Well, ya gotta have yer priorities...

[hnumpah]

IBM Studies Cocoa Genes to Safeguard Chocolate Supply
By Melita Marie Garza

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. is working with candy maker Mars Inc. and the U.S. government to study the genetic code of cocoa trees to safeguard the world's chocolate supply.

Closely held Mars, the maker of M&M candies and Snickers bars, and the U.S. Agriculture Department will sequence the entire cocoa genome, deciphering the plant's biological map. IBM will analyze the results using Blue Gene, the world's second- fastest supercomputer, the company said today in a statement.

Political unrest and plant diseases in Africa, home to two- thirds of cocoa production, have driven up prices more than 50 percent in the past year. Cocoa trees in Africa and Asia have become increasingly stunted from fungus, insects and drought, triggering supply shortfalls.

``Mars is trying to improve the reliability of the cocoa supply and IBM is looking for new ways to market its Blue Gene supercomputer power,'' said Lora Cecere, an analyst for AMR Research in Boston. IBM can apply the same tools to other food staples falling short of demand, such as corn, she said.

Sequencing the genome will let scientists isolate hardier plant types that can withstand fungal strains, boring insects and the drier environments created by drought and global warming, said Ajay Royyuru, a senior computational manager at IBM, the world's biggest computer-services company.

The five-year project will help the more than 6.5 million family farmers -- most of them in Africa, South America and Asia -- who depend on cocoa, according to Armonk, New York-based IBM. IBM spokeswoman Jenny Hunter declined to reveal the value of the company's contract with Mars.

`Not Just Science'

``This is not just science for the sake of science,'' said Royyuru. ``This is IBM making an impact in markets way beyond what we would traditionally look at.''

Cocoa demand will outpace supply by 29,000 tons this season, Fortis Bank said June 6, up from a prior forecast of 6,000 tons. The bank expects a 21,000-ton shortfall for the 2008-09 season, a third straight annual deficit.

Mars wants to ``help accelerate the traditional breeding programs that will improve cocoa trees, yield higher quality cocoa and increase farmers' economic livelihood,'' Howard-Yana Shapiro, global director of plant science for Mars, said.

The U.S. Agricultural Research Service will make the results publicly available, he said.

via Bloomberg.com

[Plane]

Storys like this have large import in the eventual colonisation of space.

The weight of a data bank containing the genomes of thousands of animals and plants would be a tiny fraction of the weight of a zoo and botany collection.

  Someday it might become possible to change the surface of an inhospitable planet to makk it habitable , if the plants and animals usefull to this terraforming process could be assembled from materials found on site , but organised by genome information from Earth the result would be a perfectly useable horse and grass for it to eat with less weight shlepped from home than the horse by itself.


There is also a potential for misuse , if a cocoa plant immune to all pests is produced , it might become a pest itself as it takes over the land with little controll on its reproduction.

[Xavier_Onassis]

There is also a potential for misuse , if a cocoa plant immune to all pests is produced , it might become a pest itself as it takes over the land with little controll on its reproduction.
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You haven't seen a cocoa plant, have you? Admit it.

[Plane]

There is also a potential for misuse , if a cocoa plant immune to all pests is produced , it might become a pest itself as it takes over the land with little controll on its reproduction.
=============================================================

You haven't seen a cocoa plant, have you? Admit it.

http://dacnet.nic.in/Cashewcocoa/ctech.htm

Only in pictures , they can't grow here.

Why?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Cocoas cannot become an invasive species. Their roots are not long, they require a lot of water and sunlight, and they are not strong, woody plants. They cannot choke other plants out as some weeds can do.

[Plane]

Cocoas cannot become an invasive species. Their roots are not long, they require a lot of water and sunlight, and they are not strong, woody plants. They cannot choke other plants out as some weeds can do.

After our geniuses gene sp;ice them with Kudzu and Jellyfish we will have Chochomageddon.