Farmers and scientists have been trying to “Feed the World”
for a long time now. Next year is no different as Greentec holds their Organic
Farmers Fair in Amsterdam. The event is claimed to be the biggest and most
innovative overview on horticulture technologies put together under one roof
with over 450 exhibitors from more than 40 countries.
GreenTech claim to provide concrete answers to essential
questions when it comes to innovation and technology for the production of
vegetables, fruit and flowers. They are teaming up with The Organic Farmers
Fair (TOFF) creating a global meeting place focused primarily on organic
agricultural production technology.
It isn’t the first time technology has been used in
horticultural innovation, just after the Second World War it was pretty common
to buy and grow veggies that had been subjected to “Natural” radioactive
manipulation. Before scientists learned
how to modify genes, they induced mutations with radiation. It was a sincere
effort to feed the world, and amaze home gardeners, by modifying plants to have
desirable if rather unpredictable traits.
Atoms for Peace
We often think of gardening as a wholesome and natural
process that result in only the freshest type of fruits and vegetables. As it
turns out, much of our modern fruit and plant derivative flavours actually
originated from genetic mutations caused by being exposed to gamma radiation.
Flavours like peppermint and pink grapefruit are the most prominent plants
changed from this deliberate irradiation.
Beginning in the 1950s, “Atomic gardens” or “Gamma Gardens”
were a part of the Atoms for Peace, a program to develop peaceful uses of
fission energy after World War II and help nuclear energy’s ailing reputation.
The main hope in subjecting plants to radiation was that it
might create varieties that were disease resistant or cold-resistant to
increase yields.
Using a Hammer
Nanotechnologist Paige Johnson summarizes the methodology
behind radiation gardening best when she says, "If we think of modern GM
as taking a scalpel to the genome, mutation breeding by irradiation using a
hammer."
Atomic Garden Pic C Google Maps
Gamma Gardens
Experiments to test these hypotheses were carried out in
large scale "gamma gardens" on the grounds of laboratories in the US,
Europe, and the former USSR.
The circular form of the gamma gardens, was based on the
need to arrange the plants in concentric circles around the radiation source (cobalt-60)
encased in a huge tower. When workers
needed to enter the field the radioactive core was lowered below ground into a
lead lined chamber. There were a series of fences and alarms to keep people
from entering the field when the source was above ground.
The amount of radiation received by the plants naturally
varied according to how close they were to the pole. So usually a single
variety would be arranged as a 'wedge' leading away from the centre, so that
the effects of a range of radiation levels could be evaluated. Most of the
plants close to the pole just died. A little further away, they would be so
genetically altered that they were riddled with tumours and other growth
abnormalities. It was generally the rows where the plants 'looked' normal, but
still had genetic alterations, that were of the most interest, that were 'just
right' as far as mutation breeding was concerned.
Before Gamma
Before gamma gardens, farmers and scientists have always
tried to modify plants using selective breeding or chemically induced mutations
to enhance crops and flowers. Radiation was, as John James wrote in 1961 at The
American Rose, “something to be excited about.” Now, your average hobbyists
could see the process of genetic variance at home. The results could be
unpredictable; “don’t expect miracles every time,” he warned—but in the
meantime, enjoy the experience. By 1962, garden shows began featuring “atomic
energized” tomatoes, and the new radiation-bred seeds and vegetables soon made
their way to the supermarket.
Seed packets depicted robust flowers and vegetables, calling
them "atomic-energized" and offering an interesting definition of
what radiation does — "gamma rays tend to shake up the normal balanced
system of the embryo inside the plant."
Atomic Garden Society
In the U.K., gardening enthusiast Muriel Howorth was
inspired by the activism and science of gamma gardening after experimenting
with and growing an unusually large “x-rayed peanut” In 1959, Howorth formed
The Atomic Gardening Society, “a cultural body for the guidance of atomic plant-mutation
experimentation,”
Because of Howorth, over 300 gardeners soon set up
experiments in the U.K. to achieve new and intriguing plants, sometimes under
healthy competition for Howarth’s “Mutant Peanut Award,” based on the
almond-sized peanuts she’d previously grown. Howorth staged conventions for
atomic gardeners to meet, and even gained Albert Einstein as a patron for her
new organization.
While it may seem that radiation plant breeding was a
harmful, it is known to have created thousands of GMO plants like rice, pears,
cotton, bananas, peanuts, wheat and barley among many others (which some claim
is where a lot of our food allergies come from) over 2000 cereal and non-cereal
crops have been officially registered with the UN and Atomic Energy Agency as
being directly induced by gamma radiation.
Out of Favour
Eventually, as scientists and the public grew to understand
the dangers posed by radiation exposure, gamma gardens fell out of favour. The
notion of irradiated plants feeding a hungry world soon wilted, too.
Decades later, scientists would figure out how to make much
more precise mutations, inserting new genes and switching them on to make
plants do things they couldn't do before. But this method has its own
detractors, some of whom would argue genetic modification is just as bad for
health and the environment as radioactivity research.
Still going
The Institute of Radiation Breeding in Japan owns the only
surviving gamma garden in the world. The main goal of the last surviving
radiation garden is to produce fungi resistant plants, fruits with more
appealing colours, and ultimately produce as many useable new crop varieties as
possible – randomly of course.
