late stage capitalism. the whole regulatory mess of GMOs #so it seems like everyone’s at each others throats all the time bc there’s this sense of urgency #bc hey dude we haven’t made much progress since artificial fertilisers but maybe if you FUCKING LISTENED TO ME #:/ #im exaggerating not all of them are like this I’ve read some very nice very cool papers but goddamn some of them are Pissed #in a way I haven’t seen too much so far #as always I’m the annoying idealist what if we did All Of It Anyway #like come on what’s the harm in working C4 rice if we can get it that’d be incredible #we can’t we still figure out loads abt how leaf anatomy works and how C4 photosynthesis works is that not still a win. that shit has uses #ANYWAY THIS HAS BEEN MY CROPS RANT FUCK SINCLAIR ALL THE HOMIES HATE SINCLAIR #im sure he’s done some very important work on water use but the guy is so condescending I didn’t know you could do that in a paper #luke.txt