Chapter 322 - 161: The Tool of Rationality (3)

Chapter 322: Chapter 161: The Tool of Rationality (3)

He cut the academic discussion short and said with a smile, "The food is here. Everyone, please help yourselves. Let’s eat while it’s hot."

Xiao Jieshi was the most relaxed of them all, as he was just along for the ride. Whenever he encountered a topic he didn’t understand, he would chime in with stock phrases like, "Yes, yes, General Manager Jiang is truly brilliant," "What are the prospects in this field?" or "Are there any other technical hurdles?" He also served to keep the mood light, preventing the conversation from lapsing into awkward silence.

Sure enough, as soon as he heard it was time to eat, Xiao Jieshi patted his belly with a grin. "Heh, my stomach is positively rumbling. I won’t stand on ceremony then, General Manager Jiang. Dean Wang, researchers, students—let’s dig in!"

"Alright. General Manager Jiang, Dean Xiao, everyone, please go ahead."

Everyone dug in.

The atmosphere in the private room, once serious, became much more cheerful.

Although Jiang Miao hadn’t ordered many dishes—just eight for the fourteen people present—the portions were very generous.

Xiao Jieshi picked up a large, succulent piece of grilled eel. "This grilled eel is great. Much better than the canned stuff."

"That’s true. The price for live eel is currently about fifty percent higher than canned," Jiang Miao explained with a smile.

A researcher with a receding hairline took a bite of poached chicken and asked, "By the way, General Manager Jiang, I heard a few days ago your company developed a new type of strawberry, one with a vanilla flavor. Was that also created using that tool?"

Jiang Miao took a sip of his vanilla-lemon tea, then smiled and shook his head. "That particular variety was an accident. Our company produces strawberries using tissue culture propagation, and as you all know, there’s always a chance of genetic mutation during that process."

"Oh? So you’re saying the Vanilla Strawberry was a spontaneous genetic mutation during the tissue culture process." The researcher sighed inwardly. ’Hailufeng Company’s luck is off the charts.’

Jiang Miao set down his cup and explained casually, mixing truth with a bit of fiction, "The original mother plant for the Vanilla Strawberry did come about that way. Afterward, our company used its tissue-cultured seedlings for experiments in crossbreeding, cell fusion, and induced mutation. We didn’t cultivate the current Vanilla Strawberry until the fourth generation."

"We’ll have to bring our team to Hailufeng Company to exchange ideas with you more often, General Manager Jiang," Professor Wang said, picking up a piece of honey-glazed char siu.

Of course, the thought of borrowing the tool had crossed the minds of Professor Wang and his team. However, Jiang Miao had made it clear from the very beginning that the tool was a trade secret and could even be a matter of Cyrus’s strategic security. Until they received official permission, Hailufeng Company would not make it available to any outside parties.

Thus, Professor Wang knew better than to ask and risk embarrassment.

He also understood perfectly well that if the tool was as powerful as Jiang Miao described, it was indeed a strategic-grade technology that shouldn’t be shared publicly.

After lunch, Professor Wang suggested returning to Yangcheng, perhaps because he was worried he wouldn’t be able to keep up if the academic discussion with Jiang Miao continued.

At the same time, he asked for Jiang Miao’s permission for his team to conduct their own research projects on the Immortal Bean series, such as subsequent crossbreeding, induced mutation, and cell fusion.

However, Jiang Miao reminded Professor Wang’s team that this was strictly for scientific research. If they developed a new, second-generation variety containing Immortal Bean lineage and wished to commercialize it, they would have to inform Hailufeng Company and obtain a genetic patent license from them.

Professor Wang naturally understood this. Furthermore, any new soybean variety had to be approved by the national review committee before it could be planted on a large scale. A variety involving a genetic patent like this would have no chance of approval without prior communication with Hailufeng Company.

Therefore, his team was only taking the samples back for research and to draw inspiration from Jiang Miao’s methods.

As for the possibility of the breeding stock being leaked, that was simply unavoidable. The Immortal Bean series would soon be planted over large areas of the country, making it relatively easy for interested parties to acquire its seeds and root tubers.

For example, people from An Nan could easily sneak across the border; it was impossible to completely prevent small groups of three or five people from crossing illegally.

Once other factions stole the seeds and began large-scale cultivation, there was no way to stop them as long as they didn’t sell the produce on the international market.

However, Jiang Miao wasn’t worried. The Immortal Bean series had a few genetic defects—a point of leverage he had intentionally left behind.

In his lab, he had several specific fungi designed to exclusively infect Immortal Soybeans. Highly specialized strains of Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Phytophthora, Pythium, and Phomopsis could induce Pythium root rot in the soybeans, causing them to wither and die rapidly.

He was just waiting for those factions to steal it.

If they dared to plant it on a massive scale, he could, when necessary, release the fungi and destroy their entire soybean industry.

Even if they only used the Immortal Bean as parent stock for crossbreeding or genetic modification, they wouldn’t discover the inherent genetic flaws right away.

Of course, these genetic flaws could only be triggered by the highly specialized fungi; ordinary, non-specialized strains of Fusarium and the like would have a negligible effect on the Immortal Bean series.

Meanwhile, Jiang Miao was already preparing new soybean varieties. While he wouldn’t release them immediately, they would serve as a reserve, allowing him to use rapid iteration to bypass the root rot problem himself.

Such is the terrifying power of biology.

For someone who has mastered the genetic code, destroying the world would be a simple matter.

Indeed, due to a lack of experience, the country had been secretly sabotaged by foreign powers several times in the past.

Take sunflowers, for example. After the country started planting foreign varieties, everything was normal for the first few years. But then, a disease specifically targeting those sunflowers suddenly broke out. The infected plants not only died, but the soil itself became unusable for growing sunflowers, unless farmers continued to buy either more foreign seeds or their proprietary pesticides.

This is why many fiercely independent nations emphasize the importance of seed security.

America’s genetically modified soybeans, corn, and Purple Alfalfa are obviously high-quality, so why doesn’t the country introduce them for domestic cultivation?

The answer lies right there.

Once you do, your nation’s food security is no longer in your own hands.

When necessary, the supplier could exploit the genetic defects of these GM crops by releasing specific bacteria, fungi, or pests. Alternatively, they could simply cut off the seed supply, completely crippling a region’s food production.

Food is the foundation of everything.

Food is the cornerstone of social stability.

Any problem with the food supply can trigger a severe chain reaction. For a populous nation, in particular, food security is a matter of life and death.

After all, the larger the population, the more grain must be imported in the event of a food crisis.

Yet, there are only eight countries in the world capable of exporting tens of millions of tons of grain annually: America, Maple Country, Lucia, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, the Kyiv Grand Duchy, and Tianzhu.

At a glance, you could tell that few of them were easy to deal with.

Half of those grain exporters were already openly hostile powers.

The remaining four all had their own agendas.

For example, ninety percent of the grain industries in Brazil and Argentina were controlled by the ABCD.

In short, food security was paramount.