Teosinte, Arracacha and Mauka Breeding with Steve in Australia

About this episode

The episode features an interview with Steve, an independent crop breeder in southern Australia, discussing his work with uncommon crops and sustainable breeding practices.

Steve is an independent crop breeder in southern Australia breeding a host of uncommon crops from similar climates in the Andes. We dive into his work back crossing maize to its ancestor (teosinte), plus his early work preparing to wide cross mauka and arracacha. Steve is pursuing the true zero input approach to breeding staple crops which can produce on unirrigated soil with minimal nutrient inputs and fertility added. If you want to reach out to Steve get in touch via my substack. Sign up to Recombination Nation on Substack for free weekly articles: https://recombinationnation.substack.com Read Shane's book, Taming the Apocalypse, about the future of post industrial biological technology: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Apocalypse-Shane-Simonsen-ebook/dp/B0D2XCLJ85/

People in this episode

Host: Shane Simonsen

Guest: Steve

Topics covered

• crop breeding
• uncommon crops
• teosinte
• mauka
• arracacha
• zero input agriculture
• sustainable farming

Keywords

• teosinte
• arracacha
• mauka
• crop breeding
• sustainable agriculture
• zero input
• Andes
• unirrigated soil

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Recombination Nation

Books & works: Taming the Apocalypse

Places: southern Australia, Andes

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