‘Holy grail’ wheat gene discovery could feed our overheated world https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/07/holy-grail-wheat-gene-discovery-could-feed-our-overheated-world?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This article is interesting as a wheat grower, farmer, and scared human due to #ClimateChange. I can see the rationale for the research (however the headline needs some qualification as explained very well by https://academic.oup.com/plphys/article/154/2/526/6111520) as there's a very good chance we’ll need the thinking behind it, but as a farmer I know the current limiting factor for any ag production is water, so doesn’t matter how good the heat tolerance is - all things need water to grow.

The article mentions drought tolerance and that would be a great tool in any wheat variety but, again, production is a factor of water availability - less water less production. So for me the ‘holy grail’ is the old maxim “when you find yourself in a hole first thing is to stop digging” - #reduceemissions - this research is a great back up plan but collectively we haven’t truly committed to the main plan to #removeemissions.

Given the inertia in the climate system even #netzero will not be enough and to keep a stable and secure food production system we will need to #removeatmosphericCO2 - and that takes decades/centuries! 1/2