Category: Indigenous knowledge systems

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Health and agriculture

To follow the last post, here’s a photo-essay from the BBC on another useful insect, the “desert shrimp,” better known as the locust. Useful? Well, that may be overstating the case, but they are widely eaten in the Sahara, deep fried in vegetable oil. I have tried them. Not as bad as one might think.

Anyway, what I really wanted to alert you all to is that the latest Spore and New Agriculturalist are out. There are lots of interesting pieces, both brief and longer, but is it a coincidence that both issues focus on aspects of agriculture and health? Spore has a feature on “functional foods” here, things that provide disease prevention as well as nutrition. New Agriculturalist has number of articles on various different aspects of the topic here, plus other sources of information.

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Traditional herbal medicine in Kenya

A draft policy addressing how to use and conserve herbal medicine was launched in Kenya last November to stimulate public debate before being taken to Parliament. A long article in the Saturday Nation today discusses the policy, and in particular the possibility of public hospitals dispensing traditional herbal medicines. Here’s a quote from the policy (reproduced in the article: I haven’t been able to find a copy of the policy on the internet) to give you the flavour: “A choice of modern diagnostic techniques and option of treatment by either traditional medicine or conventional medicine within the health care system will be encouraged.” According to the article, other issues discussed by the policy include “conservation, production and domestication, safety and efficacy, and commercialisation.” As an example, there are information and photographs on the cultivation and commercialization of native medicinal plants in Kenya here.

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Farming Hoodia

Another example of a wild species being farmed: this article in the San Francisco Chronicle tells the story of Hoodia gordonii cultivation in southern Africa. The species is the source of a hunger suppressant which Unilever has been licensed to commercialize, with a royalty payment going to San tribesmen. Another Hoodia species may have potential as a salad vegetable. Prices are such that there is a thriving smuggling trade in wild-harvested product. Some Namibian farmers are trying to cultivate the plant – organically – but it is not easy.

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Açaí plantations?

The juice and pulp of the fruits of the Amazonian palm Euterpe oleracea (açaí­) have long been consumed locally but are increasingly used in juices and nutraceutical beverages aimed at the North American market. They are harvested from the wild, but some people are now thinking plantations too. But speaking of wild harvesting of fruits/nuts, this article suggests that this can be sustainable only where it is not accompanied by hunting of key seed dispersers.