In Lessons eight and nine we looked at water and food, both of which are vital aspects of living. More specifically we saw how different parts of the world have adapted to their climates so that they can accommodate their needs. Many countries have found ways to fix their deficits, such as Israel who went from being one of the most water poor countries to being the wealthiest. They put their heads together and figured out a solution to their water shortages and that solution ended up being recycling and desalinating water from the sea (PBS, 2016). They came up with a solution for their problem and because of that, they are now one of the most water wealthy nations.
Similarly, we can look at genetic modification of plants. Many genetically modified plants are created through breeding out the genes that cause the plants to suffer under the circumstances that they are being grown in. Before, “traditional plant breeding takes on average 12-15 years to produce a new crop variety” (Wieczorek, 2012). The reason it took this long is that to breed the desired gene combination, growers would have to wait till the plant was grown and then test it by putting it through a series of tests. Now they are able to do DNA screening, which involves just testing a piece of a leaf before it fully grows in order to see what genes that plant has (Higgins, 2014). This helped to speed up the process and make superior crops faster so that they are able to get to the people that need them. In both of these situations, we see solutions to problems that the world is facing and it shows that we are capable of adapting to survive.
References
Higgins, A. (16 April 2014). Scientists breed a better seed, trait by trait. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/scientists-breed-a-better-seed-trait-by-trait/2014/04/16/ec8ce8c8-9a4b-11e3-80ac-63a8ba7f7942_story.html?utm_term=.f4cc93e7e848&wpisrc=nl_hdln
Mishra, A. (9 Dec 2009). TED Talk: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/eJCTAXb_BWs.
PBS News Hour. (26 April 2016). How Israel became a leader in water use in the Middle East. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taMWUjda3fA
Wieczorek, A. M. & Wright, M. G. (2012) History of Agricultural Biotechnology: How Crop Development has Evolved. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):9