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BIO-DIVERSITY: GENETIC DIVERSITY
The loss of genetic diversity of the world’s food plants is an issue of serious concern with implication for the long term maintenance of global food supplies. This diversity is rapidly disappearing at a line when more genetic diversity is needed in crop breeding programmes to increase food production.
The extent of genetic erosion differ for various crops and for such erosion number of factors are responsible.
To quote few examples:The loss of local land races for Rice, Wheat and Maize has been a serious problem in various parts of the world.The introduction of new high yielding varieties of wheat has caused severe genetic erosion in Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.90% of the native varieties of wheat have been lost in 40 years in Greece.Some of the most valuable commercial species, particularly timber species in Ghana have suffered genetic erosion because of heavy exploitation and they are threatened with extinction in their areas of natural distribution.For the international market Rattan’s (Lionoid palms) provide the second most important source of export earning from tropical forests of south and south-east Asia. Rattans are mainly used in the production of cane furniture for international market whereas for local uses it is used for production of mats, baskets, fish traps dyes & medicines.
Heavy exploitation combined with habitat destruction has led to the decline of major commercial Rattan species.Medicinal plants species, to a large extent are harvested from the wild and relatively few are cultivated as crop plants. Out of total 21,000 plants tested by World Health Organisation (WHO) as medicinally important, about 5,000 higher plant mostly temperate species have been thoroughly investigated as potential sources of new drugs. However, biochemical potential of tropical plants has been largely overlooked. Nevertheless around 80% of people in developing countries rely on the traditional medicines. Over exploitation of medicinal plants extracted from the wild flora is leading to problems of genetic erosion in some of the regions. For example, in India where 2,500 plant species are used by traditional healers, some of the medicinal plants (species of Rauwolfia, Aconitum, Dioscorea & Ephedra) are under threat.Ornamental plants are important commodity in international trade. Today, the diversity of decorative plant species established in cultivation surpasses the variety of plants commonly grown for food around the world. Total world import of cut flowers, foliage and plants amounted to Rs. 2,488 million in 1985 as compared to food, fruit and forage crops. Now, priority both nationally and internationally is given for the conservation of these genetic resources of such ornamental plants, inspite of their such economic potential.In international trade nearly five million plants belonging to 5,000 orchid species have been recorded in CITES. Thailand is a major country for Orchids in international trade, and Dendrobium is the most heavily traded orchid genus exported. In Japan, out of 70 orchid taxa enlisted in the Japanese Red data book 50 are threatened by over collection. Orchid collection together with habitat destruction has led to the decline of wild orchid species in many other countries.Cacti and other succulent plants including species of Aloe, Euphorbia and Pachypodium are also traded internationally. The Netherlands, Mexico, and Madagascar are the main source countries which have exported Cacti and succulent plants. This trade poses a severe threat to such plants species.*17\218\2*

If, however, some sorrow strikes you down, face things bravely with determination to overcome it. Eventually you will reach the place where the warm sun of peace and happiness will once again soothe or even heal your pain completely. Always look ahead with optimism.

Should the enemy of all living things rob you of one of your loved ones, try not to be overwhelmed by inconsolable grief. Prophetic words have been written, which promise us a time when there will be no more sorrow, when pain and death will no longer exist. These are not empty illusions. The God of Life will put a stop to evil and destruction and the resurrection of the dead will become a reality. This faith in a happier future brings a warm glow of comfort and hope to our hearts. Nothing can strengthen our morale as much as the thought of the restoration of all things to a state of perfection. What a comfort it is to know that our pain- and fear-ridden world will one day be freed of all destructive forces! No one who wilfully wielded evil power will be allowed to return from death to spread sorrow and anguish once more. Those who mourn their dead, a result of inherited imperfection, should not stubbornly reject joyful hope and faith in the resurrection. True, the superficiality of our lives and the cares of day-to-day living are apt to obscure our understanding of such matters. We think that things have always been and always will be the same. We cannot envisage a time when blood will no longer be spilled, when swords will be turned into ploughshares, spears into pruning knives and man will no longer learn the art of war. This must now seem a quite unbelievable blessing for our war-weary and warmongering world. However, the God of Life, the God of Peace, will make good his promises. Each one will have his own vineyard and sit beneath his own fig tree, at peace with the world and without fear for the future. These are sacred words of hope and comfort spoken under inspiration by the prophets of old and can be considered as good as fulfilled. The kingdom for which we learned to pray as children is no Utopia, no matter how much the worldly wise may scoff at the idea. Those who believe these words must eventually be filled with hope and positive happiness, even though they may have many trials and tribulations to overcome.

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Scientists have pointed out that watching television puts a great strain on the eyes and that the oscillations harm the nervous system, especially in the case of children. I do not want to go into details here about the additional mental and emotional harm inflicted by programmes that are inappropriate for children, since that has been done elsewhere. Every person is impressionable to a greater or lesser degree, but children in particular are easily influenced because they have not yet acquired a firm position and are therefore receptive, and vulnerable, to everything that rushes into their minds. As it is, our modern times with their frequent changes and innovations in every field, their dangerous radical changes with respect to moral codes and values, do more harm than one can bear. Whether we want to or not, we transmit unrest and bad impressions to our children, who are entitled to protection from these things. So why should we let television programmes put additional stress on them and divert them from their wholesome course through life? Parents should be constantly aware of these factors and take great care.

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More than twenty years ago, Dr E. Eckmann gave a lecture in which he pointed out that metallic salts, especially of heavy metals, become deposited in the lymphatic system. Other scientists have proved that these salts can form a barrier in the kidneys and that they also become lodged in the spine, causing problems even decades after originally settling there, as is the case with arsenic.

Plant poisons can also do us harm, but it is usually4 much easier to expel them, whereas metallic poisons remain in the body and do extensive damage, as a rule, years later. It is not quite clear yet how far metallic poisons contribute to the onset of paralysis, muscular dystrophy, lymphogranuloma and all kinds of conditions connected with the spinal column and cord.

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Considering all these factors, it will be seen how vital it is to change over to unrefined fats and oils, such as those made from sunflower and safflower seed, olives, poppy seed and linseed. Also, fresh tree seed products, or nuts, are suitable for meeting our vital requirement of unsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. A first-class source of highly unsaturated fatty acids are sesame seeds, which contain up to 43 per cent of these oils, in addition to interesting combinations of minerals and proteins, making these seeds a valuable food item indeed. Sesame seeds and products made from them serve millions of people in the Near East as a daily health food. So it would be quite appropriate to include them in our diet. It would help to rectify a deficiency in our unnatural diet that has been permitted for much too long.

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While living on 57th Street in New York for a short time during 1950, I used to go for a drink of freshly squeezed orange juice at a certain ‘health bar’. Whenever I went there I was amazed to see people drinking cabbage juice from enormous glasses. I had, of course, known the benefits of raw cabbage juice for certain disorders for along time, but I also knew that it was a rather unpalatable drink.

Later I came across an article in the Toronto Magazine Digest,

which extolled the virtues of cabbage juice in the treatment of gastric ulcers. Here, then, was confirmation of a treatment we in Switzerland had known for quite a while, based on our own experience with cabbage juice. Dr Garnett, the author of the report, referred to experiments with ‘vitamin U’ (U standing for Ulcer) which, according to him, is responsible for the curative effect of this juice. What he may not have known, however, is that raw potato juice is even more effective, and it is quite likely that he would have found ‘vitamin U’ in it as well. Another researcher, however, may advance Ragnar Berg’s explanation proposed many years ago. According to him, the alkaline properties of raw juice neutralise the free acids in the system and so rehabilitate the mineral metabolism, making possible the successful treatment of gastric ulcers.

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