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Re: Invasives Mainstreamed (LA Times)




Wow Marsha,
What a thought provoking response, thank you for sharing this with us.

I think your insight is wonderful.
Best wishes
Robert

>From: "Marsha Hanzi" <hanzibra@svn.com.br>
>Reply-To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: Re: Invasives Mainstreamed (LA Times)
>Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 08:30:28 -0300
>
>Dear Friends - maybe you can send this reply back to the source o the
>article for me..Thanks.
>Marsha
>
>Dear Sirs:
>I would like to give another point of view to the witch´s broom invasion of
>the cocoa plantations of Bahia.
>
>The fungus is attacking the cocoa because it was already debilitated by 
>poor
>management methods, encouraged by "modern" agriculture, with monocultures,
>chemicals etc.  The organic cocoa farms, whose trees are healthy,  are only
>slightly affected by the fungus.
>
>I would suggest that the problem is not the universalization of pathogens
>but rather the general degeneration of our ago-ecosystems, and even natural
>ecosystems.  A healthy plant resists pathogens just as a healthy child
>resists disease, even when exposed...We don´t need to combat pathogens, who
>have the simple function of cleaning out the system for us ( they are the
>janitors), removing weakend plants.  We need to strengthen our agriculture,
>bringing back vitality and health which only  organic management can do...
>
>As to Mars( the chocolate company), they are financing a very good
>experimental center in Bahia, where the most diverse genetic meterial is
>being tested.  I just took them to meet Ernst Gotsch, who has perfected
>organic cocoa  management systems, and I believe that there will be a good
>hookup from this contact.  So I would say that , far from being 
>indifferent,
>Mars is investing  heavily to help farmers find a solution for the general
>decadence of the cocoa farms...
>
>  I would argue that this article suffers a basic flaw due to superficial
>thinking, confusing outcome with causes...
>
>Sincerely yours,
>Marsha Hanzi
>Instituto de Permacultura da Bahia
>Brazil
>http://www.geocitis.com/ipbbr
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <bestworms@usa.net>
>To: permaculture <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2001 11:20 AM
>Subject: Invasives Mainstreamed (LA Times)
>
>
>This is an interesting overview, especially since it's in a major 
>newspaper.
>Local stewardship is a good stategy to deal with this...anyone see "Men in
>Black"? Some aliens are our friends, some will eat us, our plants, and 
>pets.
>
>one love,
>Worms
>
>--------------
>Brazil's Cocoa Blight Points to Global Spread of Farm Pests Agriculture:
>Although decade-long devastation is leveling off, the mysterious fungus has
>taken a heavy toll on nation's economy.
>
>http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates2/lat_cocoa010415.htm
>
>By CHRIS KRAUL, Times Staff Writer
>
>LHEUS, Brazil--The European foot-and-mouth epidemic offers few insights
>about
>agricultural devastation that Jose Bardaro doesn't already have. An
>invisible
>airborne pest, a virtual organic neutron bomb, has destroyed his crops and
>livelihood and the entire region's economy.
>
>Bardaro and thousands of other cocoa growers in northeastern Brazil have
>stood
>by helplessly as a mysterious fungus called witch's broom has cut a swath
>through their plantations, underscoring the alarming tendency of
>once-isolated
>pests to leapfrog regions and continents.
>
>Only now is the devastation finally leveling off, 12 years after the fungus
>appeared in this corner of Bahia state. Sincethen, a  quarter of a million
>farm jobs and $1 billion in annual cocoa exports have been lost--as has a
>way
>of life celebrated in the novels of Brazil's best-known writer, Jorge 
>Amado.
>
>'I couldn't sell my land if I wanted to. There is too much debt on it,' 
>said
>Bardaro, 68, whose farm produces one-tenth the
>                                                    cocoa it did in 1992. 
>To
>retrench, Bardaro has fired employees,
>                                                    rented out his main
>house,
>trimmed a lifestyle once marked by
>                                                    European and U.S.
>vacations
>and seen his wife go to work in a
>                                                    fitness salon.
>                                                         How the fungus 
>once
>confined to the Amazon conquered the
>                                                    former world capital of
>cocoa is a mystery. With little
>                                                    information about the
>fungus' origins, conspiracy theories
>                                                    abound. Rival producing
>nations, chocolate companies, even the
>                                                    Brazilian government 
>are
>blamed.
>                                                         Whatever its 
>origin,
>the Brazilian cocoa plague is an example
>                                                    of how agricultural
>pests,
>especially fungi, have become
>
>                                                    increasingly mobile. In
>recent years, an Indian wheat plague has
>                                                    invaded California's
>Imperial Valley, an African coffee pest has
>                                                    ravaged Colombia and
>Costa
>Rica, and an oak tree killer of
>                                                    uncertain origin has
>spread
>to six California counties.
>                                                         'With the greater
>mobility of people and trade items, it's an
>                                                    accelerating process,'
>said
>Stephen Rehner, a Department of
>                                                    Agriculture scientist 
>in
>Beltsville, Md. 'We're moving these
>                                                    organisms around the
>world,
>and every once in a while one will
>                                                    find a new susceptible
>host, and you get these widespread
>                                                    epidemics.'
>                                                         Given the
>interconnections of the world through trade and
>                                                    tourism, chances are 
>good
>that the pace of new agricultural
>                                                    epidemics will pick up,
>said Joseph Saunders, pest management
>                                                    professor at the
>Institute
>for Tropical Agricultural Research and
>                                                    Higher Education in
>Coronado, Costa Rica.
>                                                         'A disease brought
>from one area where it is indigenous to
>                                                    one where it is exotic 
>is
>especially dangerous because there are
>                                                    no biological controls 
>or
>defenses,' Saunders said.
>                                                         Saunders noted 
>that
>2,000 new fungus varieties are
>                                                    discovered every year,
>many
>of them pathogenic. Since fungi are
>                                                    so hard to control--as
>anybody with lawn mushrooms or athlete's
>                                                    foot knows--potential
>plant
>diseases can quickly devastate entire
>                                                    regions.
>                                                         The world's
>second-largest cocoa producer as recently as
>                                                    1985, Brazil has seen 
>its
>production fall so sharply that it
>                                                    probably will never
>regain
>its preeminence. Last year's harvest
>                                                    of 124,000 tons is
>one-quarter of Brazil's 1985 record and
>                                                    one-tenth of leader 
>Ivory
>Coast's 1.3-million-ton output last year.
>                                                         The economic
>devastation is palpable in this once-thriving
>                                                    port town now dotted 
>with
>empty warehouses and crumbling
>                                                    mansions. Its slums are
>inhabited by thousands of unemployed
>                                                    farm workers who have
>left
>the countryside.
>                                                         'The cities 
>weren't
>ready for them,' said Antonio Zugaib,
>                                                    economic development
>director for Ilheus. 'The unemployed
>                                                    don't consume but need
>housing, health services and cause
>                                                    crime. Many are living 
>on
>biscuits. A culture that lasted two
>                                                    centuries is gone.'
>                                                         The fungus that 
>has
>wrought so much misery causes foliage
>                                                    on the tops of cocoa
>trees
>to shrivel and fruit to spoil. The name
>                                                    witch's broom describes
>the
>desiccated treetops after the fungus
>                                                    has sucked them dry of
>moisture. Healthy cocoa fruit resemble
>                                                    overgrown avocados in
>shape
>and are yellow when ripe.
>                                                         In pure 
>devastation,
>witch's broom could be compared with
>                                                    the blight that killed
>most
>of the chestnut trees in the U.S. early
>                                                    last century; with the
>plague that ravaged Caribbean banana
>                                                    plantations in the 
>1940s;
>and with Dutch elm disease that ruined
>                                                    the leafy tableau of 
>Main
>Street U.S.A. in the 1970s.
>                                                         All the diseases 
>are
>caused by fungi, and all arrived
>                                                    mysteriously, taking
>few--if any--prisoners.
>                                                         Bahia's reversal 
>of
>fortune was inconceivable as recently as
>                                                    the 1980s, when Ilheus
>was
>riding a 100-year wave of wealth
>                                                    generated by global
>demand
>for cocoa and the region's ability to
>                                                    supply it.
>                                                         Although cocoa had
>been grown throughout much of Latin
>                                                    America for centuries,
>cocoa plantations proliferated here in the
>                                                    late 19th century after
>fruit trees were found to thrive on
>                                                    southern Bahia's rich
>soil,
>80 inches of annual rainfall and forest
>                                                    cover.
>                                                         Used mainly for
>chocolate flavoring and cosmetics, cocoa in
>                                                    whole or pressed seeds 
>or
>liquid extract was soon being shipped
>                                                    from Ilheus to all
>corners
>
>of the globe. The demand gave rise to
>                                                    storied wealth among
>cocoa
>'colonels,' the feudal barons who
>                                                    ruled northern Brazil 
>and
>whose lusty lives inspired Amado.
>                                                         Brazil lost its 
>lead
>in cocoa in the 1950s to Ivory Coast,
>                                                    which now supplies 45% 
>of
>world demand.
>                                                         By the early 
>1980s,
>Bahia had begun to feel the effects of
>                                                    global competition,
>especially from expanding farms in
>                                                    equatorial Africa.
>                                                         As prices fell, 
>doom
>knocked on Bahia's door in 1989 when
>                                                    witch's broom appeared.
>The
>fungus is now present on 98% of
>                                                    the state's cocoa 
>farms.
>Bardaro said infestation has been 'total'
>                                                    on his 1,000-acre farm
>since 1996.
>                                                         The pervasiveness 
>of
>the fungus caused cocoa shipments
>                                                    abroad to fall to
>virtually
>zero, with domestic production now
>                                                    just enough to meet the
>nation's needs. In 1988, Brazil's $1
>                                                    billion in cocoa 
>exports
>represented 6% of the nation's total
>                                                    trade.
>                                                         Despite widespread
>rancor, there is consensus among
>                                                    officials, traders and
>even
>some growers that the fight against the
>                                                    fungus is finally 
>showing
>some success. Nine varieties of
>                                                    fungus-resistant grafts
>have been made on traditional cocoa trees,
>                                                    such as one called
>Scavina
>developed in Trinidad. Bardaro has
>                                                    two such grafts on his
>farm.
>                                                         'Cocoa production
>has
>not improved yet, but it has stopped
>                                                    falling,' said Luis
>Fernando Brandao, a cocoa trader and grower

>                                                    based in Salvador, the
>capital of Bahia state 125 miles north of
>                                                    Ilheus.
>                                                         Brandao's guarded
>optimism is borne out by market research
>                                                    done by ED&F Man
>Holdings,
>a major London-based
>                                                    commodities trader, 
>which
>predicts that countrywide production
>                                                    may even increase a bit
>this year to 126,000 tons.
>                                                         It doesn't help 
>the
>growers' cause that cocoa prices are near
>                                                    50-year lows, with the
>world glutted by production from African
>                                                    and East Asian 
>suppliers,
>which have stepped into the breach
>                                                    created by Brazil's
>problems.
>                                                         Nor is there any
>great
>clamoring for Brazilian cocoa among
>                                                    international buyers,
>such
>as Hershey Foods or Mars, once
>                                                    Brazil's two biggest
>customers. A Hershey spokesman said the
>                                                    roasting and mixing of
>cocoa--not its country of origin--are the
>                                                    critical factors in its
>candy's flavor.
>                                                         To gather 
>political
>support, the cocoa industry is trying to
>                                                    align itself with
>environmentalists campaigning to protect the
>                                                    Mata Atlantica, the
>remnants of Brazil's primeval Atlantic
>                                                    Forest, one of the
>world's
>most biologically diverse, said
>                                                    Wallace Setenta, 
>director
>of the National Council of Cocoa
>                                                    Growers in nearby
>Itabuna.
>
>                                                         Cocoa cultivation
>works to preserve the forest because of the
>                                                    fruit trees' need for
>shade
>from larger, older trees. Bardaro's
>                                                    plantation is covered
>with
>stately 150-foot-high jequitiba, aderno,
>                                                    araca and conduru 
>trees,
>species that are unique to the region.
>                                                         But neighboring
>farmers, cut off from their livelihood by the
>                                                    plague, are clearing
>forests to raise coffee or cattle. An estimated
>                                                    5% of the forest that
>once
>covered the cocoa-growing region is
>                                                    gone, said Zugaib, the
>economic development director.
>                                                         Bardaro is
>
>understandably jaded about the latest purported
>                                                    fix. But, fondling a
>healthy and maturing cocoa fruit that hangs
>                                                    shoulder-high from a
>grafted tree on his hilly estate, he allows
>                                                    himself a small portion
>of
>optimism.
>                                                         Bardaro, warily
>checking for signs of infestation in the
>                                                    8-foot-tall tree, says 
>he
>has little choice. He has tried switching
>                                                    to flower growing and
>dairy
>farming with no success, blaming
>                                                    the hilly terrain and
>humid
>climate.
>                                                         'I'm not convinced
>it
>will work. The resistance to the fungus
>                                                    could break down,' said
>Bardaro, a third-generation cocoa
>                                                    planter whose 
>grandfather
>inspired a character in an Amado
>                                                    novel about feuding 
>cocoa
>barons. 'But we are giving it a
>                                                    chance.'
>
>
>
>
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