<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">At least on first read, this idea of multiple, widely shared agricultural research stations is appealing. Agricultural research scientists could compare their findings openly to everyone's mutual benefit. That approach certainly has more appeal than secret tests of GMO seeds and crops in locked Monsanto laboratories. That system of "company secrets" now in place is designed only to enhance profits rather than promote health, nutrition, or environmental sustainability. CS</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><a href="http://www.eurasiareview.com/07012016-what-a-cern-for-agricultural-science-could-look-like/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29">eurasia review</a><br><br></font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><h1 class="" style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:400;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:1.3;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(31,30,30)"><font size="6">What A ‘CERN’ For Agricultural Science Could Look Like</font></h1><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:25.6px;font-family:Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div class="" style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="" style="margin:0.3125rem 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:1.4;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(69,69,69);display:block"><span style="font-size:0.875rem"><img src="cid:ii_1522028770745cba" alt="Inline image 1" width="495" height="278"></span><br><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:25.6px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div class="" style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline!important"><span class="" style="margin:0.3125rem 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:1.4;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(69,69,69);display:inline!important"><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:25.6px;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div class="" style="margin:0px 0px 20px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline!important"><span class="" style="margin:0.3125rem 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;line-height:1.4;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(69,69,69);display:inline!important">Testing the genetic potential of crops requires field experimentation with a large <br>number of genotypes, like here in the BRIWECS project (<a href="http://www.briwecs.de/">http://www.briwecs.de/</a>) <br>on winter wheat. Credit C. Lichthardt</span></div></em></span></div></em><br></span></div></em><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;line-height:25.6px"></span><p class="" style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:0.75rem;line-height:inherit;font-family:Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;vertical-align:baseline;text-transform:uppercase;color:rgb(0,0,0)">BY <a href="http://www.eurasiareview.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Eurasia Review" class="" rel="author" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:700;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(225,186,23)">EURASIA REVIEW</a> <span class="" style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:0.75rem;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">JANUARY 7, 2016<br><br></span></p><div class="" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:1.063rem;line-height:1.4;font-family:Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The Large Hadron Collider, a.k.a. CERN, found success in a simple idea: Invest in a laboratory that no one institution could sustain on their own and then make it accessible for physicists around the world. Astronomers have done the same with telescopes, while neuroscientists are collaborating to build brain imaging observatories. Now, in <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Trends in Plant Science</em> on January 5, agricultural researchers present their vision for how a similar idea could work for them.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Rather than a single laboratory, the authors want to open a network of research stations across Europe–from a field in Scotland to an outpost in Sicily. Not only would this provide investigators with easy access to a range of different soil properties, temperatures, and atmospheric conditions to study plant/crop growth, it would allow more expensive equipment (for example, open-field installations to create artificial levels of carbon dioxide) to be a shared resource.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">“Present field research facilities are aimed at making regional agriculture prosperous,” said co-author Hartmut Stützel of Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany. “To us, it is obvious that the ‘challenges’ of the 21st century–productivity increase, climate change, and environmental sustainability–will require more advanced research infrastructures covering a wider range of environments.”</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Stützel and colleagues, including Nicolas Brüggemann of Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany and Dirk Inzé of VIB and Ghent University in Belgium, are just at the beginning of the process of creating their network, dubbed ECOFE (European Consortium for Open Field Experimentation). The idea was born last February at a meeting of Science Europe and goes back to discussions within a German Research Foundation working group starting four years ago. Now, they are approaching European ministries to explore the possibilities for ECOFE’s creation.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">In addition to finding financial and political investment, ECOFE’s success will hinge on whether scientists at the various institutional research stations will be able to sacrifice a bit of their autonomy to focus on targeted research projects, Stützel says. He likens the network to a car sharing service, in which researchers will be giving up the autonomy and control of their own laboratories to have access to facilities in different cities. If ECOFE catches on, thousands of scientists could be using the network to work together on a range of “big picture” agricultural problems.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.25rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">“It will be a rather new paradigm for many traditional scientists, but I think the communities are ready to accept this challenge and understand that research in the 21st century requires these types of infrastructures,” Stützel said. “We must now try to make political decision makers aware that a speedy implementation of a network for open field experimentation is fundamental for future agricultural research.”</p></div></div><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>=========================================</b></span></font></div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>CHUCK SEARCY</b></span></font><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>International Advisor, Project RENEW</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>Tư Vấn Viên Quốc tế, Dự án RENEW</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>Vice President, Veterans For Peace Chapter 160</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>Phó chủ tịch, Cưu Chiến Binh vì Hoà Bình Chương 160 (Hòa Bình)</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>Co-Chair, NGO Agent Orange Working Group</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>Đồng Chủ tịch, Nhóm làm việc Phi chính phủ về Chất độc da cam</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>71 Trần Quốc Toản, Hà Nội, Việt Nam</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>US +1 404 740 0653<br></b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>VN +8 490 342 0769</b></span></font></div><div><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10px">Sk chucksearcy</b><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b><br></b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>E <a href="mailto:chuckusvn@gmail.com" target="_blank">chuckusvn@gmail.com</a></b></span></font></div><div><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10px">W </b><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10px"><a href="http://veteransforpeace.org/" target="_blank">www.landmines.org.vn</a></b><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b><br></b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>W <a href="http://veteransforpeace.org" target="_blank">http://veteransforpeace.org</a></b></span></font></div><div><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b>W <a href="http://vfp-vn.ning.com/" target="_blank">http://vfp-vn.ning.com/</a></b></span></font></div><div><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10px">W </b><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10px"><a href="http://vfp-vn.ning.com/" target="_blank">http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/workinggroups/agentorange</a></b></div><div><b style="color:rgb(153,0,0);font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10px">=========================================</b><font face="Tahoma, sans-serif" color="#990000"><span style="font-size:10px"><b><br></b></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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