Seeds of Hope

That may be the last thing we need. There is a direct link between food surpluses and population growth, yet people continue starving. Farmers in America are subsidized despite the fact that we harvest crops in amounts greater than we need locally. That food doesn't make it to where it is needed, to populations in Africa and Southeast Asia; it's burned before Winter. We're approaching the needs of people worldwide with an emphasis on linear thinking that exacerbates the obstacles we face instead of circumventing them.

The growing world population has lead to an increase in global warming as we cut away forests and jungle for food, burn fossil fuels for energy, and consume in larger amounts. Epidemics quickly turn into pandemics and spread across populations at alarming rates. 50 percent of the births in The United States are unintentional. Even The Dalai Lama has said that "overpopulation is a great challenge facing humanity."

I would like to see more reforms that curb overpopulation such as distributing birth control, advocating safe sexual practices, and increases in educational funding instead of larger crop yields. We need a global, socioeconomic restructuring that creates self-sufficient local communities that don't depend on large nation states and exports for money to buy food. People in Africa and Central America are exporting coffee beans, cocaine, and marijuana to inflated economies overseas while they purchase food at inflated prices imported from overseas. It is cruel and stupid.

Grow it in the earth, pluck it from the ground, and eat it instead of exporting it for a few pennies to feed your family.

This is so interesting, you'd think it should be headline news, it's interesting that they are not only bigger but also more nutritious. I wonder what effect being in space would have on eggs or animal foetuses etc.

if the story is true, than why didn't the usa find out? and the russians in spacelab? fishy..

I wonder how many giant pumpkins and cucumbers a government of one of the world's starving nations could afford to purchase? Wouldn't the cost of sending seeds to outer space perhaps drive up cost just a wee bit?

sending anything into space is expensive,very,very,very very,did I say very? EXPENSIVE! My great uncle use to grow 100lb watermelons as a novelty and they tasted like crap and were impossible to harvest. Bill, have you ever actually grown food? Not only is growing food locally better so is processing and preserving food grown locally also better. Some friends of mine had a commune in the middle of the city and would enlist my help once a year to make miso out of soybeans, I can not begin to say how much I learned from this experience. We need to teach todays young people simple old fashioned practices like canning in order to reduce the rampant waste that threatens our food supply even more than decreased production or the channeling of food crops to nonfood uses...