Category: Neglected species

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Micro, mini, what’s the difference?

511Anbszh4L. Ss500 -1 Now, I know I’m a pedant, and biased, but for me, micro has always been smaller than mini. Cars, skirts, whatever; micro is smaller than mini. It’s, like, a rule. So when our friends at the Global Facilitation Unit sent flyers for a book called “Ecological Implications of Minilivestock: Potential Of Insects, Rodents, Frogs And Snails”, I was puzzled. Insects, frogs and rodents aren’t mini, they’re distinctly micro. Capybara and beaver are probably mini-rodents, but the rest are micro too. The reason, I guess, is that the term “microlivestock” had already been snaffled, by “Microlivestock: Little-Known Small Animals With a Promising Economic Future”, a wonderful book that I had the pleasure of reading, and writing about, when it came out in 1991. Except that BEDIM, the Bureau for Exchange and Distribution of Information on Minilivestock, that is responsible for this book, was “created circa 1990”. My brain aches just thinking about it.

Anyway, what you call them is besides the point. Small animals make big sense. They eat things big animals don’t. They are much more productive per unit area, and probably per unit food too. They’re nutritious, especially for people who cannot afford to eat macrolivestock. Ecological Implications of Minilivestock is not brand, spanking new, but then neither is the idea of eating insects. Indeed, the editor sent the information to the GFU in response to a tiny article here about a Kenyan researcher who was promoting insects as human food. As a contribution to broadening the biodiversity of productions systems and diets, we are happy to give it some attention.

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Eat locally, profit globally

The celebrity chef who decides to source everything locally has become a bit of a stereotype among foodies the world over. Here’s one whose local is the continent of Australia. Actually, Vic Cherikoff is no newcomer to the game, and this Q&A recounts his long fascination with bush tucker and, increasingly, bush medicine.

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Making sure nutrition is maintained

Truffling through the special issue of African Journal of Food Agriculture Nutrition and Development about African Leafy Vegetables, one paper caught my eye: Changes in Beta-Carotene, Ascorbic Acid and Sensory Properties in Fermented, Solar-Dried and Stored Cowpea Leaf Vegetables, by Muchoki, Imungi and Lamuka. But only because a couple of days ago a different story — Sunlight Reduces the Value of Moringa Leaves — had done the same. Both tell the same basic story, that even all-powerful traditional leafy vegetables need care in their preparation if they are to deliver the nutritional benefits they are capable of.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find a copy of Ritah Namutebi’s poster on Moringa oleifera, so I have only the newspaper report to go on. Namutebi picked Moringa leaves in the morning, at midday and in the evening and dried them in direct sunlight or in the shade. Those dried in direct sunlight lost 35-60% of their vitamin A, while those dried in shade lost less, 11-15%. ((Actually there’s a conflict in the report. One paragraph gives the figures I have quoted. The following one says that shade drying loses up to 25%, rather than 15%)) There is no information on the effect of time of picking; presumably it made no difference.

The cowpea paper is a whole heap more detailed, with three different treatment methods and six different storage regimes. Bottom line:

  • Fresh leaves contain roughly six times more ascorbic acid (vitamin C) than dried leaves, but the type of drying makes no difference.
  • Drying makes no difference to the amount of beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.
  • During storage, both the container (polyethylene bags vs Kraft paper) and the temperature affect the levels of vitamins in a manner that depends on how the leaves were initially prepared.
  • At each temperature, polyethylene preserved the vitamins better than Kraft paper.

There’s more, I’m sure, to be gained from this work, but the crucial point is that it is as important to devise appropriate methods of preserving neglected and underutilized species as it is to promote their use in the first place.