Pulses can change the world for good. They are a good source of protein and are the most sustainable form of protein humans can produce. To mark World Pulses Day, the United Nations hosted a virtual event, where the Pope endorsed pulses. 

Speaking at the opening of FAO’s virtual event to mark World Pulses Day, QU Dongyu, the director of the FAO highlighted pulses’ incredible potential for contributing towards transforming agri-food systems – making them more inclusive, resilient and sustainable.  

“World Pulses Day is a valuable opportunity to pay tribute to this diverse and versatile commodity,” said the FAO Director-General.

What are pulses?

Think of the food from India or the Middle East: Pulses are the edible seeds of legume plants, such as lentils, chickpeas and Bambara beans.

Qu highlighted that pulses required less water than other protein sources, and could be planted on small plots of land; were an affordable source of safe and nutritious food, high in protein, fibre, vitamins and micronutrients; and could fix atmospheric nitrogen, release high-quality organic matter in the soil and facilitate soil nutrients’ circulation and water retention.

“Less fertilizers, a smaller water footprint and reduced use of energy, means lower greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

The Director-General also pointed out that pulses have a higher cost-benefit ratio than other staples, which helps diversify and improve the income of rural people, often women and youth and located in vulnerable regions.

“Pulses have a long shelf life. Shifting consumption patterns to more pulses could, therefore, contribute to reducing food waste,” he said, noting that this characteristic has proved useful during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people without access to fresh food could still consume pulses.

Pulses are a noble food says the Pope

Pope Francis said that pulses were a noble food, with a huge potential to bolster food security globally. Pulses are simple and nutritious food that overcomes geographical barriers and go beyond social classes and cultures, he noted.

Pope Francis also deplored the fact that many people, including children, didn’t have healthy or sufficient food, and stressed that the consumption of healthy diets should be a universal right, with states having to play a key role in making this a reality.

All the countries that support pulses

Argentina’s Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Luis Eugenio Basterra, extolled the many virtues of pulses, including their being an excellent crop in dry environments where food production was difficult due to the scarcity of water, and especially for vulnerable populations with little or no access to technology, for whom access to food represented a true challenge.

China is the world’s fourth largest producer of pulses. China’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Renjian Tang put forward solutions to promoting the sustainable development of the world’s pulses industry by: bolstering efforts to increase pulses’ consumption; increasing the supply of pulses through production expansion, scientific and technological innovation; and establishing a global common market for pulses.

Narendra Singh Tomar, India’s Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, said that pulses were especially important in a country such as India where the population was mostly vegetarian and considered pulses a major food item. He noted that his country had achieved near self-sufficiency in pulses production, and was the world’s largest producer and consumer of pulses, producing nearly a quarter of the world’s pulses.

France is the largest producer of pulses in the European Union. France’s Minister for Agriculture and Food, Julien Denormandie, said that protein crops, especially pulses, were the crops of the future. He noted that France’s objective was to increase areas planted with pulses by 40 percent over the next three years, and to boost the consumption of pulses, including through the school meals programme.

Burkina Faso played a leading role in the designation of World Pulses Day. The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Burkina Faso to FAO, Joseìphine Ouedraogo, highlighted the key role of women in the production, processing and distribution of pulses in local markets. The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Argentina to FAO, Carlos Bernardo Cherniak, agreed, noting that pulse production initiatives contributed to the empowerment of rural and indigenous women.

The President of Cuatro Pinos – a cooperative of indigenous women in Guatemala – Sandra Xiquin emphasized that pulses such as beans were important to the people of her country; however, the tradition of cooking and consuming pulses was no longer as strong as it used to be and it was important for this tradition to be restored. 

Pulses are a pandemic food

The UN Food Systems Summit 2021 Special Envoy, Agnes Kalibata, said that pulses provided a potential answer to several questions regarding how to “recover better” after COVID-19. Kalibata also encouraged everyone at the event to get their ideas on the table, including elevating the role of pulses in food systems, and to participate in the food systems dialogues.

The President of the Global Pulse Confederation 2021, Cindy Brown, noted that, globally, there had been an increase of about nine percent in the consumption of pulses over this past year of the pandemic – more than double the increase in consumption was estimated to result from the successful 2016 International Year of Pulses.  

The World Trade Organization Counsellor, Diwakar Dixit, pointed out that the global production of pulses had grown by over 50 percent in the last 20 years, with developing countries playing an important role. Global pulses trade has grown two times faster than growth in production with some of the poorest countries on the planet being amongst the top exporters of pulses, he said.

The post The Pope supports pulses appeared first on Green Prophet.

I am an addict. They say it’s good for me if I eat the 90% cacao, fair trade and organic. Chocolate is universally adored. But few know that farming for cacao is complicated business, mostly done by small-scale low-income farmers in Latin America, specifically Ecuador. New evidence suggests that eating too much chocolate might be dangerous because it grows in soils with high amounts of cadmium, which can build up in the body and cause cancer (see ceramic coated cooking pans).

The good news is that there are scientists working to help the farmers lower cadmium from their cacao trees. David Argüello from Belgium along with a team from Ecuador have found ways to reduce cadmium in chocolate trees, using lime. They report about it in the science Journal of Environmental Quality. 

Argüello says: “The cadmium issue threatens the livelihood of farmers because their products may not be suitable for trade and some buyers would prefer not to buy polluted cacao beans. We have to understand how cacao plants takes up the element.”

Traditionally in science, researchers would look at studies of other crops to see what works to prevent cadmium uptake. Something commonly added to the soil to help with this issue is lime, or calcium carbonate, a compound derived from limestone which is cheap and widespread and easy to obtain. This changes the cadmium chemically so that it’s not as likely to be absorbed by the crops, Argüello explains. 

However, most crops like corn or sunflowers are replanted each year. This allows the lime to be mixed deep into the soil between crop seasons which is good. Cacao plants for chocolate, on the other hand, are trees that live for many years. It’s not possible to put lime into much of the soil without disturbing the roots of cacao. Farmers can only apply lime to the surface. 

“This crop is very different than other conventional plants. The information available for its management is scarce and outdated. Many farmers get the advice that adding lime will solve the issue. But we wanted to investigate this,” Argüello explains. 

The research team used an experiment where they planted cacao seedlings in pots in a greenhouse. This allowed them to add lime to the topsoil and subsoil and then test the cacao leaves for cadmium levels. 

The solution needs to be deep rooted

Their findings show that adding lime to both layers decreased cadmium in the cacao leaves, which was not surprising. They also found that liming only the top layer also decreased cadmium. However, they discovered that when only the top layer is limed, more cadmium is taken up from roots in the bottom layer. This means that researchers and farmers cannot ignore high cadmium levels deep in soils.

“Other nutrients, such as zinc, are chemically similar to cadmium,” Argüello says. “We hypothesize that the reduction of the availability of those nutrients in the top layer due to liming causes the roots in the bottom layer to compensate. During that process, zinc uptake increases but some undesired cadmium is also taken up as a mistake.”

The researchers say their findings have helped scientists understand how cacao plants behave and can possibly chart a path to finding an effective reduction strategy. Argüello hopes their work can help small cacao farmers sell their products. I hope they can find a way to create systems that lead to regenerative agricultural approaches (see the film Kiss the Ground with Woody Harrelson). Maybe there is a biosystem that can be created that can reduce the cadmium more naturally than just dumping lime on the problem.  

“I am from Ecuador and cacao is the most traditional export commodity for my country,” says Argüello. “Every time I travel and find a bar of chocolate produced in Ecuador, I feel happy and proud. I like to think that my work will help small cacao farmers sell their products and help my country to continue to be recognized worldwide.”

Looking for a guide to sustainable chocolate? We have to start somewhere, so you can start here.

The post Getting cadmium out of my chocolate through the roots appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Mediterranean diet consists of on vegetables and legumes, cereals, olive oil,  and moderate consumption of fish, meat, and red wine. The diet is largely plant-based, requiring fewer natural resources than animal production, so it’s relatively light on environmental impact. In 2010, UNESCO recognized it as Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

But the report warns that tourism, urbanization, and a loss of traditional knowledge are contributing to a rapid diminishing of genetic diversity in crops and animal breeds across the Mediterranean, altering menus for the worse. Add a regional uptick in consumed processed “convenience” food,  meat and dairy products, and hear the death knell for this way of eating long linked to healthy living. Food products are increasingly sourced from outside the region, monoculture production is replacing local farms (producing a variety of crops). The study estimates that just 10 percent of traditional local crop varieties are still being cultivated across the region, the rest replaced by a limited number of improved non-native crops. How do you spell Big Food?

Southern Mediterranean countries continue to struggle with under-nutrition and “stunting” – low height for age – among children under five years of age, but other countries across the region increasingly struggle with obesity and overweight and the region is seeing a rise in chronic diet-based diseases that lead to disability and death. Paradoxically, in several MENA countries malnutrition and obesity coexist as equally weighted health problems.

So what can be done?

On an personal level, vote with your fork.  Buy seasonal, local, and ideally organic food products.

On a political level, FAO and CIHEAM are working to increase international understanding of how to make Mediterranean diets more sustainable. The collaboration aims to develop local case studies on ways to increase production sustainably, support local producers and promote adherence to traditional diet patterns.

Policy makers, researchers and the food industry need to increase collaboration to better understand food systems and trends, the report says. More attention needs to be paid to increasing food consumption and production in ways that protect local resources and knowledge. Awareness campaigns could drive up consumer demand for traditional Mediterranean products, with an eye on better integrating current food trends and consumer habits with the use of local products across the region.

The report also calls for a three-year pilot project in CIHEAM countries – 13 nations cooperating in agriculture, food, fisheries and rural territories in the Mediterranean – to be developed together with FAO, along with specific guidelines for improving regional diets.

“The Mediterranean diet is nutritious, integrated in local cultures, environmentally sustainable and it supports local economies,” said Alexandre Meybeck, Coordinator of FAO’s Sustainable Food Systems Program, said in a statement on the FAO website. “This is why it’s essential that we continue to promote and support it.”

Image of Mediterranean foodstuffs from Shutterstock

The post Model Mediterranean Diet vs. modernity – which will win? appeared first on Green Prophet.

There are many ways to fund terror, and one way is by consuming opium or heroin: Opium production in Afghanistan is seeing record increases for the third year straight, reports the United Nations.

This is because foreign military have started leaving the country and as they do drop Afghani farmers back into the hands of the Taliban.

Poppy production started going down starting in 2008 when there were eradication (burning opium crops) and incentive efforts to get Afghani farmers to switch to other kinds of crops.

But with the Taliban insurgents returning to the provinces they are now supporting opium farmers’ return to the valuable cash crop.

And when we say support, we mean with arms and guns. The Taliban actively fight government officials who try to eliminate poppy fields.

Prices this year range from $350 to $440 a pound.

Despite the religious prohibition, opium and heroin are not just a problem in the west. The drugs are also used by Afghanis, and opium is also heavily consumed by Iranians. This leads to a broad range of societal problems which we are sure readers are aware of.

For the Afghani farmers in the southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces, alternative crops to poppies which form the derivative of opium, do not compare. Farming wheat leaves them hungry, while opium creates a multi-billion dollar business, and the Taliban of course get their cut.

Someone who can help the Afghani farmers find a more productive and sustainable crop might very well earn the Nobel Prize. Maybe help them switch to medicinal marijuana?

Afghanistan is currently the world’s largest producer of opium, and it supplies about 75 percent of the global market.

The post Use heroin? Fund Terror appeared first on Green Prophet.

Even though organic agriculture and sustainable farming practices are on the rise, feeding a hungry world demands that commercial farmers rely on genetically engineered (GMO) seeds to boost production and fend off diseases. But environmentalists fear that GMO crops are a sort of Frankenstein with unknown future consequences.

The Israeli company Morflora now has an alternative seed treatment in the works that is so revolutionary it is short-listed for Best Novel Agricultural Biotechnology in the 2012 international AGROW awards, and recently won a Red Herring business award in the Top 100 Europe category.

The trademarked product, TraitUP, will be on the market in 2013.

“Our technology is an innovative trait delivery platform. We can deliver any genetic trait to any seed, and the delivered gene does not transform the genome of the treated plant,” Dotan Peleg, CEO of Morflora told me.

“We will not have any moral issues that the GMO community faces. We keep the plant intact so that the next generation of seeds of the plants will look totally unchanged. It is a paradigm shift.”

The Morflora TraitUP solution, in testing in Israeli fields and international seed developers, has the potential to immediately transfer desirable plant traits without any of the side effects or risks of GMOs, Dotan tells ISRAEL21c. It could protect vegetable seeds from infestation, fungus, bacteria and drought. Like a vaccine for plants Recently, Dotan saw for himself the effect of severe drought on cornfields in Nebraska.

Soy crops had better defenses and were able to survive. Could a hardy soy gene be inserted into corn seed to achieve a similar effect? “Once gene trait discovery companies will find this drought-tolerant gene in soy they will have a new way to apply it instead of creating a transgenic crop,” says Dotan. “They can use Morflora to apply these traits via seed treatment, bypassing all the breeding cycles and going straight to enhancing a product already ready for shipment.”

The company is working to create a platform for trait discovery companies to test their prospects.

The technology is like giving the seed a vaccine, inoculating it from foreseeable challenges, with new genetic information that gets erased in any subsequent generation –– just like a mumps or measles shot in humans. Nor does it affect the soil.

The seed treatment would be applied by the commercial seed producer according to each customer’s needs, with no additional steps necessary at the farm level. In the future, Morflora technology could be expanded to the forestry and orchard business to protect trees from specific fungal, insect or bacterial attack. It will also allow the recirculation of old heritage seeds, since new traits can be added that can let them be competitive with the newer treated seeds.

Bringing wild seeds back to life The technology is based on the work of leading agronomists from Israel’s most successful agri-biotech university, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“Forty percent of the biotech research in Israel is coming from the Hebrew University,” says Dotan, pointing to the cherry tomato, long shelf-life tomatoes and other globally licensed products that generate $2 billion in sales annually, he says.

Among the company’s scientists are Prof. Haim Rabinovich, the former dean of the university, who was connected to the company Hazera; and Prof. Ilan Sela, who was involved in the bee vaccine company Beeologics, which was sold to Monsanto. The 10-person Morflora, based in Sharshoret in the Negev Desert, was founded in 2008 with private investment and a license to commercialize the technology from Yissum, the tech transfer arm of the Hebrew University.

This story was first published on ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org

The post Morflora’s Plant “Vaccine” Boosts Food Production Without Using GMOs appeared first on Green Prophet.

According to the Worldwatch Institute’s latest report on land grab, the oil-rich Gulf nations are big buyers of foreign land

Since 2000, an estimated 70.2 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide has been sold or leased by private or public investors. Most of that land grab took place between 2008 and 2010 and most of the land bought was in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The buyers, however, were a little more dispersed with Brazil, India, China, East Asian nations, the US and the UK topping the list.

The oil-rich Gulf nations of the Middle East, however, were close behind making up one of the major groups of buyers. Indeed Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar alone bought up 4.6 million hectares of land over the decade. And other nations such as Egypt and Jordan have also been buying up fertile land abroad.

According to the latest report by the Worldwatch Institute, the “oil-rich but arid Gulf states made up the final group of major land investors.” Although they are not buying very much compared to the emerging economies (and their growing populations) of Brazil, India and China who together make up 25% of all land purchases, they are still significant buyers for their size. There is also a strong pattern of South-South purchasing or regionalised buying. For example, in the Middle East countries such as Saudi and the UAE have been buying land in Sudan but also more locally in Algeria and Morocco.

Worldwatch author Cameron Scherer said, “most of the data paint one of two pictures: First, there is a new ‘South-South’ regionalism, in which emerging economies invest in nearby, culturally affiliated countries. The other trend is one of wealthy (or increasingly wealthy) countries, many with little arable land, buying up land in low-income nations—-especially those that have been particularly vulnerable to the financial and food crises of recent years.”

Land grab can be defined as the large-scale purchase of agricultural land by foreign investors. The latest report by the Worldwatch Institute brings together data gathered by a network of 45 civil and research society organization which documented 1,006 land deals covering 70.2 million hectares of land from around the world. The data shows a clear peak of land purchasing in 2009 following the food crisis of 2007-08 which saw a rise in the cost of staple foods.

The food crisis of 2008 was also sparked by the rising cost of fuel and oil prices. This led to countries buying up agricultural land hoping to make the most of the rising costs or to protect themselves by garnering a little food security. Africa, with it’s huge land mass, was the main target. In fact, approximately 56.2 million hectares of the land purchased was in Africa.

Although we tend to think of land grab as closely linked to food and food security, the Worldwatch Institute’s report found that a quarter of land grab was not linked to agricultural projects. Upto 11 percent of investors are in the forestry sector, and 8 percent are from the mining industry, livestock, or tourism sectors.

The implications of land grab whilst unclear do not look promising. In many cases, the deal done between investors and the local government displaces local farmers who often work the land but lack formal land rights or access to legal support. The use of industrial agriculture and other related practices can also have negative implication on the land’s quality and the environment surrounding it.

As the Worldwatch Institute state: “In the absence of clear regulations, robust enforcement mechanisms, government transparency, and channels for civil society participation, further investments in land may benefit a group of increasingly wealthy investors at the expense of those living in the targeted land areas.”

: Image of African farmer via Shutterstock.com

For more on land grabs by the Middle East see:

Global Land Grabs: Benefits, Emerging Dangers and Growing Anxieties

Jordanian Bank Sanabel Buys One Quarter of A Congo Forest

Africa Up For Sale: Is the Middle East Buying?

The post African Land Grab Continues – Middle East Is Major Buyer appeared first on Green Prophet.

The price for olive oil has dropped to its lowest level in a decade and farmers in the Middle East are bearing the brunt as Spain and Italy dump their government-subsidized stocks at below cost. “The international market prices are going below sustainable levels,” Nasser Abu Farha, the director of Canaan Fair Trade that works with some 1,500 Palestinian farmers, told The Media Line.

The price of olive oil fell to about $2,920 per ton this month, about half of the peak price of $5,850 in 2006, according to IMF data. While the plunging olive oil prices are hitting the ailing economies of Spain, Italy and Greece, the world’s largest producers of olive oil, they are ricocheting across the Levant, too.

“There is a great deal of consolidation of the olive oil market in Spain and Italy so that the bulk of the olive oil industry is controlled by very few hands,” Abu Farha said. “These giant companies pool most of the Mediterranean olive oil and this gives them a lot of leverage on the price.”

Adi Naali, olive oil division manager of Israel’s Plant Council, said that the dumping was threatening to destroy the local olive industry.

“There is a catastrophic flood of cheap oil from Europe which is threatening the future of the olive famers in Israel,” Naali told The Media Line. “A farmer can sustain a loss for a year or so, but over time they can’t and we fear they will start uprooting their groves.”

About 95% of the world’s olive trees are in the Mediterranean region. Olive oil is so well liked and is such an integral part of the cuisine that according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Mediterranean basin countries also account for 77% of the world’s consumption.

But elsewhere around the world, olive oil consumption has dramatically risen over the past decade – largely due to the popularity of the “Mediterranean diet.” World olive oil consumption reached 2.98 million tons last year, a 3.7 % increase from 2009.

Olive oil producers have also started focusing their exports on non-traditional markets, particularly China, India and Japan. China increased its import of olive oil by 62% in 2011, but most of the imports came from European countries.

“There was the expectation that every Chinaman would start drinking a spoon of olive oil a day, and the Indians too. That’s a lot of oil, and it is happening, but at a lower pace than expected,” Na’ali said.

The Europeans are now overstocked with olive oil and are trying to clear out their stocks by lowering prices.

“It’s harming us greatly,” Ayala Noymeir, who owns a mill producing organic olive oil in northern Israel, told The Media Line. “The major food chains [in Israel] are importing cheap oil from abroad and are selling it at rock bottom prices. They’re forcing us to get rid of our stocks at below cost.”

Noymeir said that the Europeans were able to dump their products cheaply because they were buffered by a subsidy from the European Union. Israeli customs aimed at protecting local farmers were not high enough to prevent the market from being flooded by the cheap oils from abroad.

“The problem is that when a housewife comes to the supermarket and compares prices, they are inclined to take the lower one, even if it’s lesser quality,” said Micha Noymeir, head of the family business of Rish Lekish, an organic olive mill in Tzippori.

But Abu Farha of Canaan Fair Trade said he believes there was room for prosperity in the olive oil specialty markets. They work with 1,500 Palestinian farmers from over 40 villages in the northern West Bank to produce olive oil, herbs and tahini. They supply major international retailers including Whole Foods in the U.S. and Sainsbury in Britain.

“The farmers who are escaping the impact of this are farmers who producing connoisseur-type specialty oils, like the farmers that we are working with, or farmers who are organized into fair trade and organic production.”

“We give the farmer a sustainable minimum regardless of the fluctuating of market prices. We give them a safety net of a minimum sustainable price, but we sell to like-minded companies in the West in Europe and North America who are willing to pay a premium on the olive oil prices when market prices are going low,” he said.

He said that olive oil production is a $200 million business in the Palestinian Authority and that it supports some 200,000 families. He said a lot of farmers who are outside their network were suffering since they have been sitting on their supplies waiting for the price to go up and a new harvest season was fast approaching.

“I see the price is going to stay low for the next couple of years, but one thing we are happy about is that we are able to sustain the $6 per-liter for our farmers at the time that it is below $3 in the market place,” Abu Farha said.

In Israel, efforts are underway to increase consumption in order to boost sales. According to the Plants Council, annual Israeli olive oil consumption is about two kilos per capita, substantially less than the 24 kilos the average Greek consumes annually.

“There was a sense that competition would be good and bring cheaper prices for the consumer but what is happening is that they are forcing the local olive farmer out of business and after that happens the importers will raise the prices,” Na’ali said.

“The Europeans are dumping their stocks and the whole market is flooded which is putting people like the Noymeirs and other farmers on the kibbutzim and in the Arab villages out of business.”

The Plant Council recently issued a quality-control sticker for Israeli olive oil which they hope will bring public confidence to the locally-made, high-quality extra virgin oils and boost sales.

This story is reprinted from the Mideast News Source, The Media Line.

Image of man with olive trees from Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com

The post Cheap Olive Oil Threatens to Destroy Middle East Growers and Suppliers appeared first on Green Prophet.

Age-old agricultural techniques in the West Bank help conserve rare plants that might otherwise have perished, according to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

A new survey shows that farmers following traditional practices in the south Hebron Hills have sustained a large number of rare plants.  According to plant researcher Yair Or, the fieldwork turned up several species “that had been found decades ago in the Jerusalem area and since then had not been found and were considered extinct.”

Traditional Palestinian farming is practiced throughout much of the test area.  Therefore, researchers determined it has played an invaluable role in the survival of rare plants.

Unfortunately, not all agricultural practices are so helpful.  The hills around Ein Gedi were covered with at least ten species of trees and shrubs until 60 years ago, when land development in Israel intensified.  Those species had specifically adapted to Ein Gedi’s dry microclimate.

Groundwater pumping by Kibbutz Ein Gedi and land clearing by several farms eventually wiped out the native plants.  Now the Authority is rehabilitating Ein Gedi.  Park staff planted the first set of new flora about four years ago.

Rangers created intricate plans for seeding, germinating and caring for the fledgling trees and shrubs, according to the Authority.  After successfully developing a nursery with several hundred plants, ecologists planted experimental plots.  This process helped them learn to properly water and prune the trees and shrubs.

And the  Israel Nature and Parks Authority has worked diligently to preserve rare plants elsewhere in Israel.  In the Beit Netufa Valley – considered a flora hotspot – there are more than 60 species of unique plants, several of which are in danger of extinction.

A rare type of yellow-petal iris called Grant- Duff’s Iris is among them.  It densely populates the valley but is not adequately bearing fruit.  Hypothesizing that artificial agricultural growth is inhibiting insects from pollinating the irises, the  Israel Nature and Parks Authority initiated a breeding program for the flowers.

So why has agriculture in the Hebron Hills actually helped rare plants, in contrast to the deleterious effects of agriculture in Beit Netufa and Ein Gedi?

Traditional Palestinian agriculture utilizes low impact farming methods, such as harvesting by hand, avoidance or limited use of pesticides and fertilizers, and shallow plowing.  Several of the rare species that flourish in the area are annuals that grow amidst the cultivated crops.  They share a similar life cycle.

Additionally, these traditional practices promote rainwater percolation and soil aeration.  Several rare plants, particularly those with bulbs or corms, favor such conditions.  And the microclimate of the southern Hebron Hills is also partially responsible for the rare plant boon.

The findings in the Hebron area add credence to the beliefs of organic agriculture proponents.  Low-impact agriculture has been proven to conserve water, reduce pollution, and minimize exposure to crop disease.  Now those proponents can add another reason to their list – preservation of rare plants.

Professor Zev Naveh, an ecologist at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, notes that “the farmers of the Mediterranean area did not neglect and deplete the soils, but rather knew in different periods how to preserve them and to exploit their biological variety correctly.”

Ironically, it was originally human activity, including agriculture, that created the diversity of flora and fauna currently found in the Mediterranean Basin.

How wonderful to know that our agricultural practices need not be at odds with nature.  Turns out it isn’t necessary to wrestle the very lifeblood from the land to earn our daily bread.  Perhaps we have something to learn from the keepers of traditional farming in the south Hebron Hills, and from the generations of agriculturalists before them.

The post Traditional Palestinian Farming Spurs Rare Plant Boom appeared first on Green Prophet.

An Israeli made artificial spider web made to protect crops from insect pests will be one of the showcased products at Israel’s Agritech 2012 exhibit. Made from a special weave of micro-fibers, this new netting called SpiderNet is woven to catch insects in the field, much in the same way that real spiders entrap their prey. Developed by the company Meteor Nets, the SpiderNet is designed to create a blanket of protection around crops. It allows air to flow through freely, but the micro-fibres ensnare even the tiniest crop pests like whiteflies or thrips. These pests can be devastating to crops.

Made to withstand storms and high winds, the nets can trap tiny pests that grow and live on crops which can cause extansive damage to flowers and vegetables. They can transfer other diseases and viruses to the plants as well, and this is one of the main concerns.

In Western countries like in Israel, the damage is economic, but in other countries pest infestation can lead to famines. The company believes their spidee nets can save lives.

Meteor Nets say their invention will let farmers use less pesticides and save money and consumer health. Anyway, they argue, pests develop resistance to pesticides and use stronger materials which would impair the health of the farmer, his employees, family members and consumers.

Sounds like a good idea, but the netting is essentially a huge greenhouse-like tent. If farms can afford to use them in small scale operations, then this is probably the right solution. In big open farms that use tilling and machinery, this wouldn’t be a viable solution.

The nets also protect from strong damaging sun rays. Visit Agritech in May to meet the company.

::Meteor Nets

Image of spider web from Shutterstock

The post SpiderNet’s Artificial Spider Web Protects Crops from Tiny Pests appeared first on Green Prophet.

Opened in 2008, and ranked as the 6th “Time’s Best invention”, the Svalbard vault is the world’s main back up of duplicate seeds collected. More than half a million samples are safely deposited on behalf of 1,750 genebanks from around the world; this “seed deposit service” is provided free of charge thanks to the Norwegian government and the Global Crop Diversity Trust which cover all operational costs. The facility, which cost 9 million USD , has been funded entirely by the Norwegian government and it has a very neat apocalyptic feel to it.

Sunk 125 meters into the Norwegian permafrost, outside the village of Longyearbyen one of the world’s most northerly habitation, the vault is maintained at a constant temperature of -18 degrees Celsius, the concave tunnel head is designed to deflect missile strikes, and the vault has been built deep enough into the mountain to withstand nuclear explosion and rising sea level. Oh, and in case electricity happened to cut off, it would take two centuries for the vault to warm to freezing point. It is not surprising that such precautions have led the Svalbard vault to be nicknamed as the Doomsday Vault, pictured below.

Seed Vault image via Wikipedia

The FAO estimates that 75% of crop biodiversity has been lost since the 1900’s; just over a century ago India had over 100,000 varieties of rice compared to a few 1,000 nowadays. Faced with such worrying figures on biodiversity loss, all in all the Doomsday vault seems like a practical insurance policy to protect global agricultural biodiversity against future blights such as pest, disease, climate change, flooding and droughts.  Furthermore, the terms and conditions seem relatively innocuous:  researchers, plant breeders, companies and scientists do not have direct access to the seeds and instead must request samples from the depositing gene banks from the country of origin.

So far, so good. Yet if we dig a little deeper we discover some additional factors which might make us think twice before rejoicing, writing a victorious article about how the Svalbard vault is saving our biodiversity and hi-fiving our fellow “save the earth buddy”.

The power of holding genetic information:

First, the idea of a global seed bank is important, and we must pursue it as long as it doesn’t discourage individuals, farmers and national-level seed banks to retain and look after their own seeds.

More importantly, although the idea of the Svalbard seed vault was conceived in the 1980’s, fears of biopiracy have hindered its construction. It is only after the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which entered into force in 2004, that the idea of a global seed vault became legally accepted.  The treaty aims at “establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials” and supposedly “ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have been originated.”

But please stop for a second and think about this in practical terms. Can and will a farmer, faced with the wonderful jargonated (if this is even a word), convoluted, legal framework of a multilateral agreement REALLY have access to plant genetic materials? Would they even know about the “services” offered by Svalbard? And even if they did, would they necessarily have the financial resources and means to be able to request their own seeds from Svalbard, if they were ever to (God forbid) no longer exist in his own country? Who do you think would have the easiest access to this genetic information: farmers, plant breeders or scientists?

I really believe that this system offers no real “power” for the farmer to decide what, when and how to use any particular seed.  The legal team of the Center for Food Safety has investigated the legal framework behind the deposit agreements at Svalbard. The point was to see if in some way the contract between Svalbard and depositors created an advantage for these corporations in their efforts to control and patent seed genetics. As the legal memorandum revealed that the answer to the question is a big, fat “yes.” The Svalbard agreement does provide corporations seeking to patent plant genetics additional advantages.

The efficacy of seed banks:

Other reasons to be wary of relying solely on Svalbard in particular, or seed banks in general, is that seed banks rarely store plant varieties that do not produce seeds such as berries, nuts and tubers which are integral in a human diet. Also, will the frozen or stored seeds be able to grow in a climate and soil which are likely to change in the future? As we know nature is constantly evolving to adapt, perceiving the seed as a potential life that can stand the test of time is perhaps wrong, especially in the face of rapid climate change.

So the real question is how can farmers guarantee a constant supply of their own seed varieties that adapt to localized evolving conditions?

The answer is quite simple, by ensuring that traditional varieties are being harvested.

Biodiversity is a public good,many may not realize its importance until it is too late so governments,individuals, and communities also have a role to incentivize the preservation of indigenous biodiversity. An example of this is the community led mobile biodiversity festival in India.

Seedy business?

The GMO industry is buttressed by monsters, not giants, such as the famous Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and Dow Chemical. These are happily funded by the USAID, and other philanthropic groups such as the Rockefeller foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. They have been marketing the use of GMO s and have been cajoling farmers to abandon old seeds varieties, for new hybrids, which (falsely) promise yield increases of 21-43%. The fierce marketing strategies, have led to an inevitable rush for hybrids while trampling over precious indigenous genetic resources. The consequences are disastrous: Monocropping has eliminated variety while contamination of non-GMOs crops is threatening the organic business. Terminator seeds have been developed to create dependence on unaffordable GMO seeds, which have indebted many farmers and we know the rest of the story (if you don’t please watch Life Running out of Control )

Yet how is it that the same organizations (and philanthropists) that have promoted GMOs are also financing the Global Doomsday seed vault? This is a huge contradiction. Why would you promote mono-cropping and biodiversity preservation at the same time?

As F. William Engdahl, author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, points out:

“What leads the Gates and Rockefeller foundations to at one and the same time back proliferation of patented and soon-to-be Terminator patented seeds across Africa, a process which, as it has in every other place on earth, destroyed the plant seed varieties as monoculture industrialized agribusiness is introduced; and at the same time invest tens of millions of dollars to preserve every seed variety known in a bomb-proof doomsday vault near the remote Arctic Circle ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future’ to restate their official release?”

Let’s not forget Henry Kissinger’s quote:

“If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.”

Monsanto’s recent purchase of Seminis and De Ruiter Seeds, makes them the largest GMO seed company on earth, controlling approximately 85% of the market. I am not so convinced about what is going on here, in fact I am worried.

I do not know how much control Monsanto and other GMO companies will have on the genetic information held at the Svalbard Global seed Vault, laws are easy to bend and twist- especially if you are powerful.

Amidst the crude civil war currently going on in Syria, the service provided by the Svalbard Global seed Vault to Syria is welcomed, as long as it doesn’t become a way to control the destiny of Syria’s (and indeed global) food supplies.

For more information please read :Seed Saving and Seed Banks.

Top image of keyhole and green from Shutterstock

The post Syria’s Seeds Are Locked Away in Norway, But Are Seed Vaults Safe? appeared first on Green Prophet.