This Slime Could Change The World | Planet Fix | BBC Earth Science
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Grown for centuries by indigenous farmers in rural Mexico, this incredibly rare corn can self-fertilise. In episode three of 'Planet Fix', we explore how this wonder crop could help tackle world hunger, and even end farming's toxic reliance on chemical fertilisers for good!
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People usually do not mind sharing their varieties. The problem starts when someone wants exclusive rights over a natural product.
What about a cultivar developed by research? You probably eat lots of these each day.
The real problem begins when you've taken a variety and spent a lot of time and money improving it. If it wasn't possible to get exclusive rights to the improved variety, no one would ever do it.
@@alltatot in our capitalist economy at least
@@alltat
Wrong. Much of the stuff medical science takes for granted was given away for free
@@graemelaubach3106 it can happen in all economic systems.
Decisions must be made with resources and most people will never be in charge, nor can society accurately account for future prospects and dilemmas... Thus many choices will be seen as the wrong choices in hindsight.
Our only hope is that greed leads to positive happenstances.
mexico is the cradle of so many crops we take for granted all over the world - corn, tomatoes, chocolate, vanilla, chillis, beans, avocado, sweet potato. respect and thanks to the people of mexico who cultivated these amazing plants over the centuries.
Repent to Jesus Christ “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;”
Psalms 24:1 NIV
It is the first food source that fed the World ! .
not just sweet potatoes but potato potatoes
@@cooper5324 that's incorrect potatoes are from Peru. They have many different varieties.
Blue agave….tequila.
I'm happy that the community is getting royalties for the seeds 🥰 I hope they remain protected and respected
balls
“What’s in it for me?” people say, instead of spreading it around the world and getting rid of toxic poison in our soil an food
optimistic but no. Companies will always find a way to fuck them over.
@@richardzakh7209 dude what? they've been growing and caring for this plant for millenia. They deserve some compensation. Apply that same logic to the fuckin companies that are just going to commodify it in the end. Why don't companies just put everything that they find through their R&D in the pubic domain? Why does patent even exist if not having it will allow us to "spread it around the world"? Because majority of us believe that the person who makes something should get compensation for it.
@@Pyrozoid according to that logic any natural plants like herbs and vegetables that have been grown or preserved is exclusively a one party property, no, it's a product of nature and no one has right to act if they the one who created it, only human made inventions and its creations must be patented no more no less
Another solution to the fertilizer problem. Stop throwing away scrap fruits and vegetables, toss them into a bucket for a wet or dry compost , a few weeks later, add to garden plants. Watermelon rinds, corn cobs, tomato ends, limp lettuce, carrot peels, potatoes, even cherry pits and grapes, it all breaks down. You have now created free fertilizer and reduced the land fills.
Just don’t let Monsanto or any of those other giant ag companies control the rights to the seed. It needs to be made public.
couldn't agree more
You don't understand how any of this works.
Let's say a Mexican start-up takes these seeds and spends ten years developing a commercially viable hybrid that can be sold to US farmers. Should this start-up then be forced to give the seed away for free, or watch with tied hands while the farmers propagate this plant themselves, leaving the Mexican start-up out of pocket? If you think this start-up shouldn't be robbed of its work and innovation, then neither should Monsanto...
@@philipk4475 The problem with Monsanto isn't that they're patenting seeds they develop. It's that they've gamed the courts so that if one of their patented crops is found growing on a farmer's field, the farmer has to prove they didn't plant it there deliberately, or they're forced to pay the patent royalties. Basically farmers are assumed guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent. It's like if stolen property is found in your backyard, you're assumed to be the thief until you can prove otherwise.
The one farmer who won against Monsanto (patented seed spilled off a passing truck, then blew into a corner of his field, and he unknowingly spread it next year when he randomly used seeds from that area for replanting), actually lost the case. But the judge recognized how stupid the law was, and only fined him $1. He could tell it wasn't deliberate because the patented seed was immune to Round-Up weed killer. But the farmer never sprayed his fields with Round-Up, only the corners and edges to prevent weeds from encroaching. So he didn't benefit from planting Round-Up Ready seed in his fields.
For intellectual property to work, the burden of proof *always* has to be on the IP owner. The fundamental basis of IP is that the economy can be improved by creating fictitious property rights. And the only way you can guarantee that it's helping the economy, is if the revenue generated by the IP exceeds the cost to enforce that IP. If the revenue doesn't exceed the cost, then the IP is failing to do its job (improve the economy), and you might as well get rid of it. But if you shift the cost of enforcement away from the body getting the revenue, then there's no way to tell that this economic improvement is actually happening. And you can get into a situation where IP is actually hurting the economy instead of helping it.
(There's also a problem with Monsanto's GMO plants encroaching onto organic farms which specifically wanted to sell their produce as GMO-free. The courts found Monsanto to not be liable for that encroachment since the seed was blown there by the wind. This makes no sense. If you benefit from releasing something new into the environment, then you must also be liable for the harm it causes.)
@@philipk4475 forced to give a way for free, no. Should they be able to control the world food economy in the way that big-agri does, absolutely not.
@@philipk4475 It's not an easy problem to solve, but I think this kind of work should be publicly funded, and the IP should similarly accrue to the public. The startup should get as good a payday as they would if they were acquired by a Monsanto.
I feel like they under stated just how ground breaking this is with corn being able to fix it’s own nitrogen being the plant equivalent of if humans managed to develop gills
my thoughts exactly. this could be one of the biggest agricultural developments in history
Its more like the equivalent of humans growing gills that allow them to breathe co2.
just eat more legumes.
Wait what? Corn has gills? That's crazy!
@@metamorphicorder imagine that. We would be huge.
I actually grew some maze here in Virginia that started producing this slime and fell in love with it. After they established, I didn't have to do any feedings because of this wonderful goo. I grew them from seeds from decorative Indian corn my mother gifted me.
Where to buy this seed?
@@821Farm Maybe from Seed Savers in Iowa.
In India you can find this plant's seed in abundance and it is very cheap here I bought 5kg seeds for only 2 to $3.
In India we called it Cheri.
@@shagunchaudhary6765 Thank you for sharing! And the seed in India is probably not hybridized like this man is suggesting. Wish they wouldn't mess with it and turn it into yet another indigestible grain.
@@tammyhavlik1015That’s what I was thinking-why mess with it?
I live in Michoacán, a state of Mexico. Here we also have those plants with their aerial roots and that gel on them 🙌🏻💚
Cuidalos por favor
A good book to read is Dan Saladino's book "Eating to Extinction". It features this plant and generally how it has survived and been cultivated. It discusses many of the ideas that have been expressed here.
Always the alarmist tone. Nature will bury us if the time comes. And in the meantime needs no help from you or me.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is another great book. It's set in the not too distant future after the big agricultural companies started lobbing pathogens at each others' crops (and their own) so people had no choice but to buy the next biggest thing in plant-based calories.
Thank you
@@BlueBeeMCMLXI I've never seen it that way, I agree with you about nature. But what we are concerned with is the suitability of our planet for our own sustainability.
You wear clothes, use shelter, and utilize the results of a garden, etc... I presume.
Humans should be concerned when our utilization of nature becomes exploitive versus balanced. Nature will move on, but we will be left to contend with our impacts.
@@BlueBeeMCMLXI Disingenuous at best. Thankfully your views are in the minority.
I'm a synthetic biologist developing new types of biodegradable plastic using yeast and bacteria. Love when this stuff is documented, it really motivates me.
Where can we follow you!?
^^ would also like to know this. Thank you for your research!
you're one of my heroes
don't get assassinated
@@zen7349 Primarily because they lack optical clarity. Secondarily because they are comparatively land and water intensive, expensive to process, and there's a lot of regulation. They are also vulnerable to climate without a greenhouse (greenhouses are expensive). Shelf life isn't easy enough to tailor without additives.
I want my plastics to not be a trade-off to traditional plastics, I want them to be the obvious choice because they're simply 10x better.
I am from Oaxaca and as a kid we used to have this type of maiz and it was the sweetest corn we could have, also the maza to make tortillas and to make "shato" it was made fron fresh corn , we didn't need sweet cookies or butter for our popcorn, this variety eventually disappeared don't see it around anymore I hope this research can done for a great benefit.
Que bien. Debería pedirle a sus parientes que le manden una semillas si se puede y que los migrantes mexicanos ayuden a mejorarla
The Aztecs were pioneers in agriculture and well ahead of their time. So many amazing crops have been cultivated in Mexico.
they were savages . they recieved their knowledge from blonde haired bearded visitors , its all recorded in thier writings
@@giuseppe_M What is the definition of being a "savage"? I understand the Spanish were the first outsiders to come into contact with the Aztecs, and maybe the Aztecs had inferior technology to the Spanish, but does that make the Aztecs savages?
@@danielwu7238vikings visited aztecs long before the spanish did
The Aztecs were a warrior tribe that stole nearly everything they had. they didnt invent anything.
@@giuseppe_Mhow dumb can you be to make a statement like that . 🤡
This looks awesome. I live where the soil is very very poor and I plant legumes everywhere between my other plants so I don’t have to fertilize as much.
😎 Youse one of them cool kids huh
planting cover crops during the off season helps fix the nitrogen in the soils these people are just scaring people into thinking we are going to have a famine.
Bug and slime burgers yum
Only of value when decomposed as nitrogen in the soil.
Saw an eco/aid video of people saving urine in containers for 20 days and then adding a little to the water, maize twice the size, less starvation, simple solution.
In Sri Lanka has a grass specious producing slime like this. That grass has 4"/5" long root bunches in every bend of the plant. Those roots are filled with that slime in the morning and disappear when sun is up. It tastes like water jelly. We used to eat and rub on face that slime just for fun when our childhood.
What's the name
Wow, hello friend, we hope you read this and reply here😊
Wow! That plant sounds important. Can you share the name?
Interesting
This sounds more efficent... make sure your community gets the rights to this.
It’s like this family, for generations, were caretakers to one of the answers that will help heal Mother Earth. Minding it and cultivating until the world needs it. Beautiful ❤️
I really, really don't think the world needs ways to feed more people. The world needs a lot fewer people. Remember that humans don't merely eat - we buy cell phones, heat our homes, build massive constructions... The Earth cannot take this load even if we find a nice little way to feed 8+ billion people.
This slime thing should be sabotaged somehow.
Eat th e b ugs
No. That's a story. They live for agriculture. Go work rural, you are asleep.
Until the cartels screw it up.
@@support_mage they didn’t know it was a solution to anything they just see it as a big slimy corn
This small community deserves all the royalties it can get. To have this unknown variety for 2000 years to themselves still amazes me! This could really help our planet from the destruction caused by nitrogen fertilizers.
A Mazes me too 🌽🌽😂😂
no they dont. they already sold the corn then the entire corn is not theirs anymore. if someone develops the corn into something else, the company owes nothing to the original corn seller.
Now more than ever we need to protect nature so their secrets aren't lost!
Yeah but if someone finds the cure to cancer they won't share it because people like that woman wanting to own the biological resource it came from.
If that's the case we shouldn't share our crops with their ass either, and boom now we got a problem.
Don't trust the white man, they will lie and cheat you out of your corn. What are they getting from their corn, nothing.
this isnt natures' secrets this is thousands of years of selective breeding, this is mans' secrets
You are not more powerful than the world.
You cannot protect it.
Let nature protect you with it's wards and blessings or you will be cursed with death and starvation from your hubris.
Not much chance of that.
If this capability could be cross bred into other plants it would make nearly every location on the planet fertile soil. That is an incredible, world changing potential. It should not be locked behind some sort of permanent copyright by a greedy corporation, though I do think the people of the village who had been taking care of it for so long do deserve some sort of compensation as a royalty. Even if it was only 1%, the potential is so massive, they would all be billionaires.
GMO...
Knowing this capitalist world, that is not gonna happen lmao. They don't want to solve any problems, they want to keep making money.
A "greedy corporation" that would have to invest countless millions of dollars to develop this into a viable product, should not have the ability to own it but the people who did absolutely nothing deserve compensation?
Ridiculous.
@@John.Flower.Productions would it really need that much money, though? Just plant it. Maybe make a few tweaks, but the corn is just a corn plant. It doesn't need to be developed into a viable "product"
@@ae3qe27u3 The problem is, the yield (actual corn) from this variety is terrible.
It would take dozens (24+) of acres of this variety, to equal the yield of one (1) acre of the commercially viable corn currently being grown.
This sounds great and we'll see if this technique is used or abused. Years ago we put a mix a mold spore with red clover as a cover crop to fix nitrogen in the soil. We also used fertilizer with trace elements added and got larger crops year after year. I'm sure any plant developed to fix its own nitrogen will need healthy soil to grow in and hopefully reduce chemicals in farming. We can expect the fertilizer industry to legally sabotage this competition with bought off politicians. There's a reason it took 30 years for the scientist to get funding.
Also nature can change all that around, through floods leaching soils of nitrogen, or winds removing topsoil over a period of time. As you know, land management is a long term calling.
@@BlueBeeMCMLXI True, true. Nature can also wreak havoc with existing economic structures in the coming decade allowing for opportunities to reshape the control the greedy have over corporate law and IP laws.
Question. Why can't farmers just use pee?
@@maclivingston9268 Random guess : Not enough pee to go around and no pee harvesting mechanisms researched so far. It's harder than you think to separate out pee from the rest of your drainage.
@@NiklasHansen-jb5mv lol @ 💉.... I was thinking about maybe about using maybe cow urine? We harvest manure why not use the urine too?
SPREAD THIS ! An absolute high on this human´s planet, captured in 9 minutes, so short - so important. How to spread this !? "to benefit us all" looks like a dream in such a devided world. ! Greeting from Germany
Even 200 years ago coffee growers in Indonesia used a certain plant in between harvests or plantings of the coffee plant itself.
The plant has become known as coffee bush by some, and grows prolifically in even very poor soils and classified an invasive weed in some areas and countries. It is able to fix nitrogen and replenishes the soil that had been depleted from growing coffee.
It's seeds when young are green and edible like peas.
It less of a bush and more like a small tree.
Let’s let capitalism have at it. Capitalists fix everything.
Any Help? Any photos or scientific name of the plant you have mentioned?
Pigeon peas, maybe?
@@Ben_Dare You mean it is a legume? clitoria ternatea ?
www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/1/3/1373
I just love the Americas and its native people, they are responsible for so many of our important crops today that feed the world. It just amazes me just how the natives of the Americas were able to domesticate so many species of plants that not only are nutritious but also tasty. thank you Americas
yes!! the idiots in the comments can’t even imagine the ingenuity it took to transform teosinte into the maize we know and love and rely upon. thank you Indigenous peoples of the americas.
And thats why it is so important to protect them which colonisers have destroyed so much
they develops hundreds of crops, self sustainable agriculture systems even bio engineered entire forests
It looks a lil like my pp. 😅
What a lovely piece of state sponsored information. Cool GM it into every plant eh
thank you indigenous farmers and maize-loving biker santa claus, this is extremely cool stuff
🎅😂
Respect the indigenous people.
And the earth they protect and live closely with.. 😊
@@rog3129yep
thanks
In the Netherlands we use, among other things, green manure, mostly leguminous plants such as clover, alfalfa or lupine, which binds nitrogen through symbiosis with bacteria. Trees such as alders also have this property to a lesser extent
not for much longer..
@@markvietti Why not?
Incredible video and so grateful for the people that took care of this plant over the centuries. Mind-boggling!
It seems it can take care of itself
In Sri Lanka has a grass specious producing slime like this. That grass has 4"/5" long root bunches in every bend of the plant. Those roots are filled with that slime in the morning and disappear when sun is up. It tastes like water jelly. We used to eat and rub on face that slime just for fun when our childhood.
You could send them money.
🙄 yeah the plant would have never survived... Millions of years without humans cultivating it....🙄
Woah this is awesome! We learned about nitrogen fixation in class and I had no idea a plant could basically self fertilize itself. I do appreciate that the company isn’t trying to take all the benefits. The only way to help lessen environmental impact of agriculture is if the corns slime is shared with everyone, and at a reasonable price.
We are blessed to have a community dedicated to keeping this crop in our world for 2000 years. Much Love.
If this can be used in a positive way, while also being ecologically friendly, that is great. Hopefully a company like Monsanto doesn't get a hold of it.
Why not?
Yeah why ?
@@francescolombini3477 they would make sure that only they could sell it. Monsanto sued farmers that tried to replant seeds from the plants they sold to them claiming they would need to buy them again ensuring they make even more money each year the plant is grown.
Monsanto are straight up evil monopolists.
Monsanto was bought by Beyer, same low life management, they are just hiding the Monsanto name under a different brand, FYI.
Such a rugged and beautiful landscape in Southern Mexico!
Monsanto ain't going to be happy about this. Let's hope the good people can keep Monsanto from getting in the way of progress
Probably already stole the scientific research
Monsanto doesn't exist anymore. It's Bayer now.
They never named the company that they made the deal with....
I was going to say that,..
Did some called MONSANTO
We all have to buy this seeds to grow that plant in the whole world. So that no single big-agri can take the rights.
Im proud to have my roots from this beautiful state and it’s amazing how traditions are still very much alive. Oaxaca is a place I recommend people to visit not just for the places to see and people to meet but the food that is one of a kind in Mexico and I’d say the world.
why arent you there ? where are you ? if you were really truly proud you would return there and contribute to the success of your beloved land.
@@giuseppe_M well let’s be honest I would say the same of anyone who isn’t at their ancestral lands including yourself but I understand we all have circumstances that hold us to our current homes as for me I have a good job have my family close and because I have a good paying job I can contribute to the community here and there for you to assume that I’m not and say if I was truly proud I’d be there now is just plain ignorance but I will let you know so you can rest easy that I plan to retire over there and live the rest of my life enjoying the wonders of my ancestors beloved land.
@@giuseppe_M Can't tell if racist, or just s†upid.
@worldmusicaddyours6436 the question is why aren't you taking your skillset and knowledge to the land you love so much ? Make the sacrifice for the greater good of land you hold so close to your heart . Unless you really only love the qualities of "your land" that make you feel good and ignore the rest . Typical behavior and attitude of a person that enjoys the benefits of a land that was fought and sacrificed for by others while declaring so much love for a land that your ancestors didnt want to fight for . How could you be so proud of "your land " when "your people " are running away to come to a system that other people sacrificed for ? Did your ancestors fight for the right to build a system that they wanted? A system that " your people " can't find the guts to fight for and create themselves ? How could you be proud of a land that has not been fought for ? Seems to me your ancestors either didn't have the brains or the spine to stand up to whomever and build a country worth being proud of . Proud enough to want to stay there and not run and jump on the coat tails of someone else's sacrifice. Kinda like how the Aztecs stumbled upon the abandoned civilation that the Toltecs built. Aztecs didn't build all that stuff . The Toltecs did . You can see where the aztecs tried to imitate the style of the Toltec structures and didn't come close
@@giuseppe_M your ignorance is appalling how dare you tell me of the sacrifices of others when the United Stated stole the land of the indigenous and broke treaties after treaties disregarding human life how dare you say that I am enjoying the benefits of other’s sacrifices when I was born here and have worked for my own and not taken any of your so called government help like unemployment or food stamps I work for what I have and will have and how dare you say that Aztecs used other’s culture when it was passed down to them unlike the history you read in your school and when USA has no culture of its own so it completely copied others around it. You must have spent the last weeks making this paragraph trying to make yourself sound intelligent but let me tell you something I bet your family came from across the ocean your pilgrim fathers who came to benefit the work of others and slavery? who picks the fields to build such a nation? Chinese laborers build the train tracks that developed this country with little labor laws how many more suffered at the hands of those that you speak of? Before you go on on i suggest you study more and research more about who are the real people who take advantage of others when overthrowing governments and influencing political agendas including weapons sent to Mexico and South America since Pablo Escobar the own government who fights the drug war but behind scenes provides the drugs to its addicts to make the war. You have much to learn about the reality of things I urge you to seek truth and look into real history and see for yourself what really made this country what it is.
The whole world may one day owe a debt of gratitude to that village, incredible to think about.
i mean, the world already owes a huge debt to that area of the world for regular corn and potatoes...which literally changed the world and complimented the industrial revolution. without those 2 crops, the world could not support the population boom that happened with the industrial revolution.
@@bvbxiong5791 why does the whole world owe them? this plant grew by itself and its selection took place in many ways already on other continents, those corn and potatoes of the year 1500 are not at all the same as now. I think everyone should own these plants, and not just a bunch of people who are lucky enough to live next to him. how did those villagers help scientists? DNA sequenced with them in the lab? Do you think botanists can't cope without the old man from this video?
F biopiracy and patents. As a species, we should nurture the unfortunate among us. A fifty percent royalty fees is nothing but an anti competitive behavior which directly breaks the plates of third world countries who couldn't afford fertilizers.
If every country were to claim the rights of their own plants, then scientists are much likely to be funded for a research which historically proves the origin of a plant; only to acquire its rights by their government later.
Imagine when African countries are just recovered from centuries of colonialism only to pay "royalties" for 50 copyrighted ingredients on top of his lunch. It's exploitation but with extra steps.
I agree with someone's comment: People usually do not mind sharing their varieties. The problem starts when someone wants exclusive rights over a natural product.
Only wise arguments in the thread please.
This is where money should be spent, and this is how respecting the locals in the research should be conducted
F biopiracy and patents. As a species, we should nurture the unfortunate among us. A fifty percent royalty fees is nothing but an anti competitive behavior which directly breaks the plates of third world countries who couldn't afford fertilizers.
If every country were to claim the rights of their own plants, then scientists are much likely to be funded for a research which historically proves the origin of a plant; only to acquire its rights by their government later.
Imagine when African countries are just recovered from centuries of colonialism only to pay "royalties" for 50 copyrighted ingredients on top of his lunch. It's exploitation but with extra steps.
I agree with someone's comment: People usually do not mind sharing their varieties. The problem starts when someone wants exclusive rights over a natural product.
Only wise arguments in the thread please.
This is an example of why i find such beauty and uniqueness in natures and its ability to adapt andd evolve to the world it had been put into.
I am from Mexico (quite far though, 1,140 km from Totontepec, Oaxaca) and had no idea this variety of corn existed, in fact I've seen other varieties of endemic local corn, like on and near a property my mom owns, which have exposed upper trunk roots like that, (not all varieties are that way) but never with that gooey gel, it's sad to learn that we don't know enough about our own culture and local history but at the same time it's really cool to see Mexico is getting recognition for all the things that we have to offer to the world and I hope these originary towns get all the compensation and remuneration they ought to get.
It's takes education and exposure to realize the potential of what God put here for us.
It be like that sometimes don’t be so hard on yourself I’m glad you’re learning now I feel the same way I do I’m just now learning
The Mexican people have been taking care of their land for literally thousands of years and this is the result of the work they put in to they're soil. They don't use pesticide or fertilize chemically in any way all the answers we need to feed the world the Mexican people pulled off for thousands of years
@@jeffreyrodgers5835the indigenous*. Culture began to slowly whitewash itself after the first wave of Mestizos came and caste system put the indigenous at the bottom of society.
I'm studying plant sciences and have never heard of this before. It's super awesome!😲😍💡Thanks for sharing
Amazing coverage, thank you for sharing. Still, I'm curious about a couple things:
1. How does the corn taste?
2. Is there is anything unique in the area/soil/environment that made this corn develop like it does?
3. Why hasn't other forms of possible grains in the local area not take up this form of self infused nitrogen?
4. What is the name of the bacteria in the slime?
I'm sure the company working on it is keeping most of those important answers close to their chest. The taste? I bet anyone can "fly" down there and taste it themselves.
@@clearmenser I was hoping that someone would described the taste. Is it sweet, bland, bitter, juicy when eaten fresh or steamed? How big are the kernels? Can it make great popcorn?
Most of the corn that's grown that's grown in the world is processed into high fructose corn syrup or animal food,, so the taste is really not important.
I can't comment on the taste, but from what I've read, the large amount of mucilage on these varieties may be due to the frequent rain and mist this area gets. (It keeps it wet; otherwise it dries down to an almost microscopic film.) That seems like it might be the biggest barrier to it going elsewhere.
@@em0jr It's a flour corn. Tortilla corn. It would be starchy, fairly bland, not bitter or sweet. It won't pop.
The bit at the end about biodiversity is a good point. There needs to be more than one strain of this hybrid corn in order to protect against one random disease wiping the entire crop out at once. Hopefully the researchers will have the foresight to do something about that.
Mind you, genetic engineering could save those genes if that happens. It's all about how these tools are used.
Genetic engineering for crops will lead the Second Green Revolution, perhaps this one will do so too.
Also a monoculture is bad for the ecosystem
You think that some weird slime is going to prevent an entire monoculture crop field from being ravaged by a new plant disease?
Allow me to introduce you to crop rotation, perennial cereal crops, agroforestry, and alternative food systems that aren't reliant on inefficient livestock or copious amounts of increasingly scarce fresh water.
Converting all our food crops to C4 photosynthesis will use less water and increase yields by fifty percent.
Food and medicine should never be allowed to be patented
AGREED
Medicine should be available to everyone, and unfortunately aggressively keeping onto a patent can harm people( John Green did a video on how a company kept on their patent abusively, and their machine that helped people diagnose types and variants of tuberculosis wasn’t available to the people that needed it the most)
in this particular case the patent benefits everyone: the scientists that put a lot of work into their research and the indigenous farmers that have a strong cultural connection to their crop. Also, this patent pays the farmers their fair share, allowing them to continue caring for this crop. In this case this is a win win situation, maybe this model can be applied to other crops so that we can all benefit. I just hope that the agreement is as fair as they presented it in the video, because a lot of greedy companies are trying to undo their words to line their pockets
@@mime514 I don't see why a patent is needed for any of those things. A patent creates a monopoly which prevents everyone from using a perpetual resource. The farmers can be rewarded through usual contract, no monopoly needed.
This is actually a Monopoly of goodness only if there is a patent atleast for the food, we conclude the richness in the area. Not more than turmeric and basmati rice which was over 5000 varieties. But there still exists biopiracy.😏
I have observed this in our local variety of corn in Cameroon and I have even gone as far as tasting it I never knew it contained nitrogen fixing bacteria.
Oh wow. Was it sweet ?
Does it also present the giantism of the one in this video? Roughly how tall is it?
I’m sure the scientist in the video would like to hear about that. You should contact him.
Do you know the local or botanical variety name?
That’s amazing that there’s a similar maize in that part of the world. Is this native to Cameroon, or was it an imported plant?
I may have seen this phenomenon on my corn -- tortilla corn. Not the 'sweet corn' grown in the United States. Mexican/Latino markets offer tortilla corn by the kilo for making nixtamal, the base for hand-made tortillas and other indigenous foods. I plant that corn. The corn goes to a height of 4 meters. In the past, I used corn I brought back from Guatemala. Same growth. I will watch my 'tortilla' corn this season to see if what is shown in this video is unique to the corn in Oaxaca.
do you use crop rotation?
@@mikemorgan5394 I grow what I can in this ghetto environment. This year, due to other projects, I did not plant 'nixtamal' corn. I should. I should have two months ago with all the rain. But other projects .....
Oaxaca,,,,best weed out there.
Best wishes. Excellence. However, does your cultivar of corn produce HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) in the human digestion?
North Americans Natives /Southern Plain Indians are descendants of South Americans. United States was created later.
What an awesome guy to work with indigenous people to save the world. Im a proud Mexican. Our knowledge of agriculture is immense!
Yes, but are you a proud Mexican IN MEXICO?! hahahahaha
@@davidb2206i am!
There's already enough food to solve world hunger.
This nitrogen fixing maize variety is also grown by our community. We practice natural farming by default till date. I'm from a corner of North Eastern state of India.
Please be careful if you head into the Sunderban Delta. That is human eating, tiger country
Do you sell seeds?
Which state?
@@Rin_Chawngthu kashmir
@@playfulpickshub not to make it awkward but i was asking Pidu Remeh his state😅 but thank you for answering
The Milpa/ three sisters already does this. By associating corn with beans you already have a legume that serves as a nitrogen fixer with your corn and squash. The best fertilizer is good compost from a polyculture system.
I wish this strategy was more widely adopted. Looking for the one savior crop that's going to save everything without big Ag having to change its practices is very lazy and entitled when there are already solutions out there. There is not enough pressure on the agriculture industry to adopt polyculture at scale. People need to understand that the algal blooms caused by fertilizer runoff literally suck the oxygen out of oceans and lakes, suffocating the animals living there :(
@Barrett exactly, it’s so depressing to know that these companies want to just plant giant monocultures of this sacred relative, to abuse and exploit them for massive profit. thankfully there are “citizen scientists” working to make this corn northern adapted so that small growers across the continent, who respect the plant themselves, can outpace the industrial agriculture giants and spread the seeds through their communities before some vile patent is asserted.
@@barrett5195 For corn, soybean, and wheat, between 84 and 92 percent of acreage involves some sort of rotation.
@@FancyUnicorn :0
@@barrett5195 Is it possible to scale polyculture without having to resort back to what was done before large scale agricultural practises started? I don't know anything about it and am genuinely interested.
Really amazing! So grateful to farmers who work so hard to be us daily nourishment.
Mexico doesn't get nearly enough credit for all its contributions to the world. This made me smile.
ya like fentanyl
This is amazing. It makes me believe that there are already many solutions and innovations that can lead humanity into a sustainable and better future if we come together and work with nature as co-creators.
the slime is bacteria. also normal crops get nitrogen from bacteria in the soil not slime on the plants stem. actually plants get food from fugus on the roots too. so while this video is new the why plants eat is not new.
I lived a short time among the Hopi Indians. They have a corn seed that they plant at ten feet apart in both directions, like on a 10’ grid. They don’t fertilize it or irrigate it. They get about 12 to 15”s of moisture a year. They plant eight seeds together at about six inches deep and then thin to 5 plants at each spot. The soil is almost all sand. The plants get four to five feet tall with long ears of corn. The corn tastes good but gritty due to lack of irrigation. But they really like it. I grew “normal” corn without fertilizer and the plants got to about 18” tall with no useable ears of corn!
"I lived for a short time with the Hopi Indians..." 😅 That's high-larious! No you didn't, you just watched Apocalypto or some shit....
We grow corn in out garden with no fertiliser and its normal 6' high corn with half a dozen or so ears
@@joedennehy386 you're doing something horrifically wrong if your corn has ears
@@SweetBabyJesusOnTheCross please tell me, do you think the Hopi no longer exist?
@@тито-к9в please tell me why it is you would ask?
Wow! So grateful that there are great communities like this in the world. Something to emulate.
This slime could change the world!
We can’t emulate it now. They own the rights to the corn the seed the synthetic slime and the real slime. The rest of the world can only buy the synthetic slime. The village is the only place in the world that will ever have all the benefits. Thanks to the woke Biopiracy stance they’ve convinced the locals to join. Kinda awful tbh. They should sell the seeds at a really high cost to start, then as demand decreases so can there cost. This synth slime will take another 40 years, people can start growing this huge corn, have more seeds, have the slime, and be able to start their synthesizing projects as soon as possible, but that would be what’s best for everyone...
F biopiracy and patents. As a species, we should nurture the unfortunate among us. A fifty percent royalty fees is nothing but an anti competitive behavior which directly breaks the plates of third world countries who couldn't afford fertilizers.
If every country were to claim the rights of their own plants, then scientists are much likely to be funded for a research which historically proves the origin of a plant; only to acquire its rights by their government later.
Imagine when African countries are just recovered from centuries of colonialism only to pay "royalties" for 50 copyrighted ingredients on top of his lunch. It's exploitation but with extra steps.
I agree with someone's comment: People usually do not mind sharing their varieties. The problem starts when someone wants exclusive rights over a natural product.
Only wise arguments in the thread please.
In Sri Lanka has a grass specious producing slime like this. That grass has 4"/5" long root bunches in every bend of the plant. Those roots are filled with that slime in the morning and disappear when sun is up. It tastes like water jelly. We used to eat and rub on face that slime just for fun when our childhood.
@@lankanlife8489 øk
We used to have these kind of Corn in Nepal. Because these were tall, it used to broke when it gets windy. Thats why people went for hybrid as they were small in size. Not sure if farmers plants this kind of corn anymore.
The entire planet should work like this. All resources should benefit it’s communities.
@tripplefives you tripping or trolling?
I have a feeling that this will revolutionize the world. We need more nitrogen fixing plants like this.
@@raw_dah Nah that is exactly what is happening here and what this video is endorsing. One town is restricting research into this thing which could feed and lower food prices for millions or billions of people, and they want a massive cut of the profits. By claiming that this whole species is owned by them, they're also ensuring that only 1 or a small number of companies will be able to produce it.
@@weissfox5857 yeh, I take that back. I commented before watching the whole video. Like nature gave us this, it shouldn't be owned by anyone. Doesn't matter if big corps or small villages do this.
Europeans cultivated the Brassica family Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussel sprouts ect.... So should we tell Asians to stop putting these crops in there stir fry until they pay Europeans for creating these crops over the years? Ofcourse not!!
This was such a good story. How interesting. Glad a company wasn’t allowed to take advantage of such a breakthrough. Hiding in plain sight
Yup, good thing the agreement is confidential and we can trust their word. Definitely not taken advantage of so sad they didn't get to keep their right to it. Imagine getting half royalties on seeds not on sales/profit and if they germinate their own seeds... Well no more royalties.
@@antoniolum1506 Ummm...conspiracy much? How about the billions $$$ being spent on research and development. That's not being paid by a tribe, state, or country? Or you...?
@@antoniolum1506 yea well either a few people get the royalties and the problem of fertilizer over-use continues, or the whole earth gets over fertilizers.
@@antoniolum1506 luckily for them, it's not a Chinese or Russian company (not that they actually do any research) that found that treasure or instead of becoming rich, they would have gotten absolutely nothing bar some fake separatists from Wagner.
@@FVWhimsy2010 Well, I would argue that no matter how many billions are spent on research for this plant, the greatest contribution will still have been made by these people who kept it alive for 2000 years or more. It's the people's product. This research can only be done because of the indigenous people.
I love and appreciate cultures, science and sharing of knowledge.
In the late 1970s, I wrote a sci-fi story entitled "Maizine" exactly about this. The plant became so successful, it turned into an invasive species that wiped out all the other plant life on earth. Eventually, this drove the protagonist mad because there was a compound in the food derived from it that only he could taste, and ALL the carbs on earth were made from Maizine. :)
We also cultivate this type of corn which produce slime on its roots here in Nagaland.
I didn't know corn had aerial roots! Interesting. The more I learn about Oaxaca the more I want to come see it!
They have a repository of plants and seeds somewhere in case of disaster. This one may well be there already.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault
No stay home
@@AndyCampbellMusic in the Arctic Region Stashed away and frozen.
@@AndyCampbellMusic Is the seed vault that flooded a couple of years ago due to melting snow😂
You will get killed
Mexico is magical.
They need to protect this stuff cuz knowing humanity its gonna get ruined somehow
I hope there is proper compensation in the long run. They didn't just find and preserve some random wild plant. They literally created it through selective breeding, even if accidentally.
Why they should have compensation for it? All our current crop cultivars have the same history and no one got compensated for it.
@@user255 That's simply not true. New cultivars have been a source of major profit in every era. It never stopped being done.
The worldwide grain industry is worth trillions of dollars. These indigenous farmers in Mexico will not get one cent of the proceeds based upon the growing of new nitrogen sufficient plants. Greed will prevail and the source will get nothing. It's just the same story that repeats over and over again.
@@nathanlevesque7812 That is not what I said. Of course everyone is free to sell seeds of their cultivars. If these natives want to make money with this corn cultivar, then they are as well free to sell its seeds. I'm talking about people who bred the cultivars originally, they did not get any compensation. They are mostly unknown and dead long time ago. Only their family may still be alive and again, not compensated.
Because it’s not just the cultivar,it’s the slime that this cultivar seems to have associated with it that fixes nitrogen. This could be a huge game changer.
We use rapeseed in Romania for fixation of nitrogen into soil for some months and even a year before planting normal crops like corn, potatoes, sun flower and then retake the cycle. It does very well to the earth to recover.
I hate the idea that anyone owns anything like it belongs to mother earth, same with the waters we poison and the lands we raise, we should being paying the mother back and focus more on the care of her, hopefully we all work together more often
These videos always brighten the day. Keep spreading positivity!
Excellent story,
that might one day be shared with any small, impoverished community that does not, and can not add fertilizer to it's poor soil, and so increasing it's food without polluting it's land.
Great that the people have been protecting the story so long, and it is so important! Kudos!
Amazing 😍😻😊 . I'm from Pakistan, in my childhood we used to have similar maize variety with rhizomes. However then we don't know the biochemistry of this phenomenon. This corn was very sweet to taste, especially we enjoyed it's popcorns. Thanks for great research work.
If someone does make a successful self fertilizing versions of these plants then it needs to be put in a public domain so that people can openly source it and grow it. That way big companies like monsanto doesn't keep the rights to themselves.
Exactly!!!
so let me get this straight. Someone has to spend all of his money, time and wits to develop something, go banckrupt and die poor because thats the best thing for humanity? do you even know how any of the process works? You are not entitled to someone's labour, no one is.
@@Apostate_ofmind so you are pro monopoly and allow prices to skyrocket rather than allow it to be more available? Corporations aren't people my friend and they don't care about you.
@@Apostate_ofmind bro why you spamming
@@Mangaoreader where
I work is seed corn industry I’ve been talking about this for a decade this is the next big advancement in the corn industry
Monoculture was touched on at the end of the video, I was hoping to hear permaculture mentioned as well as companion planting, alongside other permaculture principles, can reduce the need for nitrogen replenishing fertilizers as well.
Hybrid grains which can restore their own fertilizer would fill the missing gap in so many areas, I hope they succeed.
plants can't thrive in isolation from other organisms, including bugs, fungi, bacteria, reptiles, birds and mammals. The biggest problem is that humans hate losing their bottom line no matter what type of agriculture is being used. Most people rather shoot birds, poison bugs, stop natural decomposition by spraying antifungal and antibacterial compounds and lay traps than having to face an unproductive season.
@@theguythatcoment And that sort of behavior will ensure the total collapse of ecosystems the world 🌎 over. A world wide famine would shortly follow.
@@theguythatcoment That's got to be the dumbest take I've ever heard. Plants thrive BECAUSE of their interaction with other organisms.
@@Hubris030 He said "can't" thrive without them...
If we genetically manipulate all food grains to this NF bacteria we open ourselves up to a global catastrophy. A virus or another bacteria will exploit this and cause a global famine. Just sayjng.....
There are 64 landraces of corn and over 20,000 adapted hybridized varieties in Mexico.
Elsewhere in Mexico there is a corn landrace with gigantic ears, primarily grown for its extra-large corn husks that are sold for use in making tamales. The plants are very tall, with very high ear placement, so they were traditionally harvested from horseback.
Awesome to see Santa get involved in science of crop farming 👍👍👍
Just one more reason why I love Mexico so damn much. Best food in the world!!!!!
Very interesting. I dont bother with corn on my little farm because it takes heavy fertilizer. I'm sure thats probably a "dent" corn but id love to try and breed a sweet corn that needs less nitrogen.
FANTASTIC! Let us hope that science can help People and EARTH do incredible things!
Although this video appeared just recently the fact that adventitious roots on corn can produce a gel that hosts nitrogen fixing bacteria has been known for quite some time. I first heard about it 4 or 5 years ago. And it’s not just the corn from this one location. Many of the older corn varieties do this. I am encouraging it in my own polenta corn here in Australia.
We now know that many, perhaps even all plants host N fixing bacteria in their leaves. N fixing bacteria also live free in the soil. They are everywhere. We just weren’t aware of them.
I want to grow this on a small scale in Australia now! It strikes me that the potential of this maize to create glomalin in the soil as well as nitrogen, would be off the charts!!!
I bought a bag of maize morado online to use for seed in my garden. All of them have these slimy roots.
Uh oh! Sounds like you might own some farmer that you have never heard of in a third world country some royalties...LOL!
Someone... someone get me that plant
But sir
*I SAID somebody get me that plant.*
Two years ago a tomato plant popped up in my lawn. I think it came from some bird poop cause i used to put a bird bath in my garden. So I let it grow and protected it and gave water to it. I didn't Fertilized it at all. My family wants to uproot it cause it looked like an eyesore but I refused and told them not to do it and it grew like crazy. It took almost 5 months to get the first tomato from it but then boom I was harvesting bucket full of tomatoes time to time. Big juicy fleshy and tasty tomatoes. They're the best tasting tomatoes I've ever had. I decided to save some seeds and planted 4-5 plants this year and now I'm giving bucket full of tomatoes to my neighbors and friends. I even preserved so much that i won't be needing to buy for a long time.
Do you know what the variety is?
@@catlover-fp5ig No i don't know yet. Tomatoes are really big and irregular shaped. I've seen some similar verity on the internet but i can't exactly tell if it's the same I had.
I will gladly show this video in my biology class. Hopefully it can inspire my students to learn more about the impact research can have on the planet and humanity.
I grew this maize in high school. It got to 20 feet tall, even in New England. The local county agent came to see it and take pictures. Not at all edible, though. The seeds were the size of nickels and fibrous.
Could you grind it into a flour, Mike? That could still be useful. Let me know if you want me to fly in and help you grow some more?
Unbelievable how a real corn can be fibrous🤔
@@johnvonhorn2942 Didn't try. I didn't even know if it was edible. The seeds came from places where they sell things like sea monkeys.
As a fellow farmer all I can say is God protect those farmers. They should make a hidden stash of some of that plants' seed. Maybe send me some for safe keeping. :D
i saw my big family lot tens of extremely awesome plants on earth. theese apple tree types no body seen on earth, thoose awesome tomatos, and some strawberrie types all disappeared from earth. my grandfather was planting a wheat type which can give 100 for one single grain. the wheat has gone and lost. i miss their delicious taste. all lost.
This is a serious game changer. This is going to help end world hunger.
In the Philippines we have a rare variety of rice that doesn’t need plenty of water… just rain water is enough to make it grow on the side of a hill unlike ordinary rice you need flat field with lots of water to grow… I think it’s extinct now and haven’t heard of it anymore!😢😢😢
Fantastic potential! Man I love science and nature!
This is amazing to learn about. When people come together for the benefit of humanity, and the planet, it's always exciting. This seems like a huge step in the right direction for the farming industry.
This is revolutionary! 😍😍
If we genetically manipulate all food grains to this NF bacteria we open ourselves up to a global catastrophy. A virus or another bacteria will exploit this and cause a global famine. Just sayjng.....
Respect the indigenous people.
There's no respect from corporations if theres no money
WOW...it is said that everything the earth needs IS in the Earth xxxxx
There's a lot of plant varieties out of Oaxaca that have been suppressed by big Ag unfortunately. I have been acquiring seeds from various heirloom tomatoes and peppers from this region before they become even harder to find.
I hope they will find a way to keep it open and good for everyone. This type of plant and research is often hoarded by big corporations for their own profit and is never allowed to be free to the general public.
They don't want to free anything, they wanna keep their plant for themselves the same way Kelloggs would.
The "Bio Piracy" woman in the video basically said if you cured cancer with their plants you can't just produce more plants you have to give them money for it basically.
So the person who would make the cure is incentivized to not make the cure to begin with because they wanna lord over plants from their country while eating everyone elses.
nobody is hoarding plants...
i grew this kind of maiz in my childhood. our neighbors were from Oxaca living in Michoacan and they yse to grow maiz and share with many children to eat every rain season.
I hope that the community is adequately compensated for all of the absolute wonders that we might be able to create from this plant.
why, they could have developed the technology themselves, but they didnt.
They are not entitled to someone else's labour.
Thats like every artist on the planet having to pay a portion of profits to the people they buy pain from, every time they sell a painting with that paint on the canvas.
No, they pay the price of the paint to the paint seller, and nothing from the sale of the finished painting.
I hope so too!
Yes I agree but how maintain their customs and identity without just throwing money at them, without them becoming just like the rest of humanity where the size of your TV or other commercial good dictate your life, wish i had the answer. Anyone???
@@Apostate_ofmind I mean yeah as an artist I do have to buy paint from people who make them so I am not getting the point youre trying to make here
@@Mangaoreader you buy paint, not a painting.
If you buy 10 £ of paint and make a 100'000 £ worth of painting, is what you produced in any way correlated with what you paid? Its not. You paid 10£ wherether you made no money or a ton. No part of the final sale goes to the producer of paint.
this development is truly maizing.
The ecological variety of this planet never ceases to amaze me. From bacteria eating non-recyclable plastics, to extremophiles living in nuclear reactors. There will always be a solution somewhere.
there is,, birth control
I have seen some sort of gigantic corn in old downtown(used to be a corn field there) of Chino HIlls, Ca. USA in first half of 80's. The plants were aproximately 2x or more the hight of a man. Very large husks, too - since it was not fenced in, I picked some for my family.....
Maize saves the world, again. 🌽💯🌽💯🌽
So, so amazing. I am glad that the indigenous people are being respected, and given back to. That always hasnt been the case, many times before
0:11 Come on, finger-like? You know what those plants look like and it's certainly not fingers...
yeahhh.....
👁👄👁
I find it so interesting and amazing that the most important things that happened come from the humblest of origins