Quick Reality Check Articles

August 24, 2009

Quick Reality Check – The secret lives of mushrooms

Filed under: Food, Health, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , , — Administrator @ 00:17

Mushrooms are an amazing and undervalued product in our world. Many people take mushrooms for granted and we often overlook the amazing biodiveristy, potential health benefits, and overall global role of mushrooms in our world.

Mushrooms grow in many places from woodlands to grasslands, in fields or in meadows, in partially-wooded uncultivated areas and in the forests of tall trees around the world. The simple brown mushroom, Agaricus bisporus for instance, is seen as a lowly form of life, drab in colour and small in size, which lives a quiet existence among the leaf litter on the forest floor.

However, many scientists have been studying mushrooms for many years and are even sequencing its genome and then deciphering its secrets because mushrooms and other fungi play an important role in the eco systems of the world by decomposing biomass into tiny particles, which can then be absorbed by plants, to start the cycle of life all over again. When plants are decomposed, some of the carbon they contain is released back into the atmosphere in the form of CO2. Some of the remaining carbon stays in the soil, in the form of organic particles mixed in with mineral matter. This organic component of the soil is highly important: not only does it make it much more fertile, it also enables the soil to act as a major carbon sink. In many cases there is as much carbon in the soil as in the plants growing in it, and sometimes much more!

Mushrooms and fungi can be used for bio-remediation projects where they will help to repair ecosystems damaged by pollution. Fungi and mushrooms can bio-accumulate heavy metals such as mercury or cadmium, nasty pollutants that impregnate certain soils where contaminated waste has been dumped. Mushrooms can pick up the pollutants and we can then pick up the mushrooms and process them to recover the toxic materials.

Biomass from woody plants such as eucalyptus, herbaceous plants such as wheat, soya bean or even from algae is a promising source of future energy. Mushrooms are being developed as a means to efficiently extract this energy efficiently and completely because the mushroom’s unique metabolism and miraculous enzymes. The United States’ Department of Energy (DoE) funds many projects in these areas.

Mushrooms were considered as plants for may years but now they form a kingdom all of their own, on an equal standing with animals and plants. They are distinguished from plants by their lack of starch or chlorophyll but, like them, mushrooms are absorbotrophic – that is to say they feed by passively absorbing nutrients (unlike animals, which ingest them). Mushrooms reproduce in so many strange and different ways that it is impossible to detail them all here.

The brown mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, is the most heavily consumed mushroom in the world. World mushroom production is growing and now exceeds 3 million tonnes, worth a market value of over US $ 10 billion. Despite the importance of mushrooms, little is known about its genetics and reproduction, and we are only starting to learn about the uses of mushrooms for medicinal purposes such as the treatment of cancers.

August 19, 2009

Quick Reality Check – The Dirty Secrets of Fish Farming

Filed under: Health, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Administrator @ 01:31

Many people think of fish “farming” as an efficient and environmentally sustainable effort to feed the world while maintaining natural stocks of wild fish.

Unfortunately, nothing is further from the truth.

Many studies have shown that farmed fish and shellfish, which form a growing percentage of the seafood consumed around the globe, may pose unexpected risks to wild species, as well as to the environments in which they are raised.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an international group of scientists and other scientific groups have found may unintended impacts of fish farming that put both oceans and the aquaculture industry at risk.

Aquaculture, the raising of fish and other aquatic species is the fastest growing sector of the world food economy, and is increasing by 11 percent a year. Many people expect that fish farming will relieve pressure on ocean fish stocks which are already fished beyond capacity, and will provide a reliable source of food to a world population. The problem is that unsustainable fish farming practices are causing more harm than good. Dr. Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre released a global study, “Farming Up Marine Food Webs“, showing that major sectors of the booming aquaculture industry are literally feeding on world fisheries. Paradoxically, Pauly’s new study shows that the increasing trend toward farming carnivorous fish means that many types of aquaculture are contributing to a worldwide collapse of wild fisheries.

The “farming” of one pound of fish eating species such as shrimp, salmon, tuna or cod requires two to five pounds of wild caught fish to be caught and processed into meal and oil for fish feeds.

Thus, we are intensively fishing the oceans of the world to feed our “farmed fish” thereby increasing the rate of depletion of fish stocks and endangering wild populations of carnivorous fish.

Tilapia and carp are among the most common, and potentially most sustainable farm raised fish as they can be fed plants and “bottom muck” which minimizes their overall environmental impact. However, in an effort to increase the growth rates of the fish thereby increasing profits, many fish farming operation feed these “herbivorous” (plant eating) fish with fishmeal and fish oil for faster weight gain and marketability.

Thus, the “ideal” of efficiently feeding a hungry world in a sustainable manner with aquaculture is eluding us. The current trend in aquaculture is to drain the seas to feed the fish farms to feed people.
Traditional sustainable aquaculture which is the farming of fish that eat plants and bottom muck is being replaced by modern intensive farming of large, carnivorous fish because overfishing has decimated these fish in the wild.

There are however more sustainable fish farming operations such as Fish Breeders of Idaho, which raise a sustainable fish species, white tilapia, with the help of sustainable geothermal energy

Many proponents of current fish farming practices which rely on fish meal defend the practices on the basis that fish meal is abundant and inexpensive and consumer preferences for lower costs dictate aquaculture production and the use of fishmeal”.
According to Dr. Albert Tacon, head of the Oceanic Institute’s Aquatic Feeds and Nutrition Program in Hawaii. “Aquaculture is at a critical crossroads, and Fish farming could decrease pressure on fisheries and feed the worlds growing population. That’s why it is so important to proceed on a sustainable path.”

Aquaculture need not be so disruptive. There are many ways that the fish farming industry can produce more efficiently and with fewer negative environmental effects.

What you can do as an individual is eat herbivorous fish species such as Carp and Talapia which have been farmed by sustainable methods. Take the time to let your purchasing decisions impact your food supply and help to ensure a stable food supply for future generations. Reduce you intake of carnivorous fish species such as Salmon, Cod and Tuna, and avoid farmed carnivorous fish where possible.

August 17, 2009

Quick Reality Check – Your Water Footprint Matters

Filed under: Environment, Quick Reality Check — Tags: , , , , , , , — Administrator @ 23:46

Over the past few years, many people have learned about our “carbon footprint” and how using energy wastefully negatively impacts the environment and indirectly our health and the health of our children.

However, the concept of our “water footprint” is still a mystery to many people. Many people think that their water footprint consists of taking showers, flushing toilets, doing laundry, or watering their gardens. As such, many people do their part to “conserve water” by the use of low flow shower heads, water efficient washing machines, water conserving toilets etc. These conservations measures are extremely important but they are only a small part of our “water footprint”.

The key for us all to understand is that producing goods and services generally requires water.
According to a study by Williams et al. (2002), the production of a 32-megabyte computer chip of 2 grams requires 32 kg of water.

The water used in the production process of an agricultural or industrial product is often called the ‘virtual water’ contained in the product because it does not remain in the end product but it was used to make the product.

As an example, producing 1 kg of grain by conventional modern farming techniques requires 1,000-2,000 kg of water, which is 1,000 to 2,000 liters of water, about 265 to 530 US gallons of water. This means that a a single slice of bread weighing 35g required 35-70 liters of water to produce it. These numbers seem staggering and meat products represent an even bigger use of water.

For producing 1 kg of cheese we need for instance requires 5,000-5,500 kg of water, which is 5,000-5,500 liters of water, about 1,323 to 1,455 US gallons of water!

Producing beef is one of the most inefficient uses of water resources as producing just 1 kg of beef requires an average of 16,000 kg of water (Chapagain and Hoekstra, 2003), which is 16,000 liters, over 4,233 US gallons! The next time you are at the grocery store or your favorite restaurant, consider the 6 ounce cut rather than the 10oz portion, and you will improve your health and conserve 1,058 US gallons of water. If you opted for the 6 ounce steak instead of the 16 ounce steak, 2,646 US gallons of water would be saved. Simple dietary choices to eat healthy portions of food can improve your health, control your weight, and help to conserve water which is a precious resource.

The transportation of water is generally difficult due to the large distances and associated costs, but the trade in water-intensive products, a “virtual water trade” is a reality in the global economy and is stripping many developing countries of a precious natural resource at alarming rates.

The concept of ‘virtual water’ has been introduced by Tony Allan in the early nineties (Allan, 1993; 1994) yet it has taken almost two decades to get global recognition of the importance of the concept for achieving regional and global water security.

One of the key issues to a “sustainable future” will be to carefully choose how we deploy our precious water resources to the production of food, the manufacture of goods, and person use in homes each day.
Our “water footprint” must become a culturally rooted concept which recognizes that human impacts on freshwater systems are ultimately be linked to human consumption, and that issues like water shortages and pollution can thereby be understood.

Your daily living choices can reduce your footprint and improve your health and quality of life.

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