Go, Pigweed, Go

[mudra]

Go, Pigweed, Go
Superweeds menace GMOs. That’s the word from the latest news reports of Amaranthus palmeri (aka pigweed) crowding out crops of genetically modified cotton and soybeans.
Here’s how it works: Farmers buy both herbicides and seeds of crops that have been genetically modified to survive those herbicides and are thereby — at least in theory — able to drench their land in plant-killing poison without hurting the plants they want to grow. Specifically, farmers buy Roundup brand poison and “Roundup-Ready” seeds, both from Monsanto (the folks who brought us Agent Orange). The Roundup kills everything except the genetically modified plants and everybody (except the plants killed by the herbicide, the water poisoned by the herbicide, the animals who drink the water poisoned by the herbicide, the insects who come in contact with the pollen of the genetically modified cotton, the “livestock” fed by the genetically modified soy, and the ecosystems disrupted by by both the poisoning and the genetic meddling) is happy.
Except the farmers aren’t happy either anymore. As anybody with a basic understanding of evolution understood would happen, some “weed” plants survived the poison, propagated, and eventually evolved into Roundup-resistant varieties. Because the poison kills off all of the other “weed” species with which they would naturally compete for resources, these Roundup-resistant “weeds” run rampant, eventually choking out the genetically modified crops that the poison was supposed to protect.
This is resistance in it’s purest form.
Consider: Amaranth is native to the Americas, with many varieties offering nutritious grain and/or edible greens. During the conquest of the Americas, the cultivation of this and other native grains was deliberately suppressed in favor of wheat and cash crops. Much of the hunger and poverty we see in parts of the Americas today can be traced back, in part, to that disruption of sustainable agriculture and consequent destruction of local economies.
Thus, we might see the resurgence of pigweed as a sort of nightmare return of the repressed.
Let’s embrace the spirit of that, even as we see that fields full of Roundup-resistant pigweed are no more natural than fields of Roundup-resistant cotton. Let’s get rid of the Roundup, along with the Franken-plants engineered to withstand it. Let’s help farmers kick the Monsanto habit by supporting CSAs and directing state and federal agriculture subsidies to support projects like sustainable organic cotton cropping. Let’s go vegan so that we won’t need acres and acres of genetically identical corn and soybean plants grown as livestock feed. Let’s buy and grow a diverse array of food for people, including the native plants that are best-suited to our regions. Let’s grow edible amaranth in our backyard gardens and learn to recognize the beauty and utility of other “weeds” like dandelions, chicory, and plantain. Let’s all develop the superweed spirit of resistance.
Go, pigweed, go!

Kindness
mudra

[mudra]

Amaranth: The Happiness Plant

from The Permaculture Activist 70:44-46 (Winter 2008-09)



Palmer amaranth can grow as tall as 15 feet, although 6 feet is more common. Climate change is its best friend. It can continue to grow an inch a day even without water all summer, even when daily temperature tops 90°F (32°C). Its flowering tops put out half a million seeds per plant. One successful amaranth plant can seed an entire field for the following season. Full grown, the new superweed eats cotton picking machinery and spits out the metal parts.
...
In the Mexican states of Guerrero, México, Michoacán, Morelos, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca and Jalisco, and the Guatemalan departments of Guatemala, Chimaltenango and Alta Verapaz, Palmer amaranth seeds are dried, mixed with maguey honey and baked into a candy that is sold in the central markets. The toasted seeds are so valuable they bring four times more pesos per kilo than corn. A healthy mix of amino acids makes Palmer amaranth a complete protein, but it can also use its abundant lysine to complete the protein of maize.

It is not called pigweed in Mexico. In the hill villages of Puebla where Nahua culture still lives, it is called huautli or bledos, “feather.” Coras call it bé-be and Huicholes wa-ve. In Tlaxcala, its called alegría, “happiness.”

The alegría amaranth was used as both a cultivated food and a medicinal plant by American civilizations as far south as the Inca (where it is known as kiwicha in the Andes today) and as far back as 6000 years. An Aztec Codex tells of 4,000 tons of amaranth arriving in Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capitol, every year. The leaves were cooked as spinach and the seeds were ground for porridge or bread. An atoli drink was made from water and huautli flour and is still being sold in rural markets today. Huautli flour dough filled with steamed amaranth leaves was called by the Aztecs huauquillamalmaliztli. When fresh seeds are cooked they become gelatinous, lending themselves to a variety of recipes where a binder is desirable.
...
From the standpoint of human nutrition, Palmer amaranth has few equals.

Amino Acids in grams per cup
Tryptophan 0.353
Threonine 1.088
Isoleucine 1.135
Leucine 1.714
Lysine 1.457
Methionine 0.441
Cystine 0.372
Phenylalanine 1.057
Tyrosine 0.642
Valine 1.324
Arginine 2.067
Histidine 0.759
Alanine 1.558
Aspartic acid 2.459
Glutamic acid 4.405
Glycine 3.190
Proline 1.361
Serine 2.239

Palmer amaranth has 4.2 mg Vitamin C per 100 grams and similarly healthy doses of riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, Vitamin B-6, folate, and Vitamin E. It is high in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, iron and manganese, and low in sodium, with zero cholesterol. In fact, it may lower cholesterol because of its stanols and squalene content. It is 14 percent protein, 66 percent carbohydrate, and 7 percent fatty acids, primarily polyunsaturated. Several studies have shown amaranth seed oil useful for the treatment of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Regular consumption reduces blood pressure and improves some immune system functions.

Read more about the " happiness plant " here:
http://peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2008/...ess-plant.html

Kindness
mudra

Nature usually provides the solutions.

[JoyAnna]

Thanks for this info, Mudra. I hope that Avalon will return to more of this kind of information rather than all the hoopla over insignificant stuff and arguing.

I have not yet tried to use amaranth, but it is on my list of things to try as I seek to increase my own nutrition and possibly put in a stash for use when our more familiar foods become difficult to obtain. I have begun to cook quinau and like it a lot. In fact I bought some seed this year from Seeds of Change and will see if I can get it to grow up here in the cool, wet Northwest. I have discovered that my body does not respond well to the wheat and corn that makes up such a large part of our diet here in the US, and I suspect that many people would discover the same thing if they would begin to cut back on these staples.

[oldpaganfreak]

i love pigweed. it is one of my favourite greens!! very tasty and grows everywhere. dandilion greens are also a fave of mine. i had a feast of them last night with supper. they're sweet and tasty when young.

[rhythm]

What is a weed enyway ????

there usualy the strongest plant

you just cant kill the @ugers off ....

bit like me ..sure im a bit of a weed

Ammaranth i been using it a long time

great stuff a bit like couscouse...

nice thread thanks dear Mudra ..

[WiNaDeYo]

My dear wise part-Cherokee grandmother used to say "Weeds are nothing but flowers growing in the wrong place."

She and my mom grew a type of amaranth (****'s comb)[ha! the old word for rooster] in their flower beds. I don't remember ever eating any (although I knew you could because my ancestors did), but we would save the seed from year to year, and those plants sure made a lot of seed!

One of my favorite quotes is "wild flowers don't care where they grow."

My Senior thesis for my '85 BA in Biology/Botany was entitled "The Diminishing Genetic Diversity of Modern Agriculture", pro-seed banks and anti-GMOs. That was back during the boom when they were passing off GMOs as the "way of the future" to "save a starving world." I was ridiculed and greatly critisized by the Genetics Dept of my college during the Q&A session after my public presentation. But I knew I was right! And it is true! Yiihaa! The truth always wins!

Unfortunately, even back then we had already lost a huge amount of bio-diversity. Now, we don't have too much to go on, but it isn't impossible to turn things around, thanks to existing seed banks and folks that still produce non-GMOs. It'll just take a while to get those GMO's destroyed so they don't cross breed and contaminate our resources.

And I, too, join in with my "Go! Pigweed! Go!"


Peace and Good Will!