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PubMed1983

New applications of microbial products.

Microbial secondary metabolites are now being used for applications other than as antibacterial, antifungal, and antitumor agents. These applications include use against parasites (coccidia, helminths) and insects as well as for animal and plant growth stimulation, immunosuppression, uterocontraction, and other pharmacological activities. Further applications are possible in various areas of pharmacology and agriculture, a development catalyzed by the use of simple enzyme assays for screening prior to testing in intact animals or in the field.

Cloning, Molecular↗
PubMed2003

Malawi: addicted to the leaf.

The east African country of Malawi, one of the poorest in the world, derives most of its economic income from tobacco production. The challenges facing Malawi if it is to decrease its dependence on the leaf are discussed here.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1987

The phenomenon of famine.

Famines are sustained, extreme shortages of food among discrete populations sufficient to cause high rates of mortality. Signs and symptoms of prolonged food deprivation include loss of fat and subcutaneous tissue, depression, apathy, and weakness, which progress to immobility and death of the individual, often from superimposed respiratory or other infections. The social consequences of famines are disruption from mass migrations of people in search of food, breakdown of social behavior, abandonment of cooperative effort, loss of personal pride and sense of family ties, and finally a struggle for individual survival. Famines have been common ever since the development of agriculture made human settlements possible. Food shortages due to crop failures caused by natural disasters including poor weather, insect plagues, and plant diseases; crop destruction due to warfare; and enforced starvation as a political tool are by no means the only causative factors. Many of the worst famines have been due to poor distribution of existing food supplies, either because of inequities that result in a lack of purchasing power on the part of the poor or because of political interference with normal distribution or relief movements of food. Europe and Asia, which in the past experienced frequent severe famines, sometimes with deaths in the hundreds of thousands or millions, have now largely eliminated famines through social and technological change. However, in Africa, political and social factors have destroyed the capacity of many populations to survive drought-induced variations in local food supplies and prices. Thus, famines are due to varying combinations of inadequacy of food supplies for whatever reason and the inability of populations to acquire food because of poverty, civil disturbances, or political interference. Despite the role of natural causes, the conclusion is inescapable that modern famines, like most of those in history, are man-made.

Demography↗
PubMed1986

Malnutrition in the Third World.

The causes of malnutrition are discussed--lack of money for food; and insufficiency of food production. It is stressed that much agricultural land is employed for purposes other than the production of food. Other causes of malnutrition include changes in local food habits and in food technology. Remedies discussed include increasing yields by organic manuring and mixed cropping; devoting more land to staple food production; changes in food habits and in food technology. Until these problems are addressed in Western societies there is little prospect of suitable solutions amongst the peoples of the Third World.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2005

Intellectual property rights, agriculture, and rural communities.

The global extension of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in agriculture and the simultaneous move towards evolving community and farmers' rights have significant implications for the future of rural communities. While IPRs are based on individual interests, the movement for granting farmers' rights is becoming diluted towards assigning ownership rights in a similar fashion as IPRs. It is important to reframe the debate to ensure that communities can claim their role in national and international negotiations.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2005

Recent origin and cultural reversion of a hunter-gatherer group.

Contemporary hunter-gatherer groups are often thought to serve as models of an ancient lifestyle that was typical of human populations prior to the development of agriculture. Patterns of genetic variation in hunter-gatherer groups such as the Kung and African Pygmies are consistent with this view, as they exhibit low genetic diversity coupled with high frequencies of divergent mtDNA types not found in surrounding agricultural groups, suggesting long-term isolation and small population sizes. We report here genetic evidence concerning the origins of the Mlabri, an enigmatic hunter-gatherer group from northern Thailand. The Mlabri have no mtDNA diversity, and the genetic diversity at Y-chromosome and autosomal loci are also extraordinarily reduced in the Mlabri. Genetic, linguistic, and cultural data all suggest that the Mlabri were recently founded, 500-800 y ago, from a very small number of individuals. Moreover, the Mlabri appear to have originated from an agricultural group and then adopted a hunting-gathering subsistence mode. This example of cultural reversion from agriculture to a hunting-gathering lifestyle indicates that contemporary hunter-gatherer groups do not necessarily reflect a pre-agricultural lifestyle.

Chromosomes, Human, Y↗
PubMed2006

Copper inhibition of soil organic matter decomposition in a seventy-year field exposure.

On a site contaminated decades ago with Cu from a wood treatment facility, we can observe that the decomposition of soil organic matter has been slowed. This represents an exceptional data set, and it allows us to address many challenges faced by regulators and risk assessors who are trying to derive appropriate soil quality criteria. These data are representative of a field study with a very well-equilibrated contamination and allow the derivation of chronic toxicity threshold values for the inhibition of microbial respiration. Soil respiration is the main determinant of the carbon balance, and it is assessed using the accumulation of soil organic matter (SOM) in this case. Using data derived from a 70-year-old field study also has the advantage of not being subject to risk assessment uncertainty factors arising from the potential aging effects of spiked soil or to the uncertainty caused by laboratory-to-field differences, both of which are very difficult to address. The resulting toxicity thresholds for an inhibition of SOM degradation are 154, 193, and 285 mg Cu/kg dry soil for inhibition levels of 10, 20, and 50%, respectively. Setting those thresholds correctly is critical for a proper risk assessment relative to sustainable development and agriculture.

Biodegradation, Environmental↗
PubMed2006

Effects of metal-contaminated forest soils from the Canadian shield to terrestrial organisms.

The effects of elevated metal concentrations in forest soils on terrestrial organisms were investigated by determining the toxicity of six site soils from northern Ontario and Quebec, Canada, using a battery of terrestrial toxicity tests. Soils were collected from three sites on each of two transects established downwind of nickel (Sudbury, ON, Canada) and copper (Rouyn-Noranda, PQ, Canada) smelting operations. Site soils were diluted to determine if toxicity estimates for the most-contaminated site soils could be quantified as a percent of site soil. Rouyn-Noranda soils were toxic following acute exposure (14 d) to plants, but not to invertebrates (7 d for collembola and 14 d for earthworms). However, Rouyn-Noranda soils were toxic to all species following chronic exposure (21, 35, and 63 d for plants, collembola, and earthworms, respectively). The toxicity of the Rouyn-Noranda site soils did not correspond to the gradient of metal concentrations in soil. Metal-contaminated Sudbury soils were toxic to plants but not to invertebrates, following acute exposure. Chronic exposure to Sudbury soils caused adverse effects to plant growth and invertebrate survival and reproduction. The toxicity of Sudbury soils corresponded to the metal concentration gradient, with one exception: The reference soil collected in October was toxic to collembola following acute and chronic exposure. This study evaluated the applicability of the new Environment Canada terrestrial toxicity test methods, developed using agricultural soils, to forest soils and also provided useful data to assess the ecological risk associated with mixtures of metals in soil.

Animals↗