Summary
If all that isn't enough, within the past couple of years, [Stephen Hanson]'s lab identified two new diseases growers are facing in the fields. "They've known they had a problem, but they weren't sure what it was or why it was happening-and while we haven't solved the problem yet, we've been able to identify the pathogen causing the problem." He goes on to describe the disease: "The really interesting one this year is a new bacterial disease on chile that causes them not to set fruit," Hanson says. "They end up growing really large flower buds, but you can imagine it's a little disturbing for a grower to walk out in the field and see big plants with huge buds on them and no chiles on them."
Before stepping foot in the lab to find solutions, engineering researchers must delve first into the natural world, Hanson says, seeking out wild plants untainted by human domestication. "Wild plants are usually very, very hardy, and they don't have many disease problems," he says. "As crops were domesticated and bred to produce high yields and things like that, they've lost a lot of their natural vigor. And the way we've lost that vigor is as we've 'improved' crops, we've ended up losing a lot of disease-resistance genes.""If we're really going to address the challenges of climate change, I am absolutely convinced and firm on the fact that we need open-pollinated varieties of crops that have the capability to adapt," he says, pointing to changes already occurring within the region's climate. "We're also going to have to get more intimately involved with our agricultural systems," he says. "We're going to have to revamp our whole economy, our whole way of looking at what our role is in nature, what are relationship is to food and the food system at large, if we're truly going to survive."See the full content of this document
Extract
Red, Green or Gmo?
On a recent fall morning, clayton Brascoupe was out checking his chile fields near Tesuque. He'd already harvested his green chiles, which have been roasted and put away for the winter. The fruits still hanging on the plants will be made into red chile powder or left out for seed.
"The older variety I have comes out more with a rust-looking color-if I were to compare, say, some of the chiles that are coming out of Hatch or Las Cruces, you'd be able to tell the difference with this variety and the variety they grow down there," he says. "There is" a different color, a different taste, a different texture."This time of year, the state is nothing short of chile crazed. The smell of roasting chile permeates grocery store parking lots and wafts through neighborhoods. After peeling pounds and pounds of the spicy varieties, people all across the state are carefully avoiding touching their eyes-and freezers everywhere are stuffed with gallon bags of chile.Yet New Mexico's relationship with chile is felt strongly all year round-the state, even has "Red or Green?" as its official state question."With chiles, some of the pueblo co...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
