Rural workers and indigenous people are lobbying the Brazilian government for a policy and start-up cash for small-scale community-level projects on the extraction and processing of non-timber forest products from the Amazon. They say it would be good for them and good for the rainforest, and have a hefty report to back that up with. Meanwhile, in the cerrado, things seem to be developing on an altogether larger scale for local fruits, including the pequi. Via FreshPlaza.
Summer-grass winter-worm
We went to the opening of a new exhibit at the Bioparco di Roma called Bioversitalia last night. The exhibit was fine, although as usual agricultural biodiversity got short-changed a bit, and so was the food on offer. The introductory talk, however, was a thorough disappointment. Not at all inspiring. What the boffins on display should have talked about, perhaps, is things like Cordyceps sinensis, aka དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུ་, aka the “summer-grass winter-worm.”
The summer-grass winter-worm is a parasitic fungus from Tibet which attacks and takes over the bodies of moth larvae living in the soil. Livestock really like to eat the resulting worm-like mummies, which are also used in traditional medicine. They’re a really valuable commodity: what alerted me to their existence was a newspaper piece today about a fatal gun battle that exploded when neighbouring villages clashed over access to this resource.
Now, it is stories such as this one of the medicinal moth-mummifying fungus of Tibet that would really have got people excited in the Bioparco last night about the wonder and importance of biodiversity!
Street legal
Man finds way to make legal absinthe in the US.
Kava makeover
Kava (a drink made from the roots of Piper methysticum) has a bad rep in some quarters. When I was in the South Pacific I blogged about it several times, and even did a little photo essay about it. It is an important part of traditional life in places live Vanuatu, Tonga and Fiji, as well as a source of income to many smallholders, and can make for a relaxing evening with friends. It does have a definite downside if you overindulge. But then so do most things, I guess. There have been health scares about it in Europe, but they are pretty much unfounded. Anyway, there’s a piece on the BBC today (and thanks to Hannes for pointing it out to me) which tells of efforts in Vanuatu to defend the drink. It quotes Vincent Lebot, kava expert, and friend.
Tomato tastefest
I used to do this:
Sometimes there seems to be a disconnect between the luxury consumption of diversity and the fundamental use of biodiversity for food security; I’d love to help show people at farmers’ markets, for example, that their taste treat is someone else’s survival mechanism.