I speak for many down here in Cornwall who valued PFAF for its excellent website, its clear and comprehensive leaflets and the message it conveyed through its presence at special events and Ken’s visits as an inspired and inspiring speaker. I particularly valued the plant resource when functioning as a nursery and a number of the plants in my small forest garden came from The Field. The only problem was in finding the site where a number of visitors to open days had great difficulty!
With the suspension of activities, the Agroforestry Research Trust has become our main support and the site, the leaflets, excellent courses and in particular the ever extending range of plants, taking Ken’s recommended species into an ever increasing range of new varieties, as new ones are identified and imported to add to what has been described as the greatest collection of fruit and nut trees in Europe, if not the world!
There is more need than ever for both organisations as food security rightly becomes the number one priority of the human race. Powerful interests in business and government have a vested interest in how this should be accomplished and their ideas are very different from ours. The consultative document clearly sets out that these are based on a new and more potent Green Revolution and transgenic modification of plants is clearly in the frame. You have a competing website ‘Plants for the future’ – A technology based platform to reap the fruits of a knowledge based bio-economy.’ This has an impressive list of backers including the E.U. and is promoted by Monsanto to give them a competitive edge in world markets. Competition instead of world co-operation is the last thing we need in this hour of need. [Google search on ‘Plants for the future’ (sic) gets this ‘Plants for the future’ (third down after us twice) – yuk! - check it out. Chris]
Our two organic growers groups down here in Cornwall have been recently preoccupied with the evidence calling for attention to be focussed on the decline in the nutrition of foods and whether it is due to soil depletion or the progressive loss of mineral uptake in modern varieties of plants bred for fast growth. We have also been concerned about the threats posed by the genetic modification of plants and the terminator gene. In conducting research I recently uncovered some powerful allies in our quest to explore the huge existing plant base instead of interfering with natural systems and I have taken the liberty of enclosing the notes which formed the basis for an article in our August newsletter (‘Another Green Revolution’) hoping that there may be something of value as you continue your deliberations on how the new PFAF should be positioned and taken forward at this crucial time.
Regards -R
0 comments:
Post a Comment