Make your own interpretation of Omar Khayyam's Thematic Quatrain in Rubaiyat

"Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,

A flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou

Beside me singing in the Wilderness -

And Wilderness is Paradise enow."

Quatrain XI from the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Translated by Edward FitzGerald

Woodcuts depicting the Rubaiyat's thematic quatrain

Dr Abe V Rotor 

1. There's a 5th edition to FitzGerald's Ist edition of Quatrain XI as cited above, which came out long after his death. It is numbered Quatrain XII.  This fifth version retains basically the same style as in the first version. .  

"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!" 

2. The Rubaiyat was quoted in the film The English Harem (2005): 

"Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire// 
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire!// 
Would not we shatter it to bits-and then// 
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!"

3. A 1967 translation of the Rubáiyat by Robert Graves and Omar Ali-Shah, became controversial.  It was questioned as to its origin, which among the possible sources, could be that of FitzGerald. Here is the 11th and 12th quatrains.  

Should our day's portion be one mancel loaf,
A haunch of mutton and a gourd of wine
Set for us two alone on the wide plain,
No Sultan's bounty could evoke such joy.

A gourd of red wine and a sheaf of poems —
A bare subsistence, half a loaf, not more —
Supplied us two alone in the free desert:
What Sultan could we envy on his throne?

4. Published in 1979 by Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs, their edition provides two versions of the thematic quatrain. Although it was criticized, it is claimed to be a modern version, "as literal an English version of the Persian originals as readability and intelligibility permit"

Q 98.
I need a jug of wine and a book of poetry,
Half a loaf for a bite to eat,
Then you and I, seated in a deserted spot,
Will have more wealth than a Sultan's realm. 

Q234.
If chance supplied a loaf of white bread,
Two casks of wine and a leg of mutton,
In the corner of a garden with a tulip-cheeked girl,
There'd be enjoyment no Sultan could outdo.

5. In 1988, the Rubaiyat were translated by a Persian translator, Karim Emami and was published in Paris under the title The Wine of Nishapour, a collection of Khayyam's poetry by Shahrokh Golestan. Emami was an outstanding translator of English.  

Example from Emami's work:

It's early dawn, my love, open your eyes and arise
Gently imbibing and playing the lyre;
For those who are here will not tarry long,
And those who are gone will not return.

Example quatrain 160 (equivalent of FitzGerald's quatrain XI in his 1st edition, as above):

In spring if a houri-like sweetheart
Gives me a cup of wine on the edge of a green cornfield,
Though to the vulgar this would be blasphemy,
If I mentioned any other Paradise, I'd be worse than a dog.

6. In 1991 Ahmad Saidi (1904–1994) produced an English translation of 165 quatrains grouped into 10 themes. His quatrains include the original Persian verses for reference alongside his English translations. His focus was to faithfully convey, with less poetic license, Khayyam’s original religious, mystical, and historic Persian themes, through the verses as well as his extensive annotations. Here are selected quatrains.  

Quatrain 16 (equivalent of FitzGerald's quatrain XII in his 5th edition, as above):
Ah, would there were a loaf of bread as fare,
A joint of lamb, a jug of vintage rare,
And you and I in wilderness encamped—
No Sultan’s pleasure could with ours compare. 

Quatrain 75:
The sphere upon which mortals come and go,
Has no end nor beginning that we know;
And none there is to tell us in plain truth:
Whence do we come and whither do we go.

Quatrain XI in his 1st edition:
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

Quatrain XII in his 5th edition:[2]
"A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!"

 

7. One of the title pages of Principia Discordia (1965), a co-author by the pen-name Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, features apparently a popular version which runs like this -
A jug of wine, 
A leg of lamb 
And thou! 
Beside me, 
Whistling in 
the darkness. 

Old Omar Khayyam, epitome of a philosopher-poet, ponders on his masterpiece and signature - The Rubaiyat.    

8. In the opening chapter of his book God is Not Great (2007), Christopher Hitchens quotes from Richard Le Gallienne's translation of Khayyam's famous quatrain: 

And do you think that unto such as you 
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew 
God gave the secret, and denied it me? 
Well, well--what matters it? Believe that, too! 

9. The title of Daphne du Maurier's memoir Myself when Young is a quote from quatrain 27 of Fitzgerald's translation: 

Myself when young did eagerly frequent 
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument 
About it and about: but evermore 
Came out by the same Door as in I went.

10. · The Supreme Court of the Philippines, through a unanimous opinion penned in 2005 by Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, quoted The Moving Finger when it ruled that the widow of defeated presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. could not substitute her late husband in his pending election protest against Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, thus leading to the dismissal of the protest.(Wikipedia)

NOTE: The Moving Finger is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US in 942.  The book takes its name from verse 51 of Edward FitzGerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

The poem, in turn, refers to Belshazzar's Feast as related in the Book of Daniel, where the expression the writing on the wall originated. The book's title shows in the story figuratively and literally. The anonymous letters point blame from one town resident to another. The Scotland Yard agent determines the envelopes were all "typed by someone using one finger" to avoid a recognizable 'touch'. (Wikipedia)~

Global Warming Breeds Super Bugs

“The world is headed for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries which have been treatable for decades can once again kill. ” 

-  Keiji Fukuda, Assistant director-general, World Health Organization. 

Dr Abe V Rotor
In another article in this Blog, “Industrialization is Driving Our Climate Wild,” I discussed how global warming affects agriculture. In this one I will present how the present phenomenon affects our health and welfare, and why we should gear up against the possible epidemic spread of pests and pathogenic diseases.

Global warming model at the former St Paul University Museum

Leptospirosis, also called infectious jaundice, became known as a disease recently when Manila virtually remained underwater for days as a result of monsoon rains intensified by a series of typhoons. The disease’s symptom is yellow coloration of the skin. The causal organism is a spiral bacterium, hence the name, and is endemic where public sanitation and personal hygiene are neglected. One can contact the disease through infected rodent and other animal urine. According to reports, most of the victims acquire the disease from polluted drinking water or wading in flood streets. The suspected carrier is the Rattus rattus norvigicus or city rat, counterpart of the field rat, Rattus rattus mindanensis.

How do we know if a person has contacted the disease? At first, the symptoms are like those of an ordinary flu, which may last for a few days as the pathogen incubates in the body. If not treated immediately, the infection may lead to hemorrhages of the skin or mucus linings and eye inflammation. Extreme cases may lead to irreversible damage to the liver and kidney.

As floodwaters drive the rats out of their subterranean abode (such as canals, culverts, and sewers), they take refuge in homes, market stalls, restaurants, even high rise buildings and malls, bringing the infectious bacterium directly to its victims. The migratory nature of rats also explains how leptospirosis can reach people living far from the flooded areas.

Bubonic Plague or Black Death

This brings to mind the dreaded scourge of mankind in the Middle Ages, bubonic plague. Rats are the carriers of this bacterium-caused disease also called the Black Death. It was so deadly that it claimed the lives of at least 100 million people with 25 million in Europe alone. It stopped man’s progress that the period was appropriately described Second Dark Ages. It spread around crowded cities and towns, with the pestilence peaking with climatic upheavals, such as what we know today as the El Nino phenomenon. Historical accounts are usually laced with superstitious beliefs. With the arrival of Renaissance (Rebirth of Learning) in the 15th century the whole incident was shelved and filed away in archives. But scientists today are piecing up together evidences which may indicate that climate had something to do with long-term cycle of the disease.

The bubonic plague appeared in the United States at the start of the 1900 and then in India in the late 1970’s, but thanks to modern medicine the disease was effectively controlled even before it reached epidemic stages. Between 1941 and 1945, the Japanese used the plague bacteria in war, by rearing the germs clinically and using flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) as carrier. The idea is to sow pestilence, thereby defeating the enemy both in the battlefield and at home. After successfully testing the bubonic plague bombs on China, Japan aimed the new biological weapon against its number one enemy, the U.S. The attempt failed when the American forces dropped two atomic bombs in 1945 obliterating Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the end of World War II hostilities.

Adverse Weather and Common Ailments

 Antibiotics fail 15% of patients due to superbugs and ‘reckless’ prescription.

Common ailments are usually tied to adverse weather conditions. Following are same examples:

1. The outbreak of boils for one is more likely to occur under hot, steamy weather. The same is true with many bacterial and fungal skin diseases.

2. Influenza outbreaks coincide with extreme changes in weather conditions, normally, towards the rainy season and start of the Siberian High (cold months).

3. Typhoid cases are higher during the rainy season, particularly when there is a flood. It is the floodwater, mixed with sewage and other organic waste that carries the pathogenic bacterium, Escherichia coli.

4. Dengue Fever mosquito larvae, Aedes egypti may aestivate in the dry season. But once rains come it starts breeding in empty bottles, old tires, basins and clogged gutters. Rain and flood enhance the population and spread of mosquitoes, which spread not only dengue but malaria, too.~

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why are water treatment facilities spreading super bugs even after the water has been treated? Is chlorine an effective water disinfectant?

Experts are beginning to ponder these questions as water treatment plants are routinely found to be ineffective. New lab results show that specific infectious superbugs can now spread drug-resistant genes at water treatment plants.

- Red Ice Creations: Dispelling the Mythmakers

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Treaty of Nature and Man

 It is only through proper management and effective conservation, such as reforestation, pollution control, erosion control, limited logging, and proper land use, that we can insure the continuity of our race.  All we have to do is to keep ourselves faithful to the treaty between nature and man.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Carthage aftermath of the Punic wars; Carthage today. (Wikipedia)

      Frantic exploitation of natural resources through illegal logging operations, followed by slash-and-burn agriculture (kaingin), has brought havoc to the Philippines in the past century.  The detrimental results are measured not only by the denudation of once productive forests and hillsides, but also destruction through erosion, flood, drought and even death. 

      An example of this kind of ruination brought about by abuse of nature is the tragedy in Ormoc City where floodwaters cascading down the denuded watershed, killed hundreds of residents and countless animals. It took ten years for the city to fully recover.  Ironically, before the tragedy, Ormoc, from the air, looked like a little village similar to Shangrila, a perfect place for retirement.

      A land area designed by nature to sustain millions of people and countless other organisms, was touched by man and we are now paying the price for it.  Man removed the vegetation, cut down trees for his shelter and crafts, and planted cereals and short-growing crops to get immediate returns. He hunted for food and fun, and in many ways, changed the natural contour and topography of the land.

      Following years of plenty, however, nature reasserted itself. Water would run unchecked, carrying plant nutrients downhill.  On its path are formed rills and gullies that slice through slopes, peeling off the topsoil and making the land unprofitable for agriculture.  Since the plants cannot grow, animals gradually perish. Finally, the kaingero abandons the area, leaving it to the mercy of natural elements. It is possible that nature may rebuild itself, but will take years for affected areas to regain their productivity, and for the resident organisms once again attain their self-sustaining population levels.

      There are 13.5 million square miles of desert area on earth, representing a third of the total land surface. This large a proportion of land may be man-made as history and archeological findings reveal.

      Fifteen civilizations, once flourished in Western Sahara, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, the Sinai desert, Mesopotamia, and the deserts of Persia. All of these cultures perished when the people of the area through exploitation, forced nature to react. As a consequence, man was robbed of his only means of sustenance.

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Man, being the superior organism, has not only won over his rivals -  all organisms that constitute the biosphere.  He has also assaulted Nature.

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      History tells us of man’s early abuse of nature in the Fertile Crescent where agriculture began some 3000 years ago.  Man-made parallel canals joined the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to irrigate the thirsty fertile valley. In the process, the balance of Nature was overturned when the natural drainage flow was disturbed. Because the treaty was violated, nature revenged. The canal civilization perished in the swamps that later formed. The sluggish water brought malaria and other diseases causing untold number of deaths and migration to the hinterlands. Among its victims was Alexander the Great.

      Carthage had another story. Three wars hit Carthage, known as the Punic Wars.  On the third one, the Romans ploughed through the city, ending reign of this erstwhile mercantile power, and removing the threat to the Roman economy. After the conquest, the Romans pumped salt-water inland and flooded the fertile farms. Today, Carthage exists only in history and in imagination of whoever stands atop a hill overlooking what is now a vast desert.

      Omar Khayyam, if alive today, cannot possibly compose verses as beautiful as the Rubaiat as written in his own time. His birthplace, Nishapur, which up to the time of Genghis Khan, supported a population of 1.5 million people, can only sustain 15,000 people today. Archeologists have just unearthed the Forest of Guir where Hannibal marched with war elephants. The great unconquerable jungle of India grew from waterlogged lowland formed by unwise irrigation management.

      It is hard to believe, but true that in the middle of the Sahara desert, 50 million acres of fossil soil are sleeping under layers of sand awaiting water. Surveyors found an underground stream called the Albienne Nappe that runs close to this deposit. Just as plans were laid to “revive” the dead soil by irrigation, the French tested their first atomic bomb. Due to contamination, it is no longer safe to continue on with the project.

      The great Pyramids of Egypt could not have been constructed in the middle of an endless desert. The tributaries of the Nile once surrounded these centers of civilization. Jerusalem appears today as a small city on a barren land.  It may have been a city with thick vegetation.  This was true of Negev and Baghdad.

      For the Philippines, it is high time we lay out a long-range conservation program to insure the future of the country.  This plan should protect the  fertility of the fields, wealth of the forests and marine resources, in order to bring prosperity to the people. As of now, the country is being ripped apart by erosion and floods due to unscrupulous exploitation by loggers and kaingeros.

Fishpens and fish cages crowd the shore of Tikob Lake, Tiaong Quezon 

      It is only through proper management and effective conservation, such as reforestation, pollution control, erosion control, limited logging, and proper land use, that we can insure the continuity of our race.  All we have to do is to keep ourselves faithful to the treaty between nature and man.~

Landscaping and philosophy

Dr Abe V Rotor 

I observed a gardener arrange a piece of landscape at UST.  I was on my way to meet my class in the graduate school, but this time this kind gardener became my mentor. 

A layer of stones around the base of a tree and at the blind corner of a building makes a neat and clean appearance.   It transformed a taken-for-granted area into something Japanese and American and Filipino combined.  

It made me wonder if there is a purist version of a landscape, say strictly Italian, or French, or Chinese. None as I know, except that certain emphasis expresses a nationality.  For example, the Japanese garden is basically made of rocks and stone and sand.  An American garden is perhaps the closest to nature - it runs its course like a flowing stream or a climbing liana. What amazes me is the fine taste of artisans, who we think are not sensitive to "fine arts."  On the contrary they do - some better than us.

So the fellow - Jun, sir he said when I asked his name - demonstrated the steps.  He laid down a mat of used plastic with holes he added with a pick.  So that water with not accumulate, he explained, and stones and soil are separated. The plastic will asphyxiate weeds that grow from below. I supplied the term from his vernacular term. 

To break the monotony of the stones he planted peanut grass on the periphery, and covered the drainage cover with stones - camouflage was what he meant.  And how about emphasis? Just a boulder he couldn't take away from view. It's there and it's part of it.  Jun is a philosopher, too. 

I received more than knowledge itself.  I learned a lesson in life from a simple man who simply love his work, and willing to share it. Which led me to ask, What really is a professor?

The Eyes of Nature

"Many eyes are looking at me

here with Nature,

by day and night 

beneath and atop a tree." - avr

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

Also visit my other Blogs:

[avrotor.blogspot.com]

[Living with Nature School on Blog]

 Eyes in the Forest, acrylic painting on canvas (60" x 44"), by AVR, May 2012

Details: Young adventurers in full gear prepare to penetrate the forest; emergent tree rises to a hundred feet surpassing the canopy layer. A nest is perched on the top, with a mother hawk attending to her young. A pair of deer, a coiled boa, and many more hidden and camouflaged. Trees are real giants of the living world. The Dipterocarp is tallest tree in the Tropical Rain Forest. 

The Eyes of Nature

Many eyes are looking at me here with Nature;

By day and night, beneath and atop a tree.

They're scary, they're mean, they're sleepy, 

And how do I look to them seeing me?

Wink and they wink, close and they do, too.

Quick the flashlight, and they disappear;

Can eyes exist alone, like stars in the sky?

I wonder if these eyes are like stars to cheer.  

Yes, the fireflies have lamps that flicker,

The moth and butterfly have wing spots

Like monstrous eyes to stave off predator,

And cave dwellers glow in rows and knots. 

The fish in the stream is silver in the moonlight,

As bubbles rise to the surface and sparkle,

The owl rarely blinks, no creature dare around,

Its infrared vision indeed a marvel.

Raindrops falling make a thousand eyes
Life they bring to the rainbow, borrowing
its colors glow, and sparkle as they drop,
reborn with the light of the river flowing. 

Mushrooms are phosphorescent, they glow,

while others absorb light for future use; 

Ah, boast the snake, I can freeze you to fall,

An eagle swoops, there's no excuse.

Petals attract a pollinator in the night

Crickets shine when won by a song,

Seeds pop out to meet the rising sun,

And the sun shines happily all along. 

Eyes, eyes, eyes, - for us to see the world, 

And all eyes the world is bound;

In our sleep, in the deep forest and ocean,

Eyes make the world go round. ~

"Dirty ice cream" is the tastiest ice cream in the world.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Mang Tomas' ice cream is patronized by the UST community.     

Dirty ice cream - but why the clamor, the demand?
Capitalism's war on tradition, triumph of the brand.  

Maligned in misnomer, yet lives in one's childhood;
what's in a name for the tastiest ice cream in the world?

Home made it started, then rode on a fancy push cart,
Indigenous and personalized, brand of Filipino art. 

It is a link of tradition and modern, the old and young;
though endangered for now, it has a promise beyond?   

Foreign ingredients and technology, why not our own?
from farm to home, all native from ice cream to cone.

Dirty ice cream – to redeem its name by no one but us,
take it from the old, innovation, and Mang Tomas. ~

Biological fertilizer is friendly to farmers and environment

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Dr Precila C Delima (second from right) poses with members of her panel of examiners after defending successfully her dissertation, The effects of seed treatment, nitrogen fertilization and herbicide application on the efficacy of Bio-N on corn growth and productivity,  earning her  a doctorate degree in biological science from the University of Santo Tomas. In the photo are (left to right): Dr Thomas Edison dela Cruz, Dr Gina Rio Dedeles, Dr Cristina Ramos, Dr Romualdo del Rosario, Dr Grecebio Jonathan Alejandro (chairman), Dr Delima and Dr Abercio Rotor (adviser).

Dr Delima pays courtesy to Dean Lilian Sison of the Graduate School.  

Findings:

Biological Nitrogen (Bio-N bacteria) and mycorrhizal innoculum in combination with half or three-fourth of the recommended inorganic fertilizer is sufficient to supply the nutrient requirements of corn, hence can offer considerable benefits in terms of growth and yield.  Bio-N and AMF are potential substitute to fertilizers and biocides.

However Bio-N or Mykovam as single inoculant is insufficient for crop growth.

High amount of N has a negative impact on the AMF resulting to low yield.

Bio-N, and combination with inorganic fertilizers with biofertilizers without herbicide were found to be profitable and pitential substitutes to the commercial inorganic fertilizers.   

Recommendations:

Promote the utilization of environmentally sound inoculant fertilizers among farmers to reduce their fertilizer input and consequently help mitigate global warming.

Biofertilizers should be used in combination with optimun amount of inorganic fertilizers (50% to 75%) to maintain sustainability in crop growth and productivity.

Further study is recommended to establish guidelines in applying the findings of this research, namely: 

• location-specific (within and outside Cagayan Valley)
• season-specific based on the sub-climate of the area.  
• variety-specific (white, other corn varieties, and different cultivars of yellow corn)
• residual effect of the two biofertlizers
• application of low input systems such as organic farming on biofertlizers

Background

1. Corn (Zea mays), one of the three most important cereals in the world, beats its counterparts - rice in the tropical region and wheat in the temperate region -  for the fact that it can grow on a wide range of latitude and altitude, practically growing along side either or both crops -  or alone owing to its high adaptability to soil and climatic conditions, resistance to force majeure including drought, pests and diseases.   

Talahib (Saccharum spontaneum), source of free living nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Azospirillum complex)

2. Corn is versatile in its usage: as forage, silage and roughage for livestock at any stage of the plant, human food in a hundred-and-one recipes from popcorn to corn-on-cob, tacos to corn chips, and as animal feeds which constitute 80 percent of most feed formulation for poultry, hogs and livestock; and with the fuel crisis on the rise, corn is  the main source of biofuel - ethanol and oil - as substitute to conventional fossil fuel. 

3. Corn cultivation ranges from small tenanted farms to corporate farms, with the latter employing the latest in technology and management, such as on large scale farming in southern United States, South America, and now Africa, expanding the world's corn belt, with increasing population and affluence; yet much of the small farms mainly in Asia and island countries remain marginal and subsistent.

4. Corn, the heavy feeder of Nitrogen it makes into protein and oil and countless other products, leaves the soil spent and unproductive through repeated cropping, thereby requiring fallowing (a time for the land to rest), more so replenishment through fertilization and rotation planting with legumes known for their N-fixing capacity.

5. Corn, the high yielder that for every kilo of Nitrogen applied produces ten to twenty times yield increase no other cereal could match, on the other hand induces heavy chemical fertilization on the part of the farmer to force yield levels to reach 7 to 10 tons per hectare (up to 15 tons); resulting in the long run acidity buildup and depletion of soil nutrients both major and minor elements.   

6. Corn in the Philippines, second most important to rice, is planted to some 2.5 million hectares generally once a year, under poor agronomy and lack of policy direction, resulting in very low average yield (less than 1 MT/ha, lower that the world's average); yet the hybrid varieties can produce three to four times higher but occupies only 10 percent of cornfield. Because of low yield - and high cost -  the country would rather import corn for its animal feeds requirement. 

7. Corn, an upland crop is dependent on residual soil moisture after rice crop and occasional precipitation, otherwise flush irrigation is required to complete its productive cycle  in about 90 days, including postharvest operations - detasselling, harvesting,  shelling, drying and storage. 

8. Corn usually gets its supply of Nitrogen and other elements from chemical fertilizers mainly Urea and complete fertilizer (12-12-12 or 10-10-10) which are  very costly and not readily available, not to mention the harmful effect of chemicals to the soil and environment. 

9. Corn - if it can be cultivated organically with the use of biological Nitrogen fertilizers (Bio-N) will tremendously reduce if not substitute chemical fertilizers, and help stabilize pH, improve tilth,  and cut down pollution from the by-products of chemicals, and at the very source of manufacture.  

10. Corn, being a member of the grass family (Graminae, now Poaceae) may benefit from microorganisms in the soil that aid in the conversion of N2 into NO3 called nitrification, like in the case of talahib (Saccharum spontaneum) which harbors a nitrogen fixing bacterium - a factor that explains its adaptability in almost desert condition.  

11. Corn and the major food crops mostly non-leguminous to become as naturally Nitrogen-fixing, and therefor become self-sufficient has been the Utopia of science. Thus the continued search for nitrogen-fixing microorganisms, some  like Mycorrhiza fungus in the roots of forest trees, Rhizobium in legumes, Nostoc and Anabaena (BGA) in lowland rice, among many other beneficial organisms which  have been isolated, cultured and  developed as inoculants for field use. d.   

12. Corn research is overwhelming in kind and number, corn being one of the most researched and experimented crops, resulting in the production of hybrid varieties, and  the BtCorn or Bacillus thuringienis-Corn, produced by splicing a gene part of the bacterium into the corn's DNA,  the first commercial Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) now  planted extensively in the US and other parts of the world including the Philippines. 

13. Corn production currently faces serious problems: first, economic viability and    sustainable productivity; second, dynamic adaptability to changing climatic conditions; and thirdly, shifting use from staple to animal feed, and now, a growing shift from food to biofuel and other industrial uses. Calorie value is lost tremendously when converted from grain to meat (conversion ratio:  1/5 in poultry, 1/8  in pork, 1/16 in beef); whereas conversion into biofuel results in net  loss, instead of gain in energy. 

14. Corn by-products range from thatched roofing to particle board, its flower silk is medically approved as diuretic tea, now marketed in sachets and dispensers,  its cob ground into powder used in the formulation of face and baby powder, and being organic is safer to health and environment. Corn meal after extracting oil is supplies many culinary preparation, and the sludge sediment in alcogas fermentation is excellent organic matter and soil conditioner  

15. Corn fertilization with biological Nitrogen (vesicular-arbuscular-mycorrhiza  or VAMF, a fungus; and BIO-N composed of bacteria complex - Azospirillum spp)  promises high hopes to reduce dependence on chemical fertilizer while maintaining high yield on long term advantage, and that it could be a key to combining agriculture and ecology as partners, instead of strange bedfellows.