Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 13 June 2019
Netherlands vegetable seed developer wins World Food Prize

By DAVID PITT from season to season, and Iowa-based World Food
Associated Press plants susceptible to a wide Prize Foundation since
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — variety of diseases. 2000.”Farmers’ daily lives
A seed developer from Groot partnered with seed were uplifted and consum-
the Netherlands credited trader Benito Domingo of ers benefited from greater
with introducing high qual- the Philippines and put to- access to nutritious veg-
ity disease-resistant veg- gether a team of seed re- etables,” Quinn said. “You
etable seeds to more than searchers and breeders put all those together and
60 countries including the from Wageningen Univer- he’s a truly remarkable indi-
Philippines, Thailand and In- sity in the Netherlands and vidual with worthy accom-
donesia was awarded the the University of the Philip- plishments that should be
2019 World Food Prize on pines. With a few years, recognized.”
Monday. they developed a hybrid Groot’s award was an-
Simon Groot, a sixth gen- bitter gourd that was com- nounced during a ceremo-
eration seedsman, began mercially successful. They ny at the U.S. Department
his search to create better then adapted a tomato of State hosted by Secre-
vegetable seeds to help variety, followed by egg- tary of State Mike Pompeo.
farmers in Southeast Asia plants, pumpkins and leafy “The remarkable improve-
in 1981 at age 47 after his vegetables. ments made in these
family’s company was tak- The early successes led to tropical vegetable seeds
en over by a larger corpo- the creation of the East- helped small farmers in de-
ration. West Seed Company, veloping nations produce
He had learned 16 years which now has more than more food and importantly
earlier on his first trip to Indo- 970 improved seed variet- get more income for them-
nesia that vegetable seeds ies of 60 vegetable crops. selves and their families
developed for the temper- Over the past four de- curbing hunger and stimu-
ate climate of Europe did cades, the innovations led lating economic growth
poorly when planted in the to the creation of a tropical wherever these seeds
tropics. He thought there vegetable seed industry went,” Pompeo said.
was a huge opportunity to This Feb 11, 2019 photo provided by World Food Prize Foundation geared toward small-hold- Groot will receive the
introduce hybrid vegeta- shows Simon Groot in Amsterdam, Netherlands. er farmers now spreading $250,000 World Food Prize
bles to the region, which Associated Press into Asia, Africa and Latin during an Oct. 17 award
lacked vegetable seed de- that part of world was so saved seeds from season America. ceremony at the Iowa
velopers working to adapt much below our standards to season to plant because It’s estimated that the com- Capitol.
hybrids to the local climate. and below achievable seeds available for pur- pany’s seeds benefit 20 mil- Nobel Peace Prize laureate
“It was neither charity nor standards and as a seeds- chase were often expired lion farmers a year in more Norman Borlaug created
business. It was a pas- man I couldn’t stand that lots from Europe and North than 60 countries, said Ken- the prize in 1986 to recog-
sion for good seeds,” said the farmers there were just America and poorly adapt- neth Quinn, the former U.S. nize scientists and others
Groot, now 85. “It had al- deprived of decent seeds.” ed to their climate. They ambassador to Vietnam who have improved the
ways bothered me that I At the time, farmers in were stuck with low yields, who has been the presi- quality and availability of
noticed the seed quality in Southeast Asia typically quality that varied greatly dent of the Des Moines, food.q

Signs of ritual pot smoking found

in ancient Chinese graves

By CHRISTINA LARSON marijuana, said Mark Mer- — seeds are pressed for oil
AP Science Writer lin, a botanist at the Univer- and fibers used for cloth
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ar- sity of Hawaii. He was not — the presence of seeds
chaeologists have un- involved in the research alone doesn’t confirm drug
earthed the earliest di- published Wednesday in use. Using new techniques
rect evidence of people the journal Science Ad- for chemical analysis, the
smoking marijuana from a vances. The history of an- study’s examined the resi-
2,500-year-old graveyard cient drug use has long in- due and found evidence
in western China. trigued scholars. The Greek of THC, the compound that
In a complex of lofty tombs historian Herodotus wrote gives pot its high. Most wild
This May 20, 2019 file photo shows marijuana plants in a grow in the Pamir Mountains — of people in Central Asia cannabis plants have low
room using green lights during their night cycle in Gardena,
Calif. a region near the borders smoking cannabis around levels of THC, so the re-
Associated Press of modern China, Pakistan 440 B.C. In the past century, searchers believe the peo-
and Tajikistan — exca- archaeologists have found ple who built the graves
vators found 10 wooden cannabis seeds and plants selected or cultivated
bowls and several stones buried in tombs across Cen- plants with higher amounts.
containing burnt residue of tral Asia’s highlands, includ- “During funeral rites, the
the cannabis plant. Scien- ing in southern Siberia, and smokers may have hoped
tists believe heated stones elsewhere in western Chi- to communicate with the
were used to burn the mari- na’s Xinjiang region. Today, spirit world — or with the
juana and people then in- scholars don’t consider an- people they were burying,”
haled the smoke as part cient accounts trustworthy said study co-author Yimin
of a burial ritual. “It’s the without corroborating evi- Yang of the University of
earliest strong evidence of dence. And since the can- the Chinese Academy of
people getting high” on nabis plant has other uses Sciences in Beijing.q