Thursday, October 4, 2007

Scientists Are Making Brazil’s Savannah Bloom

From the New York Times:

Anyone curious to know how Brazil has become what the former secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, calls an “agricultural superpower” — poised to overtake the United States as the world’s leading exporter of foodstuffs — would do well to start here in this busy network of government laboratories.

...As a result, Brazil is today the world’s top exporter of soybeans and beef and a fast-rising exporter of cotton, three-quarters of which it produces here in the cerrado. Encouraged by that success, Embrapa scientists have turned their attention to wheat. Brazil now imports most of its wheat from nearby countries with temperate climates....MORE