Derald Langham
Encyclopedia
Derald George Langham was an American agricultural geneticist
, sesame
researcher, and founder of the Genesa Foundation.
He is known as the "father of sesame
" in the Western Hemisphere for his basic research on the genetics
of sesame. Most of the sesame lines grown in the Americas came from his breeding work. Sesame plants are a rich source of vitamins and minerals, and Langham focused on cross-breeding the plant into more fruitful versions. He also attempted to look for other uses of sesame beyond a mere food source.
Derald Langham is less known for his genetic work in corn
and beans. The Rockefeller Institute in Mexico
incorporated his varieties into their materials and his genes are carried on in almost every corn hybrid used in the world.
, where his interest in plants and animals was piqued at an early age.
Langham attended Iowa State College and studied agronomy
, where he met the head of the Genetics department, Dr. Ernest W. Lindstrom. Lindstrom encouraged him to pursue his interest in genetics, and he continued his studies under Professor Rollins A. Emerson
at Cornell University
.
Langham received his first Ph.D. in Genetics in from Cornell University in Plant Genetics in 1939, and his second Ph.D. in humanities in 1969 from United States International University in San Diego.
He later taught at Yale University
after spending a number of years in Venezuela
, and finally settled his family in Fallbrook, California
. He had four children with his wife Margery "Maje" Langham - Jeri, Ray, Lisa, and Tina.
National Science Program, one of many programs founded by Nelson Rockefeller
to bolster economic programs in Latin American countries. Langham served as a consultant to Rockefeller shortly after his Venezuela government service.
Emerson's successor at Cornell, Herbert Whetzel, had directed a mission for the Venezuela Ministry of Agriculture in 1938. He recommended Langham to the Venezuelan government for a position at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Caracas
. Langham also taught Genetics at the new College of Agriculture, which was set up the previous year.
He later became the leader of the Venezuela National Plant Genetics Program. His growing techniques helped to feed the population through new strains of crops during World War II
, after German U-Boats had disrupted the flow of food supplies to the country by harassing Caribbean shipping lanes.
He soon discovered a variety of cross-breeding techniques to increase the yield and sustainability of corn and sesame. One plant he developed increased the yield of corn in Venezuela by 400 percent, necessitating the building of a corn seedbank
to save local strains of the plant in Central and South America
.
His crash program in self-sufficiency during World War II led the Venezuelan government to place him in charge of the country's entire agricultural sector. Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera
Rodriguez later awarded him the Order of Merit of Performance in 1972, the highest honor ever given to a foreigner at the time. During his award ceremony he was honored as the "father of modern agriculture in Venezuela." He also trained future Ministers of Agriculture and most of the leaders in agriculture from the 1940s to 1960s.
He stayed in Venezuela for another ten years, continuing his research through private foundations. Eventually, he departed the country so his children could pursue their education in the United States, and moved to Connecticut to take a position at Yale University. He still commuted back to Venezuela occasionally to keep contacts for his company Genetica Venezolana, S.A.
Langham also formed two other companies, including The Sesamum Foundation, which was a non-profit organization with the motto “Serving Sesame”. The organization linked sesame researchers internationally and received/distributed sesame germplasm
. He was also one of the founders of Sesaco Corporation, a company still in operation that is based in San Antonio, Texas
. Sesaco, an acronym for "sesame coordinators", developed the first totally mechanized sesame varieties.
In a circle garden
, only the inner side of the circle is watered, and the outside remains dry. He believed that the spacing would provide better air movement and sunlight for all the plants. A New York State University study showed that levels of phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium increased inside the circles without any fertilizer added to the soil.
" with the letters "SA", which stand for South America.
He also promoted the use of his Genesa Crystals, or eight point patterns that reflect the cells of an embryonic organism. According to Dr. Langham, these crystals, now sold through many new age
and holistic jewelers, had "the full potential for infinite love, for infinite wisdom, for infinite form, for infinite energy, for infinite power, for the Soul, for eternal time, for infinite velocity, for infinite faith. It has all your goals, your desires, your motivations – even life itself."
Langham believed that the crystal, known as an Archimedean solid
or a cuboctahedron
, held infinite potential for people to bond with the energies in their lives. One could meditate in a larger Genesa crystal standing in a garden to help tune into the biofields of the surrounding plants.
The supposed benefits of crystals, however, have not been accepted by the scientific community and belief in crystal power
is widely considered to be pseudoscience
.
Langham went on to sponsor conferences throughout the United States, Venezuela, Europe, and Canada that sought to show students how to apply Genesa principles to all facets of their lives. He continued this work until his death in Yuma, Arizona
, in 1991.
The Derald G. Langham Memorial Research Grant, established in his honor through the Neotropical Grassland Conservancy, provides a $2000 grant to scientists in the American tropics doing research on grassland or associated ecosystem plants.
and Journal of Crop Sciences.
Circle Gardening: Producing Food by Genesa Principles (1978)
13-dimensional genetics (Tomorrow's thinking today) (1967)
Genesa: A Conceptual Model to Synthesize, Synchronize, and Vitalize Man's Interpretation of Universal Phenomena (1969)
Genesa Dynamics Applied to Color, Number, Alphabet, Geography, and other Basic Systems by Derald G. Langham, Catherine B. Bruch, and James R. Shroads
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
, sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
researcher, and founder of the Genesa Foundation.
He is known as the "father of sesame
Sesame
Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
" in the Western Hemisphere for his basic research on the genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
of sesame. Most of the sesame lines grown in the Americas came from his breeding work. Sesame plants are a rich source of vitamins and minerals, and Langham focused on cross-breeding the plant into more fruitful versions. He also attempted to look for other uses of sesame beyond a mere food source.
Derald Langham is less known for his genetic work in corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
and beans. The Rockefeller Institute in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
incorporated his varieties into their materials and his genes are carried on in almost every corn hybrid used in the world.
Family and education
He was born on a 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) farm in Polk City, IowaPolk City, Iowa
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,344 people, 826 households, and 645 families residing in the city. The population density was 862.4 people per square mile . There were 842 housing units at an average density of 309.8 per square mile...
, where his interest in plants and animals was piqued at an early age.
Langham attended Iowa State College and studied agronomy
Agronomy
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, feed, fiber, and reclamation. Agronomy encompasses work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. Agronomy is the application of a combination of sciences like biology,...
, where he met the head of the Genetics department, Dr. Ernest W. Lindstrom. Lindstrom encouraged him to pursue his interest in genetics, and he continued his studies under Professor Rollins A. Emerson
Rollins A. Emerson
Rollins Adams Emerson was an American geneticist who rediscovered the laws of inheritance established by Gregor Mendel.Emerson was born on May 5, 1873 in tiny Pillar Point, New York, but at the age of seven his family moved to Nebraska, where he attended public school and the University of Nebraska...
at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
.
Langham received his first Ph.D. in Genetics in from Cornell University in Plant Genetics in 1939, and his second Ph.D. in humanities in 1969 from United States International University in San Diego.
He later taught at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
after spending a number of years in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, and finally settled his family in Fallbrook, California
Fallbrook, California
Fallbrook is an unincorporated community in northern San Diego County, California. The Fallbrook census-designated place population was 30,534 at the 2010 census, up from 29,100 at the 2000 census....
. He had four children with his wife Margery "Maje" Langham - Jeri, Ray, Lisa, and Tina.
Venezuela Plant Research
While still in his twenties, Langham was hired by the Venezuelan government in 1939 to be the geneticist at the first agricultural experiment station in Venezuela. Much of his funding came from the Rockefeller FoundationRockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
National Science Program, one of many programs founded by Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
to bolster economic programs in Latin American countries. Langham served as a consultant to Rockefeller shortly after his Venezuela government service.
Emerson's successor at Cornell, Herbert Whetzel, had directed a mission for the Venezuela Ministry of Agriculture in 1938. He recommended Langham to the Venezuelan government for a position at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
. Langham also taught Genetics at the new College of Agriculture, which was set up the previous year.
He later became the leader of the Venezuela National Plant Genetics Program. His growing techniques helped to feed the population through new strains of crops during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, after German U-Boats had disrupted the flow of food supplies to the country by harassing Caribbean shipping lanes.
He soon discovered a variety of cross-breeding techniques to increase the yield and sustainability of corn and sesame. One plant he developed increased the yield of corn in Venezuela by 400 percent, necessitating the building of a corn seedbank
Seedbank
A seedbank stores seeds as a source for planting in case seed reserves elsewhere are destroyed. It is a type of gene bank. The seeds stored may be food crops, or those of rare species to protect biodiversity. The reasons for storing seeds may be varied...
to save local strains of the plant in Central and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
.
His crash program in self-sufficiency during World War II led the Venezuelan government to place him in charge of the country's entire agricultural sector. Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera
Rafael Caldera
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez was president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999.Caldera taught sociology and law at various universities before entering politics. He was a founding member of COPEI, Venezuela's Christian Democratic party...
Rodriguez later awarded him the Order of Merit of Performance in 1972, the highest honor ever given to a foreigner at the time. During his award ceremony he was honored as the "father of modern agriculture in Venezuela." He also trained future Ministers of Agriculture and most of the leaders in agriculture from the 1940s to 1960s.
Post-Venezuela years
Langham left Venezuelan government service in December 1949 after being squeezed out by political leaders in the agricultural department. The leaders did not believe a foreigner should serve at such a high post in government.He stayed in Venezuela for another ten years, continuing his research through private foundations. Eventually, he departed the country so his children could pursue their education in the United States, and moved to Connecticut to take a position at Yale University. He still commuted back to Venezuela occasionally to keep contacts for his company Genetica Venezolana, S.A.
Langham also formed two other companies, including The Sesamum Foundation, which was a non-profit organization with the motto “Serving Sesame”. The organization linked sesame researchers internationally and received/distributed sesame germplasm
Germplasm
A germplasm is a collection of genetic resources for an organism. For plants, the germplasm may be stored as a seed collection or, for trees, in a nursery.-See also:*Germ plasm, the germ cell determining zone...
. He was also one of the founders of Sesaco Corporation, a company still in operation that is based in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
. Sesaco, an acronym for "sesame coordinators", developed the first totally mechanized sesame varieties.
Circle Gardening
His 1978 book “Circle Gardening” discusses his use of Genesa principles in the shaping and contouring of garden beds to enhance plant growth. While in Venezuela in the mid-1950s, Langham searched for a solution to the problem of keeping his valuable genetic strains of sesame from mixing together during heavy rains. During this search, he discovered that his sesame plants grew much better when planted in a circle, rather than in straight lines in usual growing patterns.In a circle garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
, only the inner side of the circle is watered, and the outside remains dry. He believed that the spacing would provide better air movement and sunlight for all the plants. A New York State University study showed that levels of phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium increased inside the circles without any fertilizer added to the soil.
Genesa
In the 1950s Langham founded the Genesa Foundation, which promoted the use of Circle Gardening techniques and the Genesa ideas. Genesa, he later said, came from a combination of the word "geneGene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
" with the letters "SA", which stand for South America.
He also promoted the use of his Genesa Crystals, or eight point patterns that reflect the cells of an embryonic organism. According to Dr. Langham, these crystals, now sold through many new age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
and holistic jewelers, had "the full potential for infinite love, for infinite wisdom, for infinite form, for infinite energy, for infinite power, for the Soul, for eternal time, for infinite velocity, for infinite faith. It has all your goals, your desires, your motivations – even life itself."
Langham believed that the crystal, known as an Archimedean solid
Archimedean solid
In geometry an Archimedean solid is a highly symmetric, semi-regular convex polyhedron composed of two or more types of regular polygons meeting in identical vertices...
or a cuboctahedron
Cuboctahedron
In geometry, a cuboctahedron is a polyhedron with eight triangular faces and six square faces. A cuboctahedron has 12 identical vertices, with two triangles and two squares meeting at each, and 24 identical edges, each separating a triangle from a square. As such it is a quasiregular polyhedron,...
, held infinite potential for people to bond with the energies in their lives. One could meditate in a larger Genesa crystal standing in a garden to help tune into the biofields of the surrounding plants.
The supposed benefits of crystals, however, have not been accepted by the scientific community and belief in crystal power
Crystal power
A charmstone is a mineral specimen believed by adherents of certain cultural or religious traditions to have healing, mystical or paranormal powers or energy....
is widely considered to be pseudoscience
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
.
Langham went on to sponsor conferences throughout the United States, Venezuela, Europe, and Canada that sought to show students how to apply Genesa principles to all facets of their lives. He continued this work until his death in Yuma, Arizona
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and the population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041....
, in 1991.
The Derald G. Langham Memorial Research Grant, established in his honor through the Neotropical Grassland Conservancy, provides a $2000 grant to scientists in the American tropics doing research on grassland or associated ecosystem plants.
Publications
Langham had over 100 publications in various scholarly works, including ScienceScience (journal)
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
and Journal of Crop Sciences.
Circle Gardening: Producing Food by Genesa Principles (1978)
13-dimensional genetics (Tomorrow's thinking today) (1967)
Genesa: A Conceptual Model to Synthesize, Synchronize, and Vitalize Man's Interpretation of Universal Phenomena (1969)
Genesa Dynamics Applied to Color, Number, Alphabet, Geography, and other Basic Systems by Derald G. Langham, Catherine B. Bruch, and James R. Shroads