Kava Botany The real reason why kava is sterile

[verticity]

Oh, patents on crops are terrible. Bio-piracy has become a huge problem. Pharmaceutical companies have stolen plants that indigenous people have used for millenia and patented them.

Let us hope, and advocate, that that does not happen with kava.

 

[Kojo Douglas]

I think Kava is too "well known" to fall victim to bio-piracy. In most cases of bio-piracy, it is some little-known plant that contains a medicinal or nutritional compound that is useful in pharmaceuticals or foods.

This is a good book on the topic:

http://amzn.to/2crDdL6

 

[verticity]

I think Kava is too "well known" to fall victim to bio-piracy. In most cases of bio-piracy, it is some little-known plant that contains a medicinal or nutritional compound that is useful in pharmaceuticals or foods.

This is a good book on the topic:

http://amzn.to/2crDdL6

Right. My concern is that some company would create a genetically engineered form of kava, and patent that. They even do things like sell seeds which are resistant to weed-killers that are made by the same company. So in order to use the weed killer, farmers have to buy the special seeds. Also, the herbicide can and sometimes does waft over to kill conventional crops in neighboring fields. I'm thinking specifically here of Roundup and "Roundup Ready crops" from Monsanto.

 

[Kojo Douglas]

Yep, that's all true. And yes, they could do that. The good thing about Kava is that at least we wouldn't see genetic drift like we do in, say, maize or wheat. Kava is planted in such a way that hybridization in the wild is unlikely. That doesn't make it any less dangerous, however. And I don't see how a seed (or cutting) company could actually create a Kava that was sterile after the first generation.

 

[verticity]

Yep, that's all true. And yes, they could do that. The good thing about Kava is that at least we wouldn't see genetic drift like we do in, say, maize or wheat. Kava is planted in such a way that hybridization in the wild is unlikely. That doesn't make it any less dangerous, however. And I don't see how a seed (or cutting) company could actually create a Kava that was sterile after the first generation.

Magic Science

 

[Kojo Douglas]

It would truly be a miracle probable scientific scenario for them to be able create trans-generationally sterile Kava cuttings.

 

[kasa_balavu]

I think Kava is too "well known" to fall victim to bio-piracy. In most cases of bio-piracy, it is some little-known plant that contains a medicinal or nutritional compound that is useful in pharmaceuticals or foods.

Not sure if it's the same thing (my memory of it is hazy), but didn't they try this with Basmati rice (which was already very well known)?

 

[Kojo Douglas]

Not sure if it's the same thing (my memory of it is hazy), but didn't they try this with Basmati rice (which was already very well known)?

Yep. Here's an easy read examining one case of this http://www1.american.edu/TED/basmati.htm

 

[kasa_balavu]

Thanks for the link.
I lived in Hyderabad from 2002 to 2004 and there was a pretty big anti-globalisation movement active there at the time. While the Basmati patent issue had been mostly settled by then, it was still a hot-button issue and they held huge protest rallies centered around the Basmati rice patent and similar bio-piracy.