These four firms are now estimated to manage over 60% of global proprietary seed sales. Plenty of the manufacturers acquired in previous acquisitions have been retired. Changes within the last five years also embrace dozens of acquisitions and joint ventures involving different prime global seed firms, such as Limagrain’s Vilmorin-Mikado subsidiary (France), DLF (Denmark) and Longping High-Tech (China). China now has two seed companies ranked in the highest ten in world seed sales, ChemChina and Longping High-Tech. Since 2017, Longping High-Tech has acquired Dow’s maize division in Brazil, and controlling stakes in seven seed firms based in China. The firm is reportedly planning further acquisitions in Argentina. After acquiring the Switzerland-headquartered firm Syngenta, ChemChina is planning extra acquisitions in China. The graphic below exhibits ownership modifications occurring from 1996 to 2018. Note that the size of the most important circles are proportional to international seed sales, that are dominated by Bayer and Corteva. Below are earlier versions from (1) 1996 to 2013, and (2) 1996 to 2008 for comparison. There were practically four hundred possession adjustments involving these companies within the last 23 years. The chart below exhibits that the peak occurred in 1998, shortly after patented, genetically engineered seeds have been commercialized. Howard, Philip H. How Corporations Control our Seeds. Pp. 15-29 in Bite Back: People Taking on Corporate Food and Winning (Saru Jarayaman & Kathryn De Master, eds.). Oakland, CA: University of California Press. IPES-Food. 2017. Too Big to Feed: Exploring the Impacts of Mega-Mergers, Consolidation and Concentration of Power within the Agri-Food Sector. Howard, Philip H. 2016. Concentration and Power within the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat? Howard, Philip H. 2015. Intellectual Property and Consolidation within the Seed Industry.
Greater than any other facet, the factor that has always fascinated me the most about computer systems is the infinite potential for exploration they offer. You’ll be able to create something–whether or not actual or imagined–inside a pc, after which you can also make it do anything you want. You’re free to attempt to make your creations mimic the real world as a lot as possible, or you’re free to go ahead and bend no matter guidelines of actuality you want. Not surprisingly, a majority of computer programs that embody this spirit are video games. Games are enjoyable, however games could be extra than simply pure entertainment. Games can enlighten individuals and make us suppose in particular ways in which a passive form of media, like a movie, cannot. The programs listed on this web page are, for the most part, clearly video games, though there are a few that some would possibly argue are some kind of software program hybrid perhaps “edutainment” (entertainment software program for the purpose of training), or actual-world simulation.
Nonetheless, I quite loosely use the label “game”, and hope that no one will probably be offended by this utilization. I additionally hope that nobody will be moved to suppose of these programs as shallow or insignificant simply because they are experimental or as a result of they’re “games”. Although, after all, some of them are also just for enjoyable. Nonetheless, these are applications which I imagine deserve special recognition as defying the generally held ideas about what a computer game can or should be. Creativity, exploration, and experimentation are three quite different things, so it is maybe acceptable to spend a moment distinguishing how each of these labels applies to a pc sport. Although “Creativity” suggests originality on the a part of the game designer, what’s perhaps more necessary is how a lot creativity the game allows for (and encourages in) the player. A game like Stunts, the basic car-racing sport, is fun simply because it provides you numerous fast vehicles to race round, but it surely additionally developed a small subculture of observe designers due to its in-recreation track editor.
Games like this, which help you freely modify them, enable for you to precise your personal creativity, bending the game in directions that even the designer(s) likely didn’t foresee. Although many games in the present day encourage exploration, they sometimes achieve this by the brute-drive technique of merely having very giant gameworlds which require too much of knowledge. The classic RPG Betrayal At Krondor proudly boasted 224 million sq. feet of house to explore at your will. That’s obviously a variety of floor, but contrast this with the ultra-simple Game Of Life, which doesn’t need much code and has quite simple guidelines, however which enthralled people for months on finish when it came out. The depth of a recreation does not essentially should be in simply how massive it is a game can derive infinite depth with the right idea. Finally, “Experimentation” is form of a double-edged sword. As in different types of art, like music and motion pictures, experimentation tends to lead to genuinely bizarre issues that make you surprise whether they’re sensible pushing the envelope of what a medium is able to, or just completely wasting everyone’s time.
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