As homebrewers, we've watched with some dismay as barley prices have jumped dramatically, along with most food prices. Part of that has been attributed to acreage being diverted to corn for ethanol production, and is probably true in large measure. Other factors include the increasing affluence and standard of living of people in China, India, and other nations with expanding economic clout, which enables them to incorporate more meat in their diets ... which requires more grain as feed; they are reportedly also drinking more beer. There are other factors, too, but the main point to be made here is that barley prices are affected by the prices of other grains, regardless of what they are used for. So, ... when I came upon this New York Times article --
Join the Hunt for Super-Rice - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog -- my immediate thought was that by improving rice crops, and eventually using the same technology to improve crops of corn, wheat, oats, and even barley, we should all have more barley to brew with in the future.
Along those lines, if anyone here would like to help with that research, we just happen to have our own 'Homebrewers' team already working for the World Community Grid (the very organization which is working on the 'super-rice' project). Until now, the 'WCG' has been working strictly on non-profit medical research to help find cures for diseases such as cancer, but this is an important humanitarian project now that we are seeing a growing food shortage. Any member can designate the particular projects that his/her computer will work on, so if you want ALL of your computer's spare power to be used for 'super-rice' research, you can certainly do that. The main thing is to quit wasting your computer's power running a stupid screen saver when you're not even looking at it most of the time, and start using it for humanitarian research. Our 'Homebrewers' team currently has only 88 members, but we have donated the equivalent of more than 133 YEARS of computer time for this non-profit research to benefit all of humanity.
Read about our team here -
Team: HomeBrewers Team Page re the World Community Grid - and then click on the Home-Page link to see how safe and secure this is.
Thanks for your time.
Bill Velek
Grow-Hops ... and Brewing-Herbs and Barley
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