Mother Nature is...

Mother Nature [1]. Previously I’ve called her ingenious [2], grand [3], angry [4], and mercilessly vengeful [5]. Even muscular [6]. But that’s not all she can be. This growing season’s been a tough and cruel one for most, and maybe nearly all, Australian primary producers. Including darling Brendon and Kate at Daylesford Organics. In the last few months floods [7] (on at least two occasions), locust plagues (ditto) and fungal diseases have reduced their farm’s produce to almost zero – apart from eggs. (Apparently the chooks have continued to lay eggs, oblivious to the adversities just mentioned.) Of couse that’s a huge setback – compounded because in the previous two seasons their produce had won national awards, and they’d been supplying top restaurants. It’s hard not to take all this personally – even though, of course, there’s nothing personal about it. I know [8]. Brendon and his farm team have made plans to ensure future seasons like the present one won’t result in such massive production losses. One must learn by one’s experience and do what one can. But as people in Brisbane and Christchurch can confirm, Mother Nature can’t be totally controlled. She’s perverse, she’s contrary, and she has wry senses of irony and humour. Yesterday darling Kate and darling Jarrah picked some giant blackberries (pictured). As if Mother Nature created these giants as a reminder of who’s boss. And to signal that she’s not a bitch after all.

Of bees and superbugs

One of my favourites podcasts is NPR’s Science Friday [1]. On last Friday’s program was a segment – titled ‘The Buzz on Bees’ – about bees and honey. (To listen to or download it, go to the top left of this webpage [2]). I’ve long known peripherally that bees are remarkable creatures, and honey’s remarkable stuff. ‘The Buzz on Bees’ reinforces this via fascinating info about bees and honey that I didn’t know. Including that Manuka honey’s effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA], i.e. the so-called superbug [3], and that the US’s FDA has approved its use [4]. It’s approved by the Australian and UK authorities too. Manuka honey [5] is made by bees in New Zealand that frequent the manuka bush, Leptospermum scoparium (pictured) [6]. In 2006 it was shown that Manuka honey’s active ingredient is methylglyoxal [7]. Tests have found that a minimum of 150mg/kg of methylglyoxal’s needed required for the honey to have significant benefit [8]. Isn’t that astounding: a bug that’s resistant to most of the most potent antibiotics known to man, is sensitive to a chemical in one type of honey [9]. It has other medical uses too [10]. For a honey, Manuka’s expensive [11]. But it’s a whole lot less expensive than powerful antibiotics. And a whole lot safer too, with no known adverse effects. The closer one looks at Nature, the more she reveals her beauty and wonder.

That's my hope too, David

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. At the end of an interview on the ABC’s Science Show last week, David Suzuki said this:

‘The largest run of sockeye salmon, the most prized salmon species in the world, is in the Fraser River in Canada. Now before white people came, we think that the traditional runs of sockeye were over 100 million. Then all kinds of things happened and it went down to where a 15-20 million run was a big run. But that's been that way for about 80 or 90 years. Last year, we had a run just barely over one million sockeye, and that, for a lot of us, we were grieving. We said they've had it. The government set up an enquiry to find out what the hell happened, and we thought this species was gone. This year, they had the largest sockeye salmon run in 100 years: 35 million. Nobody has a clue what the hell is going on! I have no illusion the species is out of the woods, but wow, what a surprise. Nobody could've imagined there would be that return of biomass. It was an incredible experience. Nature, I think if we give her a chance, nature can be far more forgiving than we deserve, and that's my hope. Thank you.’ [1]

How positive and optimistic is that. That’s my hope, too.

P.S. Here’s more about the Fraser River sockeye salmon [2, 3].

Happy birthday to you, darling Kate.

Today’s the birthday of Sweetheart Vivienne’s and my oldest daughter: darling Kate. When I sat down to write today’s post, I began by looking at my posts for her 2009 [1] and 2008 [2] birthdays. For her birthday today I can’t write anything truer and more heartfelt. So I’m not even going to try. Instead I’m writing about another topic near to my heart – but of course nowhere near as near, and dear, as darling Kate is: Goats. Over the 9-10 years I’ve been a goat farmer, I’ve become a fan of their inquisitiveness and playfulness. And the strong maternal instinct of nanny mothers. So I couldn’t resist relaying this treehugger story [3]. How impressive’s that, eh. I like the embedded quote from Peter Bosshard: that nature overcomes mankind’s often destructive engineering accomplishments. I reckon that’s so. Nature has a massive task in front of her. However I predict she’ll prevail over all of mankind’s stupidity. Eventually. This man-nature thing brings me back to my review of Dog Boy two days ago [4]. Darling Kate loving that book so much she loaned me her copy, is a fatherhood badge of honour that I wear proudly. I love and admire much about this loving, thoughtful, considerate and concerned person. But her successful determination to live as close as she can to nature, is also high on my list of reasons. Happy birthday to you, Kate: our oldest kid.

This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. a new luxury shopping mall opened. Where? In Gaza [1]. What humanitarian crisis?

2. a study concluded that compared with normal-weight men, obese men reported more erectile function [2]. If you can’t see it, you can’t know what it’s doing.

3. the same study concluded that compared with normal-weight women, obese women were more likely to report unintended pregnancies. If you can’t see where he’s putting it…

4. the Port Phillip Leader reported that yet more trees in Albert Park are set for the chop [4]. What goes around, comes around. Will the Park’s subjugation never end?

5. though the American YMCA changed it’s name to the Y, the Village People are holding tight [5a]. And so’s the Aussie YMCA [5b].

6. the Get-It-Done Guy tells us how to prioritise [6]. Maybe some day I’ll learn.

7. in a 3-year controlled experiment on 345 people with hip arthritis, an avocado-soybean extract produced a statistically significant reduction in radiographic disease progression [7]. Ain’t Mother Nature grand.

8. that ‘amazing little farm punching well above its weight’ won a Gold Medal in the ‘From The Earth’ category at delicious. magazine’s 2010 Produce Awards [8]. Congratulations, Daylesford Organics. I’m so proud of you.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

The platypus and the miracle of Mother Nature

Ornothornychus anatinus. That’s the proper name of the platypus [1] – an egg-laying mammal (aka monotreme; the only other monotreme’s the echidna) found in Tasmania (including in the Mole Creek at our bridge) and mainland Australia’s east coast. Platypus spend about half their time in waterside burrows. Also females dig elaborate 20-metre long nesting burrows where they lay and hatch their eggs, and which they share with their unweaned young for about four months until the young are weaned. Platypus watchers have long been intrigued as to why platypus young don’t get infections – given they’re born thumbnail-sized into germ-laden burrows. Last week Victorian Government and Sydney University researchers announced that when sequencing the platypus genome they’d located two new peptides (i.e. proteins) with a very potent antibiotic effect [2]. These peptides, found in platypus milk, aren’t related to existing antibiotics, are around 10 times more potent than existing antibiotics, and have already been shown to kill Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA]. Also, and even more potentially usefully, these peptides are being tested to identify if they reduce microbes in the rumens of cattle and sheep, so reducing methane emissions [3]. Australian livestock produces 17% of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions; so the potential benefit to our planet’s self evident – and massive. One can but marvel at Mother Nature and her ingenuity.