Agriculture Scientist

 Considered the father of hybrid corn, Shull devoted 30 years of his life to corn breeding. A botanist by training, Shull began his famous experiments at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island New York.  His experiments began in 1905 and centered on inheritance in corn. Although there are several geneticists/botanists who made contributions to the development of hybrid corn, Shull made the critical observations on the reduction in vigor on inbreeding corn and the subsequent improvement of vigor on crossing corn.  These experiments provided the basis for hybrid corn. Although it was ground breaking research, it would not be until 1922 before hybridized corn was made commercially available. Shull founded the journal Genetics (which is considered to this day one of the top international science journals), and served as a Professor of Botany and Genetics at Princeton University.  Wallace’s accomplishments are many: Vice President of the United States, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, and other distinguished roles. Wallace was considered an active Secretary of Agriculture and his Department of Agriculture oversaw the creation and development of the food stamp and school lunch programs.  He supported government intervention and implemented controversial measures to regulate production in American farming with government planning designed to battle overproduction and low prices. Specifically, Wallace ordered slaughtering pigs and plowing up cotton fields in rural America to drive the price of these commodities back up in order to improve American farmers’ economic situation.  He experimented with breeding high-yielding strains of corn and founded the Hi-Bred Corn Company in 1926, which we know today as Pioneer Hi-Bred.  Carson’s book Silent Spring was published in 1962, the book was a landmark event in the history of the environmental movement. Carson focused the book on pesticides and their use in agriculture, and argued that those chemicals were dangerous to the environment, wildlife, and humans.  Carson was adept at presenting thorough documentation to make her point and concluded that the effects were akin to pesticide poisoning. The book is not without great controversy, which led to severe use restrictions and bans of DDT.  Chimeric bacterial genes conferring resistance to aminoglycoside antibiotics have been inserted…” And so begins the opening of Fraley’s 1983 paper where he and his research team at Monsanto indicate they have found a method of creating transgenic plants by using a pathogenic bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens.  Fraley’s ambition led to the commercialization of genetically modified plants. The first genetically modified plants from Monsanto which achieved widespread success were soybeans resistant to glyphosate herbicide.  Fraley has contributed to years of agricultural development through a number of significant activities, including authoring more than 100 publications and patent applications relating to technical advances in agricultural biotechnology.  The plow is cited as one of the most important inventions in the advancement of society. John Deere certainly did not invent the plow, but he improved on the plow by making his out of steel in 1837.  The steel plow that Deere developed worked superior in American Midwest soils compared to the cast-iron plow. His plow unlocked the vast fertility of the Midwest soils which ultimately unleashed the incredible yield potential and food producing ability of the American Midwest.  Deere positioned his newborn company in Moline, Illinois, close to the Mississippi River and was better able to transport his products to farmers. John Deere built high quality products, and his company’s namesake maintains that reputation as a high quality agricultural and construction equipment manufacturer to this day.