Heartland

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The world is not running out of food, contrary to popular belief. There are vast surpluses of grain in the United States, Canada, Argentina, and several other countries. The United States and the European Common Market don’t know what to do with their mountains of dairy products. But surpluses are concentrated in only a handful of countries; most of the world must import at least part of its food from those few.

We are heading at breakneck speed toward a disaster on another front.

All of the world’s commercial corn is of a series of hybrids. These varieties are used precisely because they are so successful: they grow fast, produce wonderful yields, and have resistances to most diseases bred into them. What cannot be prevented by genetic engineering is controlled by chemical pesticides. As long as each variety is grown in the environment for which it was developed — particular soil, temperature, and moisture conditions — these hybrids are among the miracles of our time.

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