Dr. Karve,
The introduction of exotic pests and diseases through the transport of
plants or plant tissue has historically had devastating consequences. The
devastation may be rare, but it is still devastation. I don't consider it
to be unreasonable to practice caution when importing biomass, be it a
pile of wood chips from the local landfill, a Christmas tree from Idaho or
Pennsylvania, bundled pine from Oregon or bundled hardwood from China or
India. No doubt such caution may be manipulated by politicians and
protectionists, but that does not negate the need for caution.
My father was a microbiologist. One of his little sayings was "you can't
buy time." He said that in the context of human disease and the
politicization of public health. You can throw millions at an emerging
disease, but if you make no attempt to contain it through testing and
quarantines, you lose time, and laboratory research takes time.
Perhaps torrefaction, along with its other benefits, could be effective in
sanitizing biomass prior to shipping?
Respectfully,
Andrew Parker (Not AJH)
On Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:48:28 -0600, Anand Karve <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Stovers,
transport of insect pests from different geographic regions is happening
all the time but the instance of the exotic pest becoming a pest in the
host country is rather rare. It happens occasionally and these examples
are
blown out of proportion to scare people away from importing biomass and
plants from other areas of the world. In nature there are about 100,000
species of insects that can be considered to be phytophagous. Take a look
at any plant species, and one finds not 100,000 species of insects on it
but only 5 or 6. This is because all plants have their own inherent
insecticides in their cells, which protect them from most of the insect
pests in the world. Only those 5 or 6 insect species that have evolved
the
capacity to digest that particular poison can survive on that plant
species. That is also the reason why the pests of plants are specific to
each species. One never finds the pests of mustard on tomato, or the
pests
of tomato on corn. Therefore, if an insect pest gets into the USA from
India, it won't survive in the USA, because the specific host required by
that insect would not be available to it in the USA. That is also the
reason why exotic plant species thrive well in other habitats. Take, for
instance, Eucalyptus introduced from Australia into other parts of the
world. The local insect pests in the host country are unable to feed on
Eucalyptus, which therefore grows in the host country without any natural
enemies.
Yours
A.D.Karve
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