- At last, sustainable clarinets!
- Hummus war gets serious. All that seratonin not helping?
- “Hearts of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men.” Simon Schama on Quercus robur. Note to BBC: learn how to write species names.
- Pop quiz: Some 20,000 tons of this seed were delivered by Aztec farmers in annual tribute to their emperor, Montezuma. Now big in the US, according to NYTimes piece. From 1984.
Clean water and indigenous knowledge
SciDev.net reports that prickly pear cactus (Opuntia spp) can be used in a simple process to remove 98% of bacteria from dirty water. ((I worry about the other 2%, really I do.)) That would be good news for poor people who may be surrounded by prickly pears, but lack clean water. Alas, (some) poor people don’t want pure water.
“Stomach and intestinal infections are considered a way of cleansing the body, and are not conceived as diseases.”
Oh the dilemma. Preserve their indigenous knowledge, or offer them better health? ((Yeah, yeah, another damned binary choice, I know.))
Strangely, among other communities, on another continent, indigenous knowledge of the water purifying properties of Moringa seeds is just plain confused. Some people know all about it, others believe that more than three Moringa trees are “a source of misfortune that brings poverty and death”. But not from water-borne diseases, perhaps.
Bob is healthy
Via Lois Englberger comes news of Bob Festival Day in the Marshall Islands last Saturday, 24 April. Bob is not some guy, but rather the Pandanus tree. Lois shared Lydia Tibon’s description of the event, which we reproduce below. Pandanus is very important throughout the Pacific, where it has multiple uses. Lois is particularly interested in its beta carotene content. Our thanks to both her and Lydia.
KIJLE (Kora in Jiban Lolorjake Ejmour), meaning “women assisting to promote good health,” participated. We wanted to remind everyone that Bob is better than eating processed foods.
As you can see, the table, chairs, everything hanging and inside our float were pandanus-made. Our kids, grannies were chewing and throwing bobs to everyone. Our billboard message was to promote both education and health.
Our motto is Bob Dikdik Kejadikdrik, the translation is something like “Bob is so fruitful.” It produces so much, it gives us so much knowledge that we use the leaves by weaving the mats, making hats, use to drink medicines, also gives Vitamin A that is very rich to protect our skin, vision, bones and many more….
Our T/shirt that day was “Bob is healthy.”
Nibbles: China, Andean roots and tubers, pigs, greenhouse gases, locavores, drought, mapping horticulture, 2010 Growing Green Awards, canker, World Bank, threats, cashmere
- China’s role in food price spikes. Books sounds worth reading.
- Dutch chefs easily fascinated. Just show ’em an Andean root or tuber.
- Much more on that pig domestication story.
- Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases agrees its agenda. In New Zealand. Jeremy avoids snarky remark.
- New York Times debates locavorism. Someone has to.
- Monsanto, DuPont Race to Win $2.7 Billion Drought-Corn Market. Africa says Yay!
- If you have an horticultural development project, Horticultural CRSP and GlobalHort want to hear from you.
- More environmental awards handed out. Recipients asked to blog.
- Chestnuts out of fire?
- Data!
- Really, who’d be a farmer?
- Chinese clone woollier cashmere goats. Why not just clone the wool directly, cut out the middleman?
- Tales of maize and tomato hybrids.
Protecting edible orchids around the world
Well, national parks may not be all that great at conserving crop wild relatives, but a fascinating article in the latest newsletter of the SADC Plant Genetic Resources Network, which is unfortunately not online, alerts me to the fact that a Tanzanian national park was set up a few years back to protect edible orchids.
Last year, WCS released a report documenting how the region’s orchids were being exploited by local people, who exported the plants into neighboring Zambia, where they are eaten as a delicacy. The report says that up to 85 orchid species are being harvested for use in chikanda or kinaka, a delicacy in which the root or tuber of terrestrial orchids is the key ingredient in a type of meatless sausage.
Chikanda is an unsustainable industry in Zambia itself. Edible orchids are also big in Malawi. And they’re sought after in other parts of the world as well, notably Turkey, where their use in making a delicious traditional desert is endangering them. I couldn’t find any reference to protected areas in Turkey being set up specially for them, but the commercial export of the orchids has been banned since 2003.