[MPWG] eat the weeds

Thu Feb 3 09:32:52 CST 2005

Hi Bob,
     If corn is weed in soybean fields and a crop in monoculture then why we have declared some plants as obnoxious weeds for whole territory or country?

When any plant comes in the category of weeds all doors are closed for its return to the list of useful plants. Why it is so? Are we having any example when any weed has been included in the category of useful plant  after the discovery of its useful properties.

regards
Pankaj Oudhia

Bob Beyfuss <rlb14 at cornell.edu> wrote:
Hi Fred
In the big picture I agree with you completely, humans in North American 
are pretty invasive weeds themselves! As you know nature abhors a vacuum 
and plants will fill it quickly. Human or natural disturbances create the 
opportunities. I think Ben Franklin defined a weed as "a plant whose 
virtues have yet to be discovered"! In the short term "human centric" 
picture however, I have to disagree. We have always chosen plants we find 
useful regardless of their origin. 90% of our US food supply is derived 
from "exotic" plants and animals, including such "American" staples as 
sweet apples and beef cattle. When we manipulate an environment for our own 
purposes, WE decide what are weeds and what are not. Corn is a highly 
edible plant but "volunteer" corn growing in a soybean field is a weed. 
Kudzu was first introduced as both an erosion control plant and a food crop 
for cattle. It is actually highly nutritious. I don't necessarily believe 
that "native" is superior to "exotic". Indeed, I find that a rather fascist 
concept. As the self appointed steward of the land I temporarily own I 
decide what plants I want growing on it. Plants that I consider undesirable 
will be removed, including my native poison ivy. There is often a 
significant lag time between when a plant or for that matter an insect pest 
is introduced into a new area and when it actually become naturalized. 
Gypsy moths and the hemlock wooly adelgid in Asia do not cause the massive 
defoliation and havoc they wreck in the Northeastern U.S. In time, they 
will cease to cause such havoc but for my lifetime and probably my 
children's lifetime, they will. Humans have manipulated ecosystems for 
their own purposes since fire was domesticated. Eliminating invasive 
plants from a landscape is not much different than weeding your vegetable 
garden. So what does this have to do with medicinal plants? (I can hear 
Patricia yawning right about now) Actually, quite a lot. If a plant in 
India is identified as medicinal but has the potential to grow like Kudzu, 
I don't want my neighbor planting it next to my property regardless of its 
virtues.
Bob

is At 04:21 PM 2/2/2005 -0900, you wrote:
>Bob, I have to disagree with with your statement about concern over using 
>unwanted plants that you refer to as "invasive". Actually that is what 
>needs to happen and will eventually happen with all of these plants at 
>some point. They will become useful. If you go back far enough eliminating 
>plants viewed as invasive at some point there would be no plants in north 
>america. Lets not discriminate also. We need to get rid of apples, brown 
>trout, tomatoes, cabbage, and on and on. What we are really talking about 
>is a political system applied to nature that puts political timelines on 
>species which have always moved about with or without mans help. When 
>plants first arrive on new land they become dense monocultures and can at 
>first cause havic. Eventually they come under control and just add to the 
>biodiversity. If you really think about it you will realize that is true. 
>Nature finds ways to bring things back into line.
>As a knifemaker I use all sorts of materials and my favorite is multiflora 
>rose. This past weekend I sold three hunting knives with multiflora grips. 
>It is a truly beautiful wood with exotic grain and it is very hard. I am 
>running out on this farm between this use and the fact that both cattle 
>and goats eat it. It is very high in protein as a forage. The deer like it 
>also. It helps as successional plants in old fields returning to forest 
>and then it gets shaded out as the canopy develops. These do gooders will 
>do far more harm and waste a lot of time and money killing such plants 
>than any harm it could ever cause. The problem with the presence of too 
>many of any kind of plant has more to do with poor land management than 
>anything. As a certified educator of Holistic Resource Management certain 
>principles apply that are unchanged over the eons. The way these plants 
>behave is nothing new. Fred Hays
>
>>From: Bob Beyfuss 
>>To: MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>>Subject: [MPWG] eat the weeds
>>Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2005 16:40:45 -0500
>>
>>I think eating weeds is a good idea, many of them are far more nutritious 
>>than their cultivated counterparts, i.e. dandelion. I will send her lots 
>>of recipes from an Extension bulletin I wrote in 1977. I am not so sure 
>>publishing recipes for invasive plants is a good idea. The reason we have 
>>some of these plants today is because they were purposely introduced as 
>>food crops for us or cattle, i.e., Kudzu. As recently as last year I saw 
>>garlic mustard seed for sale in a catalogue as an edible green.
>>Bob
>>
>>
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