Greenpeace is in a longstanding campaign to oppose a public domain Golden Rice created by scientists so that it can be grown to create more Vitamin A and prevent blindness in children of poor countries.
It is part of their long history of promoting claims farming is a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. The reality is that farmers simply want ways to safely and affordably improve yields. Science is the best way to create that and corporations are the best way to make it scale. No conspiracy needed.
A new study shows a way to better keep costs down while protecting what farmers most want to protect - their land. It uses silk microneedles, like for vaccines, to deliver pesticides and nutrients. It is basically the groundbreaking benefit of targeted neonicotinoid seed treatments on steroids. Legacy microneedles were not up to the task so they made their own, creating molds for silk fibroin protein and saline. As the water evaporated, the salt formed crystalline structures as the silk took the shape of the molds. When they removed the salt, they had the improved hollow needles they needed.
Credit: MIT
The authors believe the hollow silk microneedles can be produce affordably, in bulk. Most importantly, they have been able to give tomato plants iron to treat chlorosis and fortify them with vitamin B12. The needles can even provide data on fluid flow and detect heavy metals in soil.
Real-time monitoring of plant health while making plants more nutritious? Who could object to that?
Well, the $3 billion revenue demand of environmental groups means they will find a way.
