Mixed-strain growing success

Nature magazine has reported the phenomenal success of a joint venture between Yunnan Agricultural University (China) and Oregon State University (US). When a group of farmers in Yunnan province agreed to sow their fields with a mixture of strains of rice, wheat or other crops in the same fields, their yields were 89% higher than those from other farmers’ fields where a single strain was planted. In the case of rice, the incidence of fungal rice blast, the principal scourge, was only 6% of that found in mono-strain fields, drastically reducing pesticide usage. The results challenge modern farming practices and suggest better ways of feeding less industrially developed countries than genetically modified crops.

(7218-19) Nick Nuttall. Times 17.8.00 p14



Seeds for future diversity

Britain is quickly losing its seed heritage. In the last thirty years 2000 species have been lost to ‘natural causes’ and a further 800 remain banned from our shops because they are in the queue for official EU status! The Henry Doubleday Research Association at Ryton, near Coventry, has been given a Lotteries grant to develop its seed collection but only on condition that it raise a further £270,000. It is now offering the public the chance to grow many of its rare varieties of fruit and vegetables in their own gardens, for a supporter’s fee of just £12.50. Contact: ‘Adopt a Veg’, HDRA, Ryton Gardens, Coventry CV8 3LG % 0247 630 3517

(7182-83) Richard Price. Daily Mail 24.8.00 p38

back to the top

Chronic wasting disease

Although there is as yet no evidence that eating animals with prion-based diseases like BSE can infect the consumer, game hunters in Wyoming have been urged to adopt the precautionary principle and not eat the brain or spinal chord of elk and deer with CWD (chronic wasting disease) which, like BSE, attacks the brain and nervous system. The disease has affected approximately 1% of elk and 4%-10% of deer in southeast Wyoming and northwest Colorado.

Ed.- The deaths of two young Wyoming deer hunters and the daughter of a deer hunter from a Creutzfelt-Jakob disease-like syndrome has put the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Animal Plant Inspection Service on alert. Although the deer consumed by the two young men did not appear to have come from an area where deer with CWD had been noted, they are not ruling out a link and are now investigating every case of CJD in humans (currently running at 250-300 cases a year in the US) and CWD in deer. In the US there is a big market in dietary supplements from elk antlers, indicating another possible route of infection.

(7491) Reuters News Service 2.11.00

back to the top

Humming in harmony

Under strong pressure from cheap foreign imports, Britain’s tomato producers are turning to unusual methods to boost yields. Last year some introduced rock music whose vibrations, it is claimed, increased some yields by 5%. This year it’s feng shui. Large companies in both the Far East and Britain have already used the Chinese art successfully. The principal action is to place hives of bumble bees in the most harmonious place relative to the tomato crops. The bee is a symbol of industry in ancient Chinese philosophy. Bumble bees are particularly helpful to the farmer as they are to pollinate up to 100 times more plants than honey bees.

(6614-15) David Brown. Daily Telegraph 12.4.00 p10

back to the top


Final accounts

In the 1960s and 1970s the so-called “Green Revolution” encouraged less industrially developed countries like India to adopt Western intensive farming techniques: hi-tech machinery, fertilisers, pesticides, high-yielding varieties replacing traditional crops, etc. For 10-20 years it worked for India (though often at high individual human cost) and the large grain reserve it has built up will get it through this year’s serious drought. This could, however, be the last time. The country’s food basket, the states of Punjab and Haryana, are exhausted in farming terms.

The introduction of rice, made possible in these states thanks to irrigation, has sucked all the water out of the land. Excessive pumping led to a drop in the water table of half a meter a year. In some areas now, levels have fallen below the reach of farmers’ deep wells or the water has become saline (salty). Crop yields are decreasing at an alarming rate. Many areas are becoming barren. Farmers are no longer able to keep up with the payments on the machinery they bought, nor can they afford the increasing amounts of fertilisers needed as the land is stripped of its nutrients by the intensive farming. The nutritional value of the crops is falling in consequence.

(7036-38) Devinder Sharma. New Scientist 8.7.00 p44

back to the top


Farmers’ markets

Farmers markets - where farmers come into town centres to sell direct to the general public - now operate with huge success in many towns and cities. To find your nearest farmers market, ring their national association on 01225 891422.

(6689) Positive News 1.6.00 p5

back to the top


Organic islands

The Cook Islands (in the South Pacific) intend to be the first country in the world to be fully organic. The conversion project - managed by the newly formed Cook Islands Organics Association Inc. - should be completed in three years.

(6917) Organic Farming 1.4.00 p7

True cost of chemical food

The True Cost of Food, a new report from the Soil Association and Greenpeace, claims that, if the Government had spent even a tiny proportion of what it spends on conventional agriculture on developing organic farming, organic food would be cheaper and more widely available. Chemically farmed food seems cheap to the shopper, but when you look at the true cost to the country (i.e. the taxpayer) ...

• Every kilogram of pesticide used on the land leads to water contamination which costs the water companies £7.57 to remove. Some German water companies have found it cheaper to pay farmers to go organic

• BSE has cost every household £200

• Pesticide poisoning leads to increased costs for the NHS

• The overuse of animal antibiotics leads to resistance in humans and therefore increased research costs (to find effective alternatives) and NHS costs (longer hospital stays and more expensive drugs)

• Grasslands are disappearing at the rate of 100 football pitches a day, hedgerows at 10,000 miles a year leading to a 70%-89% decrease in common birds like skylarks, bullfinches and grey partridges

Less than 1% of UK farmland is organic, while the Danish Government expects its country to be 50% organic by 2010. The UK now imports 70% of its organic food.

(5826-28) Ethical Consumer 1.8.99 p22

back to the top

Chemicals means profits

The use of antibiotics by farmers to boost growth in their stocks (by preventing infections thus maintaining healthy appetites and muscle fibre) appears to have led to increased antibiotic resistance in humans. The European Union is sufficiently alarmed to have banned the use of five common animal antibiotics. Instead of encouraging farmers to return to healthier ways of stock-rearing (larger, airier enclosures, more nutritious feeds, etc.) scientists are developing an alternative chemical fix - poultry antibodies which block the actions of appetite-suppressing neurotransmitter peptides, and a feed additive called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which blocks the chemical messengers which cause muscle-wasting. DCV, the manufacturers of CLA, will be conducting European field trials in early 2000.

Ed.- Does this not infer that we will soon be offered chickens whose illnesses are masked by artificially good appetites and artificially blossoming flesh?

(6104-05) Matt Walker. New Scientist 15.1.00 p9

back to the top

Less medicine, more health

In the early 80s the Swedish media revealed that 30 tonnes of antibiotics were fed to healthy Swedish cattle each year to enhance growth. The ensuing public criticism led to action from the Federation of Swedish Farmers with the result that:

• since 1986 no antibiotics or chemotherapeutics have been routinely added to animal feed to promote growth - only for curing disease on a veterinary prescription

• total farming consumption of antibiotics has been reduced by over 40%

• total volumes of antibiotics added to animal feed has been reduced by 90% (from 30 tonnes in 1984 to 3 tonnes in 1995). There is no sign of a black market

• research has shown that less use of animal antibiotics has led to less risk of residues in food and of building up resistance

• there have been improvements in animal welfare, animal environment and management.

Basically, rather than relying on drugs, Swedish farmers have improved their skills and knowledge to maintain yields.

(In Britain, despite the health implications, antibiotics are still permitted in animal feed as growth promoters - Ed.)

(2142-43) Gunnela Stahle. Food Magazine 1.1.97 p7

back to the top

An udder solution

Avesta Herbal Products of Skipton, North Yorkshire, have produced a blend of essential oils specifically to combat the udder disease mastitis. Containing lavender, eucalyptus, geranium and damask, it often clears up the infection within two to three days: no antibiotics or drugs getting into the cow's blood or milk, and no side effects. That is, except that the milking parlour smells a lot nicer and the farmer has softer hands!

(6414) Independent 10.2.00 p21

back to the top

Genetic modification not 'organic'

The European Commission (EC) has agreed that the term ‘organic’ must not be applied to meat and livestock products where genetic modification has been involved. This includes products:

• made from non-transgenic animals which have fed on gentically-modified foodstuffs,

• where GMOs have been used in processing the food, and

• where the animals have been given genetically-modified vaccines.

(2023) Arthur Rogers. Lancet 31.5.97 p1610

back to the top

Nitrates and diabetes

Doctors at Leeds University have discovered links between nitrate levels in water and diabetes even though, in all cases, the nitrate levels were below the EU recommended maximum levels. In rural areas, where water nitrate levels can be up to four times as high as in urban areas, the incidence of diabetes is 25% higher. The researchers agree that further work is required but, given that only one in ten of the children in the study had relatives with diabetes, suspect an environmental rather than a genetic cause. Another US study has found that Vietnam war veterans exposed to Agent Orange (an organochloride) have three times the risk of developing diabetes.

(1893) Nigel Hawkes. Times 23-4.97 p5

back to the top

Meat and the planet

Any discussion of diet must increasingly take into account its impact on the planet’s health. According to Washington’s (US) Worldwatch Institute, meat production is responsible for massive environmental degradation - a major argument for vegetarianism.

•An acre of land growing cereal or vegetables feeds ten times as many people as an acre used for grazing or to grow animal fodder yet 90% of all agricultural land is used for grazing and fodder.

•The demand for fodder has become so great that developing countries are now growing it as a cash crop rather than growing food to feed their populations.

•It takes 10kg of vegetable protein to produce 1kg of animal protein. US cattle consume enough vegetable protein to feed 2bn people.

•One third of the Earth’s land is being turned into desert as livestock destroys the soil structure. The aquifers of America and Europe are drying out as livestock consume vast amounts of water. It takes 3000 litres (660 gallons) of water to 'grow' 1kg of beef.

•Through decomposing waste and flatulence livestock are also responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions.

•People in southern societies are hooked on the ‘Northern model’ and turning from vegetarian diets to meat consumption. In China, for instance, meat-eating has increased 500% since the ’70s. It is seen as a badge of Western affluence and ‘progress’.

(1766-69) Juliet Galletly. BBC WIldlife 1.9.96 p68

back to the top

END