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Environment: Growing Global

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I think we're getting the message: It's up to me. And it's up to me to rehabilitate the environment too.

Did you know that the big "clean up" campaigns now sponsored by governments in many big cities began when a Sydney man got a group of friends together to get the junk cleared from his local area? The idea took off.

A research molecular biologist, Ian Robertson, is working with PhD students from the University of Zimbabwe on a 'virus-busting' programme to zap destructive viruses and allow for far greater potato production there. The project has been conducted simply, harnessing everyone's bright ideas - like using peanut butter jars for culture, cotton wool instead of agar jelly, and an adapted second-hand air-gun to do the job of a sophisticated and expensive 'gene gun'! And this all started because Ian Robertson remembered a technique he'd learned for making tissue culture when he was a student in Edinburgh.

The Bococks, a farming family in Alberta, Canada, have been on their land for three generations. They organised a community campaign which achieved stricter control of pollution in their state, years before it was "fashionable". They started using alternative energy sources, storage systems to reduce waste, and a system of crop rotation to reduce the need for chemical fertilisers. Bill Bocock says, "Farmers have a calling not only to feed the world but also to promote a quality of life that makes that possible."

And another group of environmentally with-it farmers are the 'British Farmers for International Development'. They have links with a farmers' group in the Sangli district of India. The British farmers send money to their Indian brothers and have also sent seeds for drought-resistant trees. This is not government-backed. It started when Pat and Kristin Evans of Worcestershire met farmers abroad, less well off than themselves, and took their plight to heart.

Nada Bond, Australia

Artikel taal

English

Soort artikel
Jaar van artikel
1996
Publishing permission
Granted
Publishing permission refers to the rights of FANW to publish the full text of this article on this website.
Artikel taal

English

Soort artikel
Jaar van artikel
1996
Publishing permission
Granted
Publishing permission refers to the rights of FANW to publish the full text of this article on this website.