He walked into the office building of Nanhu Farm.
"Old Lü, how are things at the farm right now?"
Lü Weibin, who was planning the packaging workshop, turned his head. Seeing it was Jiang Miao, he quickly walked over. "Boss, I’m planning the layouts for a few operational workshops to prepare for the upcoming equipnt procurent and job postings."
"I appreciate the hard work." Jiang Miao handed him a bottle of mineral water, then added a reminder, "Work is important, but you still need to eat on ti. Otherwise, gallbladder polyps can easily develop into gallstones, and then the only option is to have the gallbladder removed."
"Er... thank you for your concern, Boss." Lü Weibin was taken aback; he hadn’t expected his boss to be so attentive.
In truth, he didn’t know that Jiang Miao had seen at a glance with his Appraisal Panel that Lü Weibin wasn’t eating on ti, leading to an imbalance in his bile secretion.
"The company cafeteria is only a few minutes away. You should go eat when it’s ti. Your health is your most important asset. If your body breaks down, what’s the use of earning more money?"
Lü Weibin nodded quickly. "You’re right, Boss. I’ll make sure to eat on ti from now on."
"Getting back to business, the HR departnt has found you a deputy and an assistant. They’re undergoing so training now and should be here in two or three days."
"Understood. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief," Lü Weibin said, letting out a long breath.
The group walked over to the edge of the farm.
Inside the farm’s greenhouses, workers were already busy.
Lü Weibin picked up his walkie-talkie and called for the farm technician, Zhou Xinwang. "Ah Wang, co over here for a mont."
"CHH... Received!"
A mont later, a bespectacled young man with sun-tanned skin walked toward them.
"Boss, Manager Lü."
"Ah Wang, how are the strawberry seedlings?" Jiang Miao asked directly.
Zhou Xinwang pushed up his glasses and rattled off the numbers with practiced ease. "We’ve transplanted 800 Jasmine Strawberry plants, and another 500 have sprouted. For the Cheese Strawberries, we’ve transplanted 600, with 400 more sprouting. And for the Vanilla Strawberries, 500 have been transplanted, with 500 sprouting."
"Do we have enough staff?"
Zhou Xinwang shook his head. "We’re okay for now. But as the first batch of transplanted seedlings enters its growth phase, we’ll be able to start propagating them from runners. Our current three general laborers won’t be enough then. I estimate we’ll need at least five more general laborers before the strawberries hit their peak fruiting season."
Jiang Miao nodded. "Alright. I’ll have the HR departnt start recruiting as soon as possible."
’He was paying close attention to Nanhu Farm. After all, the eel market will soon be saturated. At best, its profitability will only last for another year or two.’
’Once the eel industry enters a low-profit phase, he would have to open up new revenue streams. Otherwise, the financial pressure of supporting so many employees would beco too great.’
’The strawberry business was one of the new revenue streams Jiang Miao was preparing for the company.’
’A diversified business is more resilient to risk.’
’Of course, the strawberry business alone clearly wasn’t enough.’
’Recently, Jiang Miao had been contemplating an entirely new technological direction.’
’Transgenic grafting technology.’
The concept of transgenic grafting involved first using genetic engineering to cultivate an "interstock" that could join two different varieties. One variety would serve as the rootstock and the other as the scion, connected by this interstock in the middle.
Many people might find it strange. If you’re already grafting, why go to the extra trouble of using a middleman interstock?
The reason is that conventional grafting has one prerequisite: the more closely related the two plants are, the higher the survival rate of the graft.
Take lychee and longan, for example. Although they both belong to the Sapindaceae family and Sapindoideae subfamily, they are further divided into the Litchi and Dimocarpus genera.
Only in recent years have research institutions in Yangcheng managed to successfully graft lychee and longan, and it was an incredibly difficult feat.
Jiang Miao, however, planned to use genetic engineering to create an interstock that would allow two different plant species to be grafted together safely, thus achieving rapid, cross-genus grafting.
’If this technology could be realized, its value would be enormous.’
’The two species he had his eye on could then be seamlessly connected.’
As for how to develop this transgenic interstock, the first step was to determine the two species to be grafted. Then, using the genetic maps of both species, one could engineer the genes to be suitable for both sides of the graft.
To other researchers, this kind of technology would seem like pure fantasy.
After all, humans haven’t even fully figured out their own genes, let alone the genes of other organisms.
To make two species compatible for cross-genus grafting, one would need to thoroughly map and understand the complete genetic blueprints of both. Even a national-level research institution would struggle to support the imnse cost of such a project.
The fad Human Geno Project, for instance, required a massive international collaboration to produce a barely complete map of the human geno, and even that didn’t manage to parse the functions of every gene.
Jiang Miao, however, could use his Appraisal Panel to instantly analyze the complete genetic map of any organism.
He could also save a trendous amount of ti on the experints. He wouldn’t need long periods of observation or comparative trials to determine the various outcos of a genetic modification.
Therefore, this seemingly insane project of Jiang Miao’s actually had a chance of success.
And the targets he chose for his research were from the Kapok genus and the Durian genus, both of which belong to the Bombacaceae family.
’He chose these two species for a couple of reasons.’
’On one hand, it was for the money. Durian prices were high enough that the investnt would provide a quick return.’
’On the other hand, the Lingnan Region was one of the native habitats of the kapok tree. With a large number of kapok trees all over Lingnan, it would be easy to quickly scale up cultivation.’
’If he could successfully graft durian onto kapok, he could take advantage of the kapok tree’s adaptation to the Lingnan climate and get durians to flower and bear fruit in the region.’
’What’s more, Jiang Miao could also select so high-altitude durian varieties with better cold tolerance to work with.’
Therefore, Jiang Miao planned to invest 50 million next year to build a laboratory for breeding genetically modified food.
This laboratory would require a lot of specialized equipnt, such as PCR machines, electrophoresis systems, centrifuges, gel imaging systems, and nucleic acid and protein analyzers.
’Technically, Jiang Miao didn’t need detection equipnt like gel imaging systems and nucleic acid protein analyzers. But to avoid attracting suspicion and to make his research breakthroughs appear more plausible, such equipnt was essential.’
’The lab would also need things like ultra-clean workstations.’
’All of this would cost a significant amount of money.’
’However, Jiang Miao only needed to provide the funding. He could leave the specialized work to professional contractors.’
’Fifty million was not a huge sum for Hailufeng Company at its current stage. Moreover, an investnt like this could also serve to legitimately lower net profits and reduce tax expenditures.’
’Besides, Lin Shuya’s edible fungus laboratory also needed to be put out for bids.’
’He planned to put out a public tender for both projects next year and build the two laboratories together. Since they were both biology labs, their equipnt would be largely compatible.’
’However, the genetic modification of organisms like fungi involved certain uncontrollable factors. Jiang Miao would never let Lin Shuya research it. If she accidentally created so kind of superbug, it would be a disaster.’
’With genetic experints on plants, the resulting products could be destroyed by physical ans.’
’But with experintal byproducts like fungi and bacteria, not even a top-tier biological laboratory could guarantee one-hundred-percent elimination.’
’If even a trace amount remained, it could lead to a catastrophe.’
’Even with his Appraisal Panel, Jiang Miao still held a deep-seated reverence for the microbial world. Microorganisms reproduced at an incredible rate, were highly adaptable, and had a tendency for uncontrollable mutation. Once a problem erged, it would very likely have catastrophic consequences.’
’When Lin Shuya had been pursuing her doctorate, he had advised her against specializing in dicinal fungi. This was, in truth, a reflection of his own subconscious reverence for the microbial world.’
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