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Darwinian Agriculture in a Nutshell Darwinian Agriculture in a Nutshell
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Phenotypic Plasticity and Bet-hedging in Sunflowers Phenotypic Plasticity and Bet-hedging in Sunflowers
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What if My Proposed Core Principles Turn Out to Be Wrong? What if My Proposed Core Principles Turn Out to Be Wrong?
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Bet-hedging in Food Production Bet-hedging in Food Production
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Bet-hedging, Organic Farming, and Animal Agriculture Bet-hedging, Organic Farming, and Animal Agriculture
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Diversity for Bet-hedging in Agricultural Research Diversity for Bet-hedging in Agricultural Research
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Neglected Agricultural Sciences Neglected Agricultural Sciences
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Natural Selection among Ideas Natural Selection among Ideas
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Focus on Outcomes Focus on Outcomes
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Stronger Selection among Nitrogen-management Ideas Stronger Selection among Nitrogen-management Ideas
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Darwinian Selection among Ideas Darwinian Selection among Ideas
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Perspective Perspective
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12 Diversity, Bet-hedging, and Selection among Ideas
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Published:July 2012
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Abstract
This chapter summarizes the book's main conclusions and cautions against exclusive reliance on any single approach. The book's central thesis is that nature's wisdom is found primarily in competitively tested individual adaptations, in wild species and sometimes still in cultivated ones, rather than in the overall structure of natural ecosystems. It notes how some biotechnology advocates underestimate the perfection of existing individual adaptations and suggests that most near-term opportunities for genetic improvement of crops or livestock will involve tradeoffs that had constrained natural selection in the past. The chapter considers two basic approaches to the problem of varying environments: phenotypic plasticity and bet-hedging. It also discusses bet-hedging in food production, the bet-hedging benefits of organic farming and animal agriculture, and the use of diversity for bet-hedging in agricultural research. Finally, it describes traditional agricultural sciences that have been more receptive to input from evolutionary biology than biotechnology has.
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