Can a single seed feed a country?

That time, that place

His father had taken part in the assassination of Queen Min and fled to Japan. U Jang-chun grew up in Japan under that shadow.

He became a plant breeder — a scientist who makes new varieties.

Why this question

In 1935 he put a serious question to the field.

Since Darwin, new species were explained by variation accumulating over long ages. But is that the only route?

He argued that crossing closely related species — cabbage and Chinese cabbage, say — could produce a new species carrying both sets of chromosomes. And he demonstrated it experimentally. A species made in a laboratory.

He summed up the relations among three species — Chinese cabbage, cabbage and black mustard — and the three new species born from their pairings, such as rapeseed and brown mustard, in a single triangle. It is known today as the Triangle of U: species synthesis, two species joining into a new one.

What was found

In 1950 he came to Korea.

Conditions after the war were dire. Seed for basic vegetables — radish, cabbage — had to be bought from Japan every year. No seed, no farming.

What he built was not a single variety but a system for producing seed domestically: breeding radishes and cabbages suited to Korean soil and climate, teaching seed-production technique, establishing citrus on Jeju and potatoes in Gangwon.

He did not invent the seedless watermelon. He demonstrated it to show people what breeding could do.