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.
No GMOs in AGRA
Kofi Annan has said, very firmly, that A Green Revolution for Africa will not use genetically modified organisms. In his inaugural speech in Capetown, Annan said:
We in the alliance will not incorporate GMOs in our programmes. We shall work with farmers using traditional seeds known to them.
There are some interesting nuances there in just what will comprise “traditional seeds known to them”. It’s perfectly possible to promote destructive monoculture without resorting to genetic engineering. I’m happy to wait and see.
Feral livestock: pest or useful resource?
I ((Contributed by Michael Kubisch)) came across an interesting article while browsing through my archives. ((Dirk van Vuren and Philip W. Hedrick. Genetic Conservation in Feral Populations of Livestock. Conservation Biology, Vol. 3, No. 3. (Sep., 1989), pp. 312-317.)) It is by now quite dated, but with global climate changes upon us, I think it may actually be more relevant now than it was 20 years ago. The article makes a case for the preservation of feral livestock which are descendents of animals that, once kept by humans, either manage to escape into the wild or are simply abandoned when no longer useful.
Not all species do this equally well. Sheep have a hard time managing on their own, while pigs, on the other hand, easily adapt to all sorts of environments. In the US there are an estimated 4 million feral pigs, many of which may be descendents of pigs brought over by the Spanish in the 16th century. Similarly successful have been feral horses in the US and camels in Australia, the latter being so abundant that there are efforts underway to use them for meat production.
The article makes the case for preserving feral livestock as a valuable genetic resource because the adaptation to life in the wild may have favored or preserved traits, for example resistance to specific parasites or a higher temperature tolerance, that domestic livestock may have lost.
Of course, there are drawbacks: in some countries feral animals are considered pests and there is no doubt that particularly pigs can and do inflict serious damage on the environment. And because of this there are often programs in place to eradicate or at least control feral populations, although such attempts have not always been all that successful. At any rate, in an age of changing climate conditions it might perhaps be more worthwhile to keep some feral livestock around than to try to get rid of it.Â
World Bank protects biodiversity
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the private sector arm of the World Bank. It “provides loans, equity, structured finance and risk management products, and advisory services to build the private sector in developing countries.” It has just launched, with support from the Global Environment Facility, a Biodiversity and Agricultural Commodities Program which will “seek to reduce … threats (to global biodiversity) by leveraging market forces at all levels of the value chain (of palm oil, cacao, soybeans, and sugarcane).”
The program will offer advisory services for projects involving the private sector that support adoption of better management practices at the production level, increase the demand for biodiversity-friendly products, and improve financial institutions’ ability to support adoption of biodiversity-friendly practices. The program will also support multistakeholder initiatives that create sustainable markets for agricultural commodities.
I just hope some of those “better management practices at the production level” include the conservation and deployment of agricultural biodiversity in farmers’ fields.