OAKLAND -- Researchers with the UC Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources (DANR) will discuss their research and perspectives on California's most critical agricultural and environmental issues at the 1999 Annual Meeting and Science Innovation Exposition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Anaheim, California, Jan. 21-26. Panels featuring these speakers are listed below. To arrange interviews, contact Jill Goetz or Pam Kan-Rice at the addresses above or in the AAAS conference newsroom.
Food and Agriculture:
"Accelerating Crop Evolution for Greater Productivity and Better Biodiversity
Conservation"
Saturday, 1/23, 9 a.m.
"This symposium demonstrates the extreme power of biotechnology to locate genes and move them into important food crops," says Calvin Qualset, director of the UC Davis-based Genetic Resources Conservation Program. "At the same time, we show that the tremendous increases in crop productivity required to feed the population of the next few decades will rely on time-honored traditional plant breeding and genetic resources from around the world to build higher-yielding plants as food factories for the next century." Qualset co-organized the panel with Subodh Jain, UC Davis professor emeritus of agronomy, who offers an overview of developments in crop evolutionary sciences. "Biotechnology and the genetic engineering revolution must acknowledge the value of both wild and domesticated genetic resources and their evolutionary origins," he says. Other panelists include UCLA evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond, winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies; researchers from several other U.S. universities; and researchers with the Mexico-based CIMMYT (International Center for Improvement of Maize and Wheat) and with the Seminis Vegetable Seed Company.
"Genetic Engineering of Food"
Monday, 1/25, 9:30 a.m.
Tomatoes are engine
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Contact: Jill Goetz
jgoetz@nature.berkeley.edu
510-643-1042
University of California - Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources
15-Jan-1999