In no way should any of the following statistics be taken as a dig against the people who study wheat. Wheat breeders have done so much with far few resources than have been invested in maize (corn) breeding. Ya’ll are amazing.
- Year in with the largest wheat harvest in the US: 1981-1982 (2.8 billion bushels)
- Year in with the largest wheat corn harvest in the US: 2007-2008(13 billion bushels)
- The US’s share of global wheat exports in 1973-1974: 50%
- The US’s share of global wheat exports today: 20%
- Percentage increase in yield per acre of wheat 1969-present: 45%
- Percentage increase in yield per acre of corn 1969-present: 90%
- Estimated earliest year a program to develop genetically engineered wheat, launched today, would be able to win regulatory approval for any variety of GM wheat: 2018
- Year in which Monsanto’s patent on their first generation Round-up Ready Soybeans expires: 2014
- Number of lawsuits filed by Monsanto against individual farmers it claims infringed on its seed patents in the past decade: 125 (same source as above)
- Number people threatened with legal action to force a settlement/sued by the RIAA in the same time period: more than 28,000
- Amount the RIAA sued the russian website allofmp3.com for in 2006: $1.65 trillion
- The gross domestic product of India in 2008: $1.2 trillion
- First time the world knew what the far side of the moon looked like: 1959
Check out the article in The Guardian about wheat farming and the future of genetically engineered wheat.
You might like to check your first two bullet points. They don’t seem to fit together. Should one of them be referring to corn rather than wheat?
Comment by alias Ernest Major — December 31, 2009 @ 3:24 am
Another good catch. Thank you.
Comment by James — December 31, 2009 @ 7:04 am