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Meet the Most Famous American You’ve Never Heard Of: His Legacy is Excellent French Fries and Monsanto
Apr 30, 2024
Meet Luther Burbank, the horticultural rock star behind the French fry potato variety. Learn about his struggles with patenting his plant inventions and how it shaped today's supermarket shelves. Explore the wild world of plant breeding, patent laws, and the rise of big companies like Monsanto in controlling agricultural innovations.
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Quick takeaways
- Luther Burbank's plant inventions, like the Burbank potato, shaped modern agriculture without patent protection.
- Burbank's breeding process involved extensive experimentation, highlighting the challenges of patenting his creations.
Deep dives
Luther Burbank: The Plant Wizard's Remarkable Legacy
Luther Burbank, known as the Plant Wizard, astounded the world with his horticultural wonders, creating over 800 commercial plant varieties without the ability to patent them. This led to a world where companies like Monsanto could patent seeds farmers needed, changing food production. Burbank's plant inventions, like the Burbank potato, revolutionized agriculture, showing the frustrating limits of patenting nature's creations.
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