BioEverything

George Washington Carver - a hero who worked with the future by Jim McCuecomposter and biotech researcherhttp://bioeverything.blogspot.comThere are some people throughout history who have been so full of the potential to make life better that they were misunderstood, mistrusted, and resisted by people in their own time. Those who didn't see the good that could be done with the changes they advocated saw them as troublemakers. Thinking with their hearts as well as their brains, these leaders challenged the status quo. The result: hard times for them and a slowing down of the changes that they advocated. Some of the most advanced futuristic thinkers also suffered from lack of credibility; people couldn't imagine possible some of their claims. To name a few I've learned about: automobile manufacturer Preston Tucker; inventor Nikola Tesla; agriculturalist John Chapman ("Johnny Appleseed"); inventor Albert Einstein; plant breeder Luther Burbank; and that most amazing chemist and biologist George Washington Carver.Like Preston Tucker, who first advanced seat belts and other safety devices, and other inventions for cars (and was resisted by the big three car companies which didn't want to scare people talking about safety, and didn't want competition from ideas better than what they already had in production - ideas which many years later came to be used), much of what Carver researched to stop soil erosion, feed more people, and make productive use of waste materials remains unused even today. Like Tesla (who worked for a while in Pittsburgh,by the way), Carver thought of problems and solutions for things people didn't have a wide enough angle to even recognize. And he struggled throughout his life with the ignorance of those who didn't see the value of what he was doing. Like Einstein, even people who tried often couldn't figure out how he did things.As with Chapman, a myth has grown up around Carver, including claims that people just can't imagine that he actually did. Like Harriet Tubman, Carver was even as a child said to be helping neighbors heal with herbs. Like Burbank, Carver was said to be able to silentycommunicate with plants and treat them as living beings. I think that, as is usual with people who have unusual abilities, many couldn't understand enough to take them seriously.Like Chapman, who had a tree nursery in what is now the Hill District, Carver grieved over the enormous waste our economic system functions with. Chapman watched barges of potatoes rotting and Carver realized the soil was being destroyed by attempting to extract food and fiber from the land without returning nutrients. Chapman planted, gave away, and distributed apple seeds and trees - resulting in an abundance of wild apple varieties still existing in Pennsylvania and westward states. Carver: promoted the use of the legume peanut to add nitrogen to the soil; made recipes of wild edible foods so poor people could find nourishment even if they didn't own land to grow any of their own food or afford to buy it; had his students salvage usable trash (nowadays called recycling) for their laboratory; and found many ways to use things thought useless (such as peanut shells).As with Einstein, those in power used only what they liked about Carver. Little is known today about Einstein's anti-war activities. So many good ideas which would save money for the majority of people are stifled because they threaten the entrenched finances of a few who would stand to lose by people not needing goods and/or services they used to buy from them. Look into the life of Mr. Carver and you'll find that, for all the improvements he was able to make, many more were ignored and still gather dust in libraries today. They wait for other pioneers to apply them to some of the same entrenched problems: soil loss, hungry people, and poor farmers losing their land.As with Tesla and Tucker, many of Carver's ideas can be put to good use today. Like Tubman, Carver believed he was divinely guided and would pray for inpiration and help in his work.When slander by competitors made it impossible for Tucker to build his car, rather than be discouraged he concentrated on his ideas with the confidence that the good will win out, eventually. I'm sure George Washington Carver could never have persevered had he not the faith that his time would come - even if after he passed.I wonder what Carver would have thought of some of the biotech research work going on today - such as the use of algae to make biodiesel to replace fossil fuels and their destructive side-effects. I think he'd empathize with modern pioneer researchers who must work against the resistance of modern defenders of the status quo in the oil industry.======GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER:A blend of business and science, he left legacy of agricultural research still applicable todayBy Gloria Sanders McCutcheonFebruary 18, 2003http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2003/02/17/features/features1.thttp://www.foodandsocietyfellows.org/library/uploadedFiles/GEORGE_WASHINGTON_CARVER_A_blend_of_business_a.htm======George Washington CarverThe Peanut ManTuskegee University Professor(1864-1943)http://www.thesiac.com/main.php?page=person&&item=gwcarver======George Washington Carver by Mary Bellishttp://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa041897.htm======...For years farmers in the south planted cotton without rotating their crops. As a result, the soil became "worn out." Carver realized something had to be done or the farmers would lose their land. He suggested crop rotation and advised them to plant peanuts and sweet potatoes. At first there wasn't a noticeable difference in farm economy. Farmers continued to lose money. Seeking God through prayer, Carver asked: "Mr. Creator, why did You make the peanut?" God then led Carver to discover over 300 marketable products made from the peanut, including mayonnaise, cheese, shampoo, instant coffee, flour, soap, rubber, face powder, plastics, adhesives, axle grease, and pickles. From the sweet potato Carver discovered over 150 different uses including library paste, vinegar, starch, shoe blacking ink, and molasses...http://www.intouch.org/myintouch/mighty/portraits/george_washington_carver_213625.html======Biodiesel from Algae is Here by Michael Briggs 17 June 2005http://stcwa.org.au/journal/200805/1123912419_10921.htmlhttp://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2005/06/university_of_n.html