All 20 Uses of
hybrid
in
The Omnivore's Dilemma
- Then in the 1930s seed companies came up with a new kind of corn seed -- hybrid corn.†
Chpt 1.2
- A hybrid is a plant or animal whose parents have different traits.
Chpt 1.2 *hybrid = something of mixed origin
- The result is a hybrid -- a disease-resistant plant that produces a lot of corn.†
Chpt 1.2
- The catch is that hybrid corn does not "come true."†
Chpt 1.2
- The first crop planted from hybrid corn seed will all be identical.†
Chpt 1.2
- Some plants will be like their hybrid parents, but most will not.†
Chpt 1.2
- The only way to make sure your plants produce the same amount of corn -- that they have the same yield as the original hybrid -- is to buy new seed every year from a seed company.†
Chpt 1.2
- Hybrid corn quadrupled the yields of farmers, from about twenty bushels per acre to about eighty bushels per acre.†
Chpt 1.2
- The secret of modern corn hybrids is that they can be planted very close together.†
Chpt 1.2
- Before hybrids, a farmer could plant eight thousand corn plants in an acre.†
Chpt 1.2
- Hybrids have been bred for thicker stalks and stronger root systems, the better to stand upright in a crowd.†
Chpt 1.2
- New hybrids have increased farm yields to about 180 bushels per acre.†
Chpt 1.2
- When farmers first planted hybrid corn in the 1930s their yields doubled or tripled.†
Chpt 1.2
- Soon, the only way for a farmer to compete was to buy hybrid seed every year.†
Chpt 1.2
- Genetically modified corn seed (or GMO, for genetically modified organism) promises even higher yields than hybrid seed.†
Chpt 1.2
- Chemical fertilizer was needed to grow hybrid corn because it is a very hungry crop.†
Chpt 1.3
- Though hybrids were introduced in the thirties, it wasn't until farmers started using chemical fertilizers in the 1950s that corn yields really exploded.†
Chpt 1.3
- NITROGEN POLLUTION Hybrid corn eats up a lot of nitrogen, but farmers still feed it far more than it can possibly eat.†
Chpt 1.3
- That means using more chemical fertilizer or maybe trying new hybrid or GMO seeds.†
Chpt 1.3
- Today's hybrid corn is bred to keep its sweetness over long-distance transport.†
Chpt 3.17
Definition:
-
(hybrid) something of mixed originin various senses, including:
- of cars -- powered by both electricity and gasoline
- in biology -- a plant or animal produced by crossbreeding
- in linguistics -- a word that is composed of parts from different languages (e.g., monolingual has a Greek prefix and a Latin root)