I wrote this song for Born to Do Science. Many scientists around the world are working on Russian wheat aphids on wheat. This song is based on the research of one of these scientists, Cheryl Baker, who is a wheat geneticist at the USDA-ARS in Stillwater, OK.
You can read more about her research here:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr04/aphid0404.htm
You found a free MP3 download! (Demo recording of the song)
Aint it Beautiful.pdf- (26.99 KiB) Downloaded 10 times
Ain't It Beautiful - song lyric
Behold the Oklahoma plain
Planted with a single strain
A blanket spun from golden grain
A trillion stalks of wheat
On every stalk a perfect head
The kernels keep the combines fed
Then off to manufacture bread
So everyone can eat
Ain't it beautiful; Ain't it clever
Ain't it just about the best news ever
A farmer feeds a nation's needs
When man and nature work together
About a half a world away
An Afghan farmer starts his day
He swings a scythe to cut his hay
He threshes it by hand
He grows a mix of wheat out here
And when the weather turns austere
A strain or two may persevere
Enough to meet demand
Ain't it beautiful; Ain't it clever
Ain't it just about the best news ever
A farmer feeds a family's needs
When man and nature work together
Back in Oklahoma, disaster in the fields
Farmers ponder pesticides while Russian aphids cut their yeilds
But scientists have a weapon to help us fight this pest
The USDA wheat gene bank has more than fifty thousand types to test
And they find resistance built right in
To a plant from our Afghan farmer friend
They cross it with our own and spin
A strain that can't be beat
And so the Oklahoma plain
Ripples proudly once again
A blanket spun from golden grain
A trillion stalks of wheat
Ain't it beautiful; Ain't it clever
Ain't it just about the best news ever
How science feeds our global needs
When man and nature work together
