Category: Genetic diversity

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It’s good for you, mate

I’ve tasted mate tea, made from the herb Ilex paraguariensis, and I have to say it is a mystery to me how so many Argentinians (and others) could be totally hooked on the stuff. Maybe because they knew all along it was so good for them. 1 Now science agrees. Elvira de Majia, of the University of Illinois, discovered that mate drinkers in her lab had greater activity in an enzyme that increases HDL (good) cholesterol while lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol. On that basis, and mate’s many other health benefits, she secured a deal with Argentina to study in detail 84 different varieties of mate, including wild populations. According to the press release:

“Our studies show that some of the most important antioxidant enzymes in the body are induced by this herbal tea,” said de Mejia of her study in September’s Planta Medica. 2

“Because Argentina has the different mate varieties, we’ll be able to do more comparisons and characterizations between the different genotypes and the benefits of different growing conditions—whether in sun (on a plantation) or in shade (under the rainforest canopy),” she added.

There’s also interest in adding the active ingredient(s) to processed food. There always is.

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Cherry blossom on the move

Andy Jarvis writes:
We’ve long known that climate change is shifting the seasons, and plants appear to be flowering earlier in spring. But a recent study of flowering in 17 species and varieties of cherry trees in Japan had some interesting results that highlight the value of agricultural biodiversity. 3 The authors have observed that cherry trees on average flower 5.5 days earlier today compared with 25 years ago, and attribute this to an increase in temperature of 1.8°C in February-March. Another example of changing phenology. But what is most interesting is the divergent response between varieties and species – some are flowering 3-5 days earlier per 1°C temperature change, while others as many as 9 days earlier per degree change. Interestingly, these are traits that required climate change to express themselves, and must have impacts on production in addition to the aesthetics of the entire mountain no longer flowering at once.

There must be other places where blossom is important that have long term records like this.

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Cutting down on cow emissions

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and ruminant farm animals belch out a huge amount of the stuff. No wonder people are scouring agrobiodiversity for animal feeds that minimise emissions. A paper in Animal Feed Science and Technology 4 has come up trumps. The researchers found differences in methane production not just among tropical feed species, but also among accessions of Acacia angustissima and Sesbania sesban. Something to add to the list of evaluation descriptors.

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On the ground in West Bengal

In West Bengal, a penniless activist is preserving 542 local varieties of rice on a teeny farm. It’s an amazing story, as Josh Kearns tells it. He visited Debal Deb’s research station and blogged about it here.

Folk traditions that were widely practiced until just a few generations ago, such as valuing seeds in non-monetary terms and freely sharing resources, have been sacrificed under market culture. Since Debal gives his seeds away for free, he runs the risk of their not being appropriately valued; whereas, if a farmer takes out a huge loan to buy Monsanto’s HYV seeds and they fail to produce a satisfactory yield (or fail altogether, which happens frequently), he blames himself for being a lousy farmer rather than Monsanto for ripping him off.

Just one of the problems of taking care of crop biodiversity outside the mainstream. Kearns does not say that Deb is no ordinary agroconservationist. He’s a friend of a friend, as it happens, and has a PhD from Calcutta University and several published papers and a book to his name.

Still, Kearns reports that against the odds, Debal Deb is succeeding. And while that is good news, I do wonder what the next stage is. OK, so he and his crew are conserving and describing the varieties (to forestall a rights-grab). But there must be ways both to support that work and to make use of the biodiversity to improve lives.

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Apple Day

Yesterday was Apple Day in the UK. Started ages ago 5 by Common Ground to draw attention to the diversity of apples and the threats to their existence, it has grown in a great bowlful of treats around this time. Of course, it’s a bit late now, but here’s a Top Ten of orchards to visit. And a week ago, the Daily Telegraph was visiting Brogdale, waxing lyrical but making very little fuss about the impending sale of the collection.

I miss my apple trees.