Did you watch the entire video? He talks about Orca, which is the previous plant by this same company, which is using the sequestration process you're talking about.

Definitely, you made a good point, thanks for the discussion.

Having genetic diversity reduces chances of widespread plague when the pathogen ends up circumventing the resistance, but crops are often bred to have certain resistances to pathogens/insects, so if you risk having those resistances bred out. Additionally that variation in the f1 generation isn’t guaranteed to have any better genetics for dealing with the pathogen and risks having worse yield, worse tolerances to other environmental factors, etc. It’s like betting on Achilles or 100 untrained villagers, sure Achilles heel is a weakness, but he’s stronger and nearly invincible (hyperbole) compared to the mixed bag you’re getting with the villagers. You’re probably thinking of bananas being wiped out which is a bit of a different case, since wheat can be bred at a faster rate and is seasonal whereas banana trees aren’t as rapidly bred to deal with resistances/tolerances and the plants aren’t seasonal. If 30 of your 10,000 plants survive because they just so happened to have a better resistance by circumstance that you can’t guarantee you’re still at a massive loss, whereas if you go with the more productive line, you know you’ll get 15% more yield if there is no plague, but if there is then you might only have like 10 plants that survive.

Amazing how many people are commenting without having read the article. The discovery wasn’t a new line of wheat, that companies are going to price gouge on, it was a gene which can be leveraged for improved breeding in the future.

Additionally, it’s amazing how prevalent the narrative is that “you have to get new seed every year, isn’t that evil?” is… you should consider that your seed after harvest is going to be different on a genetic level from what you planted (just like how you’re not a clone of your parents, the wheat isn’t either). So sure you could reuse seed from harvest, but then you risk having plants susceptible to disease, drought, and lower yield. Being cynical doesn’t make you informed.

I beg everyone to stop providing cynical uninformed commentary to things they don’t even bother to read or try to understand. Just because characters on TV are oftentimes cynical and knowledgeable doesn’t mean being cynical makes you knowledgeable, you still have to read things to get the information, not just make quippy remarks. Please just read beyond the headline.