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Comment by lazyjones | Hacker News Reader

> Why in the world would anybody spend any money to try to improve the seed

There was a time when some people actually invented things to make the world a better place, or even to further their academic career. With the help of such judges, this era has apparently come to an end. We will never beat famine, we'll just help the plagued 3rd world become 100% dependent on the likes of Monsanto.

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People are still doing that. Thousands of people around the world in fact, just in the very specific domain of improving crop traits to improve nutrition and food security in developing countries.

I see that as a separate endeavour to what companies generally do.

One do not need to look for altruistic motives. Investment into research happens as long it reduce cost and risk for businesses. Its true that a individual farmer might have a hard time to justify research investment, but those companies who is depended on grains as a form of resource has all the reasons in the world to invest in cheaper and more sustainable farming. Its the same business motive as why Microsoft sent in kernel patches as open source. No one doubt that the motive was for-profit.

We've already beat famine. Aside rebel-controlled areas, can you name the last famine?

Using the UN's defintion of famine as "at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons." [1]

Not including Somolia in 2011 (which the UN did declare a famine), "... famines have been declared previously in southern areas of Sudan in 2008; in Gode in the Somali region of Ethiopia in 2000; in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1996; in Somalia in 1991-1992, and Ethiopia in 1984-1985." [1]

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39113#.UWW2dKtA...

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