Tel Aviv 360 podcast of Tel Aviv University (Hebrew only)
770 million tons of wheat are produced every year and provide about 20 percent of the global consumption of calories and protein and up to 50% in some parts of the world. Wheat is the second most common crop in the world after corn and before rice. It grows in all parts of the world except the tropics. About 95 percent of the wheat grown today belongs to one species, the bread wheat, and the rest of the growth is of wheat from one more species, the durum wheat, from whose flour pasta is made. Based on archaeological findings, wild wheat was cultivated more than 10,000 years ago, and since then it has gradually lost some of its positive properties. The genetic diversity of the wheat varieties was reduced, and they became vulnerable to diseases, pests and climate and environmental hazards. In fact, the need to produce wheat varieties that can grow in extreme environmental and weather conditions and deal with diseases and pests is increasing as the climate crisis worsens.
In the podcast before you, we examine with the help of Prof. Amir Sharon, head of the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security of the Faculty of Life Sciences, how did it happen that modern wheat lost the protections that its natural relatives had in the past? What makes Israel the ideal place to find gardens that will help us grow food in a world of climate crisis? How can this be done? And also, what is the connection with Aharon Aharonson the agronomist who discovered the "mother of wheat" here in the area more than 100 years ago.
Listen to another podcast of "Tel Aviv 360" hosted by Vared Lebkowitz.
Comments
How anti-science in one sentence.
The climate crisis is proven and has a reason - the greenhouse gases that are now at record levels. It is backed by a physical basis - and unlike human laws, the laws of physics cannot be changed.
And also an error in Hebrew - hybridization.
The climate crisis is not proven, not long ago there was an ice age and suddenly they claim warming, we are the warming for a long time, but it is always good to use an excuse to make genetic changes, I hope it is through scum and not genetic editing