Gene Makes Tomatoes Tolerate Salt
By John Travis
The birthplace of agriculture, the Mideast’s Fertile Crescent, became largely a desert long ago, and salt in the soil had a lot to do with it. Today, according to some estimates, salt-laden soil ruins the farming potential of more than one-third of all irrigated lands worldwide.
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“Every time we water the land, we’re depositing minute quantities of salt. It catches up with us,” notes Eduardo Blumwald of the University of California, Davis.