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Mexico City protects maize landraces

In an almighty panic about GM maize, the government of Mexico City has sprung energetically into action. The result is a “Declaration of Protection of the Maize Breeds of the Mexico Altiplano.” There are said to be “more than 60” maize landraces in the part of the Altiplano that falls within the confines of the Distrito Federal, which I assume is the area over which the Declaration will be applicable.

The Declaration includes provision for:

  • establishing a research programme to improve local maize breeds
  • supporting farmers who sow only native seeds
  • promoting the use of organic fertilizer and pesticides
  • banning of the purchase and distribution of transgenic maize in Mexico City
  • establishing a germplasm bank for the Altiplano’s maize seeds

I have a few questions about all this, but I’ll just pose one here. Has anyone asked the CIMMYT genebank, just outside Mexico City, whether by any chance it already has the Altiplano’s maize landraces?

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Plants for health

A couple of papers just out look at the use of plants as medicines, for both humans and livestock, in Africa. Mongabay reports on a study documenting how sacredness of trees and forests, protection of plants at burial sites, selective harvesting, secrecy and other beliefs and practices contribute to the protection of medicinal plants in Tanzania. Meanwhile, researchers at Kansas State University have put together a bibliographic database of plants used to treat complaints of livestock and pets in southern Africa: 506 herbal remedies are being used in 18 study areas against 81 symptoms. Amazingly, these data come from only 21 papers. A wide-open field, that of ethnoveterinary botany, clearly.

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Spring is in the air…

…and a young man’s thoughts naturally turn to gardens. Honduran gardens and their role in health. Cuban organic gardens. And via them, Around the World in 80 Gardens, a BBC documentary series that looks like it might be worth getting on DVD. And, finally, let us not forget Kew Gardens, 250 years old this year.

LATER: And there’s also an extensive discussion of the role of homegardens in providing nutrition for people living with HIV at the Solution Exchange for the Food and Nutrition Security Community in India. Thanks, Arwen.

LATER STILL: LEISA rounds up evidence of the worldwide gardening craze.