kastom_lif
Kava Lover
Rare Earth just released a video about teff, the staple grain of Ethiopia. In recent years it has been embraced as a health food in the west, with unforeseen impacts on the people of Ethiopia.
How is this relevant to kava? If kava production is monopolized, particularly if it's monopolized by foreign interests, the results could be devastating. Traditional kava cultures, biodiversity, and biosecurity could all be at risk if kava farming shifts from smallholders to huge plantations.
Dr. Lebot in Vanuatu has advocated for traditional intercropping methods and planting in the shade of mature trees. I'm paraphrasing wildly here, but he once said something along the lines of "clear cutting large areas of forest to monocrop kava puts it at risk of drought, disease and storm damage." And of course there are social and economic issues if, for example, a single large, vertically integrated operator muscles into the local farming scene.
So, there are lots of political and philosophical ideas that people say about these sorts of things. This isn't meant to be a political post, merely a video about another important crop in a different part of the world, where they just might be facing similar issues. What do you think?
How is this relevant to kava? If kava production is monopolized, particularly if it's monopolized by foreign interests, the results could be devastating. Traditional kava cultures, biodiversity, and biosecurity could all be at risk if kava farming shifts from smallholders to huge plantations.
Dr. Lebot in Vanuatu has advocated for traditional intercropping methods and planting in the shade of mature trees. I'm paraphrasing wildly here, but he once said something along the lines of "clear cutting large areas of forest to monocrop kava puts it at risk of drought, disease and storm damage." And of course there are social and economic issues if, for example, a single large, vertically integrated operator muscles into the local farming scene.
So, there are lots of political and philosophical ideas that people say about these sorts of things. This isn't meant to be a political post, merely a video about another important crop in a different part of the world, where they just might be facing similar issues. What do you think?
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