But that's back to a conservation issue which the article didn't raise at all. I agree that the species shouldn't go extinct but I don't know if I care how much it's being farmed.

As for the dangers you raised those are all real problems but none of them are specific to this plant.

Aren't there unique extinction concerns when a commercial hybrid is being aggressively farmed nearby a native species?

Not my field, but I'd assume the risk of cross-pollination and eventual accidental hybridization of the native species is high.

As you're essentially re-planting pure hybrids, but the native species is having to seed and grow generations normally.

Chile would be an ideal country to have a high speed rail link going down the whole country. You'd need effectively just 1 rail line to connect everything, the country is inherently 1-dimensional.

Weirdly enough, there aren't even roads connecting the southernmost part of Chile to the north without taking a detour through Argentina, though I guess nature might appreciate the largely untouched conservation zone that separates Patagonia from the north.

> Weirdly enough, there aren't even roads connecting the southernmost part of Chile to the north without taking a detour through Argentina,

Not that weird. The country pretty much becomes an archipelago + ice field south of Coyhaique.

My comment from a few months ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40857263):

> In the 2000s the Chilean state railway company was involved in a huge corruption scandal as well as bad administrative practices. It’s been slowly recovering, but rail services in Chile still leave a lot to be desired.

There's this, and also, trucker unions put a lot of pressure against rail.

1-dimensional? I think you forgot the Z dimension. Its mountains are world famous.

Parent means that for most of the populated part of Chile, the primary question is how far north/south (not also east/west).