The Tree of Life and The Green Gold: The Crop that Saves Humans and Animals Life. It Purifies Water, Produces Functional Food and Fodder, and Grows in

The Tree of Life and The Green Gold: The Crop that Saves Humans and Animals Life. It Purifies Water, Produces Functional Food and Fodder, and Grows in
Author: Marie C. Aguayo Beligat
Publisher: ISBN
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2019-07-30
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9781989332061

"The Tree of Life and The Green Gold" is an amazing plant that can not only save human and animal lives, but can also help to maintain communities in inhospitable regions and solve the problem of hunger in many parts of the world. It is a plant that can easily grow with little or no care in arid and semi-arid areas and maintain life in communities established in adverse areas as it tolerates a variety of environmental conditions, withstands intensive pruning and is also capable of efficiently managing water resources.This plant produces eco-friendly and efficient biocoagulants and bioflocculants that can be easily obtained and used, both at home and at an industrial level, for the natural biopurification of water. It produces functional foods with nutraceutical properties that are capable of preventing, reversing and curing various diseases, including various types of cancer, produces fodder to feed animals such as cattle, pigs, goats and sheep as well as provides feed for poultry, produces raw material for various kinds of food and non-food industries, is also a useful plant to be used in productive natural fences, as well as can improve and fix soils and slopes.It is a beneficial plant of the environment because it can play an important role in improving soil properties, it can prevent avalanches, soil erosion and flooding which are often factors responsible for natural disasters, it promotes humidity and water retention capacities in the soil to benefit the productivity of the agro-ecosystem. This plant also has the advantage that it can be managed by sharing other crops in an efficient, productive, sustainable and profitable agricultural ecosystem. "The Tree of Life and The Green Gold" is also commercially exploited in different parts of the world as fruit, vegetable, forage, energy, medicinal plant, pharmacology and natural colouring.Nothing of "The Tree of Life and The Green Gold" is wasted, everything is profitable."The Tree of Life and The Green Gold" is a plant native to Mesoamerica that has peculiar characteristics that has been part of the Aztec empire where it rose to reach the state of divine being. In Mexico, in pre-Hispanic times, it was an important part of Aztec culture and had several uses such as food, drink, medicine, housing construction, the manufacture of blankets and tools.In an order of 1620, King Philip III of Spain states that: "...one of the most valuable fruits grown in our Western Indies is the cactus pear, produce of equal value to gold and silver ..."; in Ethiopia this plant is considered the 'Bridge of life' because the stems and fruit store large quantities of water and provide both feed for cattle in times of drought and food for livestock herders, so contributing to the survival of both farmers and their animals; in Mexico for example, it may be possible to reduce malnutrition and to improve their quality of life.This book provides basic and general information about the multiple beneficial properties and the most important applications of "The Tree of Life and Green Gold" that will develop mini ecosystems of self-sustainability and obtain economic benefits. It also provides ideas and knowledge to develop productive agricultural, medicinal and industrial farms with a positive impact on the local economy.

Lost Crops of Africa

Lost Crops of Africa
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2006-10-27
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309164540

This report is the second in a series of three evaluating underexploited African plant resources that could help broaden and secure Africa's food supply. The volume describes the characteristics of 18 little-known indigenous African vegetables (including tubers and legumes) that have potential as food- and cash-crops but are typically overlooked by scientists and policymakers and in the world at large. The book assesses the potential of each vegetable to help overcome malnutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and create sustainable landcare in Africa. Each species is described in a separate chapter, based on information gathered from and verified by a pool of experts throughout the world. Volume I describes African grains and Volume III African fruits.

Sophie's World

Sophie's World
Author: Jostein Gaarder
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 599
Release: 2007-03-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1466804270

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

Crop ecology, cultivation and uses of cactus pear

Crop ecology, cultivation and uses of cactus pear
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9251098603

Cactus plants are precious natural resources that provide nutritious food for people and livestock, especially in dryland areas. Originally published in 1995, this extensively revised edition provides fresh insights into the cactus plant’s genetic resources, physiological traits, soil preferences and vulnerability to pests. It provides invaluable guidance on managing the resource to support food security and offers tips on how to exploit the plant’s culinary qualities.

Staying Alive

Staying Alive
Author: Vandana Shiva
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2016-03-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1623170516

Inspired by women’s struggles for the protection of nature as a condition for human survival, award-winning environmentalist Vandana Shiva shows how ecological destruction and the marginalization of women are not inevitable, economically or scientifically. She argues that “maldevelopment”—the violation of the integrity of organic, interconnected, and interdependent systems that sets in motion a process of exploitation, inequality, and injustice—is dragging the world down a path of self-destruction, threatening survival itself. Shiva articulates how rural Indian women experience and perceive ecological destruction and its causes, and how they have conceived and initiated processes to arrest the destruction of nature and begin its regeneration. Focusing on science and development as patriarchal projects, Staying Alive is a powerfully relevant book that positions women not solely as survivors of the crisis, but as the source of crucial insights and visions to guide our struggle.

Edible Insects

Edible Insects
Author: Arnold van Huis
Publisher: Bright Sparks
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Conservation of natural resources
ISBN: 9789251075951

Edible insects have always been a part of human diets, but in some societies there remains a degree of disdain and disgust for their consumption. Although the majority of consumed insects are gathered in forest habitats, mass-rearing systems are being developed in many countries. Insects offer a significant opportunity to merge traditional knowledge and modern science to improve human food security worldwide. This publication describes the contribution of insects to food security and examines future prospects for raising insects at a commercial scale to improve food and feed production, diversify diets, and support livelihoods in both developing and developed countries. It shows the many traditional and potential new uses of insects for direct human consumption and the opportunities for and constraints to farming them for food and feed. It examines the body of research on issues such as insect nutrition and food safety, the use of insects as animal feed, and the processing and preservation of insects and their products. It highlights the need to develop a regulatory framework to govern the use of insects for food security. And it presents case studies and examples from around the world. Edible insects are a promising alternative to the conventional production of meat, either for direct human consumption or for indirect use as feedstock. To fully realise this potential, much work needs to be done by a wide range of stakeholders. This publication will boost awareness of the many valuable roles that insects play in sustaining nature and human life, and it will stimulate debate on the expansion of the use of insects as food and feed.

The Perception of the Environment

The Perception of the Environment
Author: Tim Ingold
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2021-11-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000504662

In this work Tim Ingold offers a persuasive new approach to understanding how human beings perceive their surroundings. He argues that what we are used to calling cultural variation consists, in the first place, of variations in skill. Neither innate nor acquired, skills are grown, incorporated into the human organism through practice and training in an environment. They are thus as much biological as cultural. To account for the generation of skills we have therefore to understand the dynamics of development. And this in turn calls for an ecological approach that situates practitioners in the context of an active engagement with the constituents of their surroundings. The twenty-three essays comprising this book focus in turn on the procurement of livelihood, on what it means to ‘dwell’, and on the nature of skill, weaving together approaches from social anthropology, ecological psychology, developmental biology and phenomenology in a way that has never been attempted before. The book is set to revolutionise the way we think about what is ‘biological’ and ‘cultural’ in humans, about evolution and history, and indeed about what it means for human beings – at once organisms and persons – to inhabit an environment. The Perception of the Environment will be essential reading not only for anthropologists but also for biologists, psychologists, archaeologists, geographers and philosophers. This edition includes a new Preface by the author.

A guide to forest–water management

A guide to forest–water management
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9251348510

Many people worldwide lack adequate access to clean water to meet basic needs, and many important economic activities, such as energy production and agriculture, also require water. Climate change is likely to aggravate water stress. As temperatures rise, ecosystems and the human, plant, and animal communities that depend on them will need more water to maintain their health and to thrive. Forests and trees are integral to the global water cycle and therefore vital for water security – they regulate water quantity, quality, and timing and provide protective functions against (for example) soil and coastal erosion, flooding, and avalanches. Forested watersheds provide 75 percent of our freshwater, delivering water to over half the world’s population. The purpose of A Guide to Forest–Water Management is to improve the global information base on the protective functions of forests for soil and water. It reviews emerging techniques and methodologies, provides guidance and recommendations on how to manage forests for their water ecosystem services, and offers insights into the business and economic cases for managing forests for water ecosystem services. Intact native forests and well-managed planted forests can be a relatively cheap approach to water management while generating multiple co-benefits. Water security is a significant global challenge, but this paper argues that water-centered forests can provide nature-based solutions to ensuring global water resilience.

Handbook of Bioenergy Crops

Handbook of Bioenergy Crops
Author: N. El Bassam
Publisher: Earthscan
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1849774781

This completely revised second edition includes new information on biomass in relation to climate change, new coverage of vital issues including the "food versus fuel" debate, and essential new information on "second generation" fuels and advances in conversion techniques. The book begins with a guide to biomass accumulation, harvesting, transportation and storage, as well as conversion technologies for biofuels. This is followed by an examination of the environmental impact and economic and social dimensions, including prospects for renewable energy. The book then goes on to cover all the main potential energy crops.