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SS Ri) \\ \ NY itt AS + ° 21 \ iets Rene “GE py itl MOM: Dip G5 BA GOD Although we have a more environmen- tally aware electorate, we are destroying things so blooming fast that we are clos- ing off options all the time. Although the upcoming generation is more environmentally aware, they're going to be working within a ‘pyramid greenhouse’, like those marvellous green- houses in Sydney. We walked in with a broad base, and now we're slowly mov- ing up to the top of the greenhouse - and when you're at the top of the pyramid it's damned hot and there's not much room to manipulate things. That's the overall problem. But I think it’s because of a better educated public that we are now being asked the right sort of questions by the people with money, by the investors and the politicians. I regard two things as more serious than a limited nuclear exchange. One is the erosion of the world’s soils, but the most important problem, the real prob- lem that faces us is genetic erosion. As an environmentalist I know that there are much worse things than a limited atomic holocaust, and that is the genetic erosion of the world in which we live. Even if we learn to shake hands with Glasnost and get on with it, we’re coming to the top of the genetic pyramid, and in there there are fewer and fewer basic options. M.S . es That's why I’m a conservationist. I’m not a conservationist so that David Bel- lamy, David Attenborough and David Suzuki - the three Davids - can all make vast amounts of money by going out into those areas and making wonderful natu- ral history films about the plants and animals that live there. I’m a conserva- tionist because I know out there are the genetic material resources which are going to betheonly thing we’ve got in the future. Having children, you have to be an optimist. And what they’ve done is, they’ve scaled the wheat down; it’s a wonderful little structure - it doesn’t put too much of its energy into producing a ruddy great long stalk - it all goes into the top. But to do that you need lots and lots of fertilizer, and that’s why we have problems with the eutrophication - or mineral enrichment of the soil. All the phosphates and nitrates go pouring through the crop and out into the ground, and cause the sort of prob- lems you've got here in Australia. We put all this energy into creating these very special crops, but if you have one of these short crops you make ideal conditions for all the insects and fungi and things. So to grow one of these short crops, not only do you need lots and lots of fertilizer, you also need a whole armoury of pesticides and herbicides and fungicides which you pour onto the crop. The Third World people can’t afford to do that, and what we're seeing is the genetic erosion of the base of the world’s wealth. That has to be stopped, because we are closing, and closing, and closing our options. Of course the answer has always been, “Ah well, we take these genes, we put them in genetic banks, and we keep them in cold store” - and we say, “Ooh, they’re ours. We'll patent the stuff when it comes out the otherend, and we’limake absolutely sure that we've got it.” Now surely the time has come to stop it and realize that the only way of con- serving that genetic resource is to have vast areas of the natural wilderness world, with evolution going on. Half the world depends on three crops, and the other half depends on another seven ‘mega-crops’. The whole world has putan immense amount of science into breeding those. There are vast areas of the world which are planted up with a monoculture of very genetically uniform plants. Disease can hit these at any time and cause massive destruction, and to keep those crops one jump ahead of the dis- ease-producing organisms our scientists are all the time going out into what are known as the Valifold centres, which are the centres where those plants originate. Wheat originated in the Fertile Cres- cent, part of which is Ethiopia, and all the time that good old Bob Geldof was show- ing us that people were starving in Ethiopia, scientists were out there actually taking wild wheat, stealing ge- netic material from the Ethiopians, to go into our breeding programs to breed big- gerand better wheat crops for down here. David Bellamy has an affection for the Australian environment. He was ar- tested during the Franklin Dam Block- ade of 1984 and spent some time - both in the blockaders‘ camp and inside Risdon Jail - in discussion with the Tasmanian environmental move- ment. Here he came in contact witha system of agriculture being pro- pounded by BIll Mollison known as Permaculture (see Tree Farm Project on p19 & Permaculture review in this issue's WordsWorth section). If you would like to show the video “Wheat Today, What Tomorrow?” in your local community, write to: M.B. Oldfield & Sons, 3 Over Ave, Lesmurdie, W.A., 6076, Telephone (09) 291.6619. Running time 34 mins. Price $50 plus $3.25 postage. Thanks to AB~ TV NEXUS New Times Five - Winter 1988 2 a ‘Pyramid Greenhouse' Genetic Erosion