[MPWG] eat the weeds

[pankaj oudhia]

I am Forwarding a news item written on my work on utilization aspect of weeds.
Weed wise or weed savvy?
By Aakanksha Kumar
http://www.teriin.org/terragreen/issue33/feature.htm
 
 
More details are available at
Glimpses of my research and ethnomedico surveys focused on medicinal 
herbs in Chhattisgarh, India 
Pankaj Oudhia
http://botanical.com/site/column_poudhia/52_ethnomedico.html

regards
Pankaj Oudhia
 
 


Center for Sustainable Resources <sustainableresources at hotmail.com> wrote:
It sounds like you are moving in the correct direction as you mention 
utilization.
The first step in management is to determine what you want out of it and how 
you want the land to be in the future.
All land no matter where you are falls on a continuum of 1-10 of brittleness 
known as the brittleness scale. This is typically just a guide about you 
climate and how well moisture is used and it's consistency througout the 
year. In more brittle parts of the world the land never rest. Man has 
created rest by removing animals in those areas. Rest is lethal in brittle 
environments and the land will quickly become dead. All problems with 
natural resources really are connected to biodiversity loss.
It is simplistic to associate that with one plant when most life is in the 
soil. If a dense monoculture of a plant is forming poor management by humans 
is usually where the cause is although some natural disasters can cause such 
situations. Many weed problems can be corrected with planned grazing , 
animal impact with herd effect. and proper monitoring.
Focusing on what you want there rather than what you don't want and 
manageing for what you want is a better approach. Don't worry about the 
weeds just address what you want.
Holistic Management can assist you. Fred Hays

>From: pankaj oudhia 

>To: Virgil Dupuis 
>CC: MPWG at lists.plantconservation.org
>Subject: Re: [MPWG] eat the weeds
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 07:21:24 +0000 (GMT)
>
>Weeds create problems and its management is necessary, we all know .Instead 
>of using other alternatives like chemical weed management having proven 
>impact on our ecosystem we are in search of method that can manage the 
>problem in ecofriendly way.Management through Utilization is one of these 
>concepts. And in my region we are getting positive results. Managing one 
>prblem through another problem is not advisable. Chemicals do the same. We 
>are in process of collecting the potential uses of noxious as well as 
>common weed around the world so that we can suggest the farmers of one part 
>of the world to use the knowledge available in other parts. For example 
>Kudzu is considered as a weed in many countries but in India it is a 
>valuable herb.Kudzu uprooted by mechanical ways in these countries can be 
>supplied to the Asian market as medicinal herb. By this way the farmers 
>will recover the cost of uprooting and also earn additional income from it. 
>Also this use will avoid the chemical
> management.This will be the additional advantage of getting chemical free 
>environment.
>
> I am aware that this is a dream impossible at this stage but I believe in 
>try.
>
>regards
>Pankaj Oudhia
> Virgil Dupuis wrote:
>The past discussion ranging from “eat the weeds”, to “right to life for
>all plants”, and the “sanctity of private land cannot be violated” appear
>to be geared at the same old problem with noxious weeds. I have heard
>many excuses for people and society in general not taking responsibility
>for noxious weeds. Not my problem, nature abhors a vacuum, you can’t tell
>me what to do on my land, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder are all
>used to defend a no action alternative when it comes to managing weeds.
>Noxious weeds are proven to be serious costly invaders, whereas invasive
>plants are less damaging and often times used. Ecologically, noxious
>weeds are not merely nature’s band-aid on man’s misguided intrusions.
>Research is finding that some plants are capable of replacing entire
>niches of native plants due to superior competitive abilities (noxious
>weeds replacing shrubs in grassland sites, or making entirely new niches
>like aquatic invaders can) either through alleopathy or pirating fungi and
>other resources away from natives. Surely poor management helped
>establish these plants, many which were intentionally introduced due to
>their use in Europe (honey production, ornamental, keeping bad spirits
>away, dyes). When entire plant biomes and associated energy cycles are
>changed and degraded entirely from the natural system by noxious weeds, it
>is everyone’s problem. Private land ownership in this country is based on
>British common property law (invasive notion in itself), on a bundle of
>rights and responsibilities, subject to the laws of the sovereign. The
>sovereign represents society as a whole. So yes, someone can regulate
>what you grow on your property, because it has been shown that some plants
>can cause millions of dollars of damage to neighboring land, hence Noxious
>Weed Law. These laws are largely ineffective in actual control, but can
>be effective in helping groups work towards managing weeds, and leveraging
>individuals not interested in controlling weeds on their property.
>Finally, an argument that all plants have some good use is probably
>correct, but don’t use that as an excuse not to be responsible to nature
>and your neighbors. Personally I am not worried about finding enough
>knapweed to use as a blood tonic, toadflax to use as dye, or St. Johnswort
>to chase the ghosts or depression away, there are lots of those plants.
>The plants in danger are the natives that create biodiversity, economic
>opportunity, and ecosystem stability. Invasive plants do not do any of
>those things. So, please do eat the dandelions and make wine too.
>virgil
>
>
>
>
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