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Learn♦Grow Project
The
Project
Learn♦Grow
Tasmanian Agricultural Scientist, Bruce French has spent 30 years on a
voluntary mission to document information on the food plants of the
world. This achievement is underpinned by Bruce’s work in developing
countries including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Bruce has established a plain English
database of some 18,000 edible plants. The database contains
descriptions, countries and climatic zones of the plants’ origins,
photos and drawings of entire plants and edible parts and cooking
methods.
The database includes nutritional
information on each plant. The information in the food plants database
has been and will be reproduced in a number of formats including CD,
DVD, books and PowerPoint presentations.
Rotarian Buz Green of the Rotary Club of
Devonport North in Tasmania (D9830) recognised the potential of the food
plants database in the war against malnutrition. He organised a
relationship between the company behind the food plants database, Food
Plants International, and Rotary to establish the
Learn♦Grow
project. In June 2007, Learn♦Grow
was formally established as the project vehicle.
Since June 2007, Buz Green and Bruce
French, with the support of the Learn♦Grow
committee, Rotary and other volunteers, have transformed
Learn♦Grow
from a concept into a dynamic international project that has come to the
attention of Rotary and organisations tackling malnutrition around the
world.
The Need
Traditional and emergency responses
to malnutrition in the human population have failed to come up with
permanent solutions to malnutrition. In developing countries, seven
million children die each year from malnutrition.
An alternative approach is needed to
address malnutrition around the globe. Learn♦Grow
is a visionary approach to malnutrition – to grow the best local
foods to meet nutritional needs.
The Advantages
Learn♦Grow
empowers people in developing countries to harness local food plant
resources to feed themselves and their families. No costly
equipment or structural improvements are required to get people
switched onto to the advantages of growing local food plants
including:
• greater production
• better adaptation to local conditions – soil type, rainfall,
temperature
• better resistance to pests and diseases, hence lower costs for
pesticides
• simpler growing requirements, no need for extensive areas
cleared for monoculture cultivation
• better nutritional quality of local food plants
Bruce French has documented that local food crops are frequently
nutritionally superior to exotic food crops. Nutrient levels in
local food crops can be dramatically better than in exotic food
plants.
The main obstacle to local people taking advantage of local food
plants is the lack of knowledge to cultivate them. Learn◊Grow is
focused on imparting this knowledge to people in developing
countries.
At a national economy level in developing countries, switching over
to growing local food crops from growing exotic food crops or
importing foodstuffs can insulate the national economy from the
shocks of rising world food prices or oil based products e.g.
fertilisers and pesticides. Rising prices for imported
foodstuffs e.g. rice means less money for essential
services like health and education. Indirect costs like the
costs of shipping can also push up the price of imported foodstuffs.
For more information on this
exciting program please visit the
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